Occasionally, I like to catch up on asthma related news by reading online articles on asthma. I recently caught one from HealthDay News that discussed breast feeding and its relationship with asthma. New research suggests that babies that are breast fed for six months or more are less likely to develop asthma related symptoms in early childhood. Previous studies have shown a link between breast feeding and asthma related symptoms, however this one is different, as it provides a time limit of six months or more. Researchers in the Netherlands conducted tests and research on more than 5,000 children that were fed during their first year of life. The researchers kept research on each of the children until they turned four. The results they found were very interesting. Children who had never been breast-fed had an increased risk of wheezing, dry cough, shortness of breath, and high phlegm levels during first four years of life when compared to those children who were breast fed for their first six months of life. Also of note were those children that were not only breast fed but were also given other forms of milk or solids. These children were also more likely to develop common asthma symptoms such as cough, wheezing, and high phlegm levels. More research is needed to determine the relationship between breast feeding and developing asthma later in life. These results support current health policy trends that lead to exclusive breast feeding of infants for six months in industrialized countries.
