Hi Joy
As fellow Western Australian Val Best has already pointed out,
there is good research going on in WA with regard to bf protecting
against asthma.
My notes from the Conference that Wendy Oddy presented her
findings at are:

Wendy Oddy, a researcher at the TVW Telethon Institute for Child
Health in Perth, presented a fascinating piece of research regarding
incidence of asthma and breastfeeding. In a prospective study of 2888
children from birth to age 5, data was collected at age 1, 2, 3 and 5 years
of age regarding breastfeeding and symptoms of asthma. In the 1800 sets
of complete information collected so far, Wendy and her colleagues have
found that exclusive breastfeeding for more than 4 months significantly
reduces the risk of
Everwheezing
Currentlywheezing
Doctordiagnosing asthma
Sleepdisturbance due to wheeze
Skinprick positive for common allergens.

As the rate of diagnosis of asthma was 33.6% in this group of 5 year
olds, the significance of the protective effect of breastfeeding to the
health budget is very great. Although some children who were
exclusively breastfed for more than 4 months did wheeze, they tended to
develop wheeze later in life and at a much lower incidence than those
who had other milks or solids introduced before 4 months of age. The
protective effect of breastfeeding was apparent even when other
confounders such as gender, gestational age, siblings, use of
childcare/playgroup and smokers in the household were adjusted for.

The researchers suspect that the omega3 fatty acids in breastmilk have
an immune modulating effect via cytokines, and that might explain why
bf protects against asthma.

Wendy has not published her research yet, but I'll see if I can find out
more detail for you.
Hope this helps

Fiona


Fiona Coombes MBBS IBCLC               [log in to unmask]
Lactation Consultant, Family Physician
Perth Western Australia