There are contradictions between various studies about whether or not breastfeeding protects against asthma. The last one we know ensures that breastfeeding reduces the risk of asthma in childhood. It has been found in children fed exclusively in this way during the first four months.
It is a fact that breastfeeding transfers antibodies and proteins that protect the child against infections, but it is not entirely clear how it protects against asthma in the future. Therefore, researchers wanted to analyze the effects of breastfeeding with respect to its duration and whether it was exclusive or not.
Data from four thousand Swedish children from birth to eight years were analyzed, taking into account whether they had received exclusive or mixed breastfeeding and for how long.
They found that 12 percent of infants fed exclusive breastfeeding for at least the first four months of life had developed asthma at age 8 compared to 18 percent of babies who had been breastfed for a shorter period.
This means that breastfed babies for at least four months exclusively have 37 percent less risk of developing asthma at 8 years, even after considering other risk factors such as maternal smoking or birth weight.
They have also proven that exclusive and prolonged breastfeeding improves lung function.
Research contributes to breastfeeding as a protective factor against asthma becoming stronger. However, it contradicts a previous one according to which the immunization of breastfeeding added to the protective effect of increasingly clean environments (known as the “hygiene hypothesis”), would favor the babies' immune system becoming allergic instead of fight infections in exclusively breastfed children for more than 1 month.
Be that as it may, there is no doubt about the benefits of breastfeeding babies. The point of consensus would be that by prolonging exclusive breastfeeding for more than a month, the risk could decrease to the point of becoming protective.
We will be awaiting further studies on breastfeeding and asthma, the most common respiratory disease in childhood.
