Kids Cuisine

My wife and I are expecting our second child within the next two weeks (any advice?). Anyway, because we’re expecting, we’re reading, again, everything and anything related to newborns and the caring for them (it’s not that we forgot from the first one, but there’s always something new to read).

So, I ran across a news report (from Reuters) today about breastfeeding. My wife and I both agree that our first child’s outstanding health (we can only recount Ava having two colds in her first two years of life) can be directly attributed to many many months of breastfeeding.

So, for those other new moms or moms to be, here some new info about breastfeeding that has a direct affect and correlation to asthma (maybe). Let me summarize…

According to US researchers, breastfeeding seems to protect children from asthma later in life, but only when the mother does not have the respiratory disorder herself—that’s interesting to read. Researchers found that breastfeeding for more than four months helped improve lung function in children whose mothers did not have asthma. But breastfed children whose mothers had asthma did not benefit and actually showed a significant drop in lung function later in life.

The report went on to say that this “does not mean women with asthma should stop breastfeeding.” The researchers cautioned that the study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, was preliminary and the findings needed more study.

Dr. Theresa Guilbert of the University of Wisconsin-Madison wanted to see if longer breastfeeding—lasting four months or more—improved lung function in children. Guilbert and colleagues at the Arizona Respiratory Center analyzed data from the Children’s Respiratory Study in Tucson, which followed 1,246 healthy infants through adolescence. Of those, 697 had lung function tests from the ages of 11 to 16 that evaluated air flow and lung volume. For the most part, breastfed children with non-asthmatic mothers had better lung volume and no decrease in air flow. But children of mothers with asthma who were breastfed four months or more did not show any improvement. In fact, these children had a significant reduction in airflow. The reason, Guilbert suggested, may be altered lung growth.

She said breast milk may contain certain factors that promote lung development, factors that may be impaired in mothers with asthma. The report went onto to say that the clinical significance of the findings is unknown.

So, I don’t know if this matters to any of you or if it would stop you from breastfeeding. One day it’s reported eating eggs is bad for you, then the next day eating eggs is good for you. I just wanted to pass along the news and see if you moms had any thoughts.