Breastfeed to cut infection, skin disorders
 
 CHICAGO, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Breastfed infants had lower rates of stomach
infection and skin disorders than did those not so nourished, researchers
reported in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of the American Medical
Association.
 
The researchers say breastfeeding reduced the risk of gastrointestinal infection
by 40 percent and of atopic eczema by 46 percent. Atopic eczema is a chronic,
superficial skin inflammation found in people with an inherited likelihood to
develop allergies.
 
The study, which followed more than 16,000 infants for a year, was carried out
in the former Soviet republic of Belarus by a team of researchers led by Michael
Kramer of the McGill University Faculty of Medicine, Montreal, Canada.
 
The randomized study is the first large-scale research effort that shows a link
between breastfeeding and the reduction of risk in developing the two disorders,
Kramer told United Press International.
 
"A lot of people in developed countries like the United States say, 'In a place
like this does it (breast feeding) really matter? Given that mortality rates are
so low, and medical care is so good does it really make much of a difference?' I
think the results show it does make a difference," said Kramer.
 
Gastrointestinal infection and atopic eczema are common causes of infant illness
leading to visits to doctors, he noted. The conditions have economic
consequences as well as medical ones, including lost days of work by parents.
 
The women received assistance from doctors and nurses to begin and maintain
lactation and breastfeeding.
 
The study demonstrates the importance of the role of doctors and nurses and
nurses in supporting mothers in breastfeeding, said Ruth Lawrence, a professor
of pediatrics at the University of Rochester, New York.
 
The drop-off rate for breastfeeding in the United States is very high, she told
UPI in a telephone interview: "Probably 10 percent of women exclusively
breastfeed at six months."
 
The federal government's health goal for 2010 is to have 75 percent of mothers
breastfeeding at the point newborns leave the hospital and still 50 percent when
infants are six months old, Lawrence explained.
 
The study also is a wake up call to doctors and nurses to support and encourage
breastfeeding in the United States, she asserted, adding "doctors and nurses in
this country ought to educate themselves or accept education about the
fundamentals of breast feeding."
 
Both Kramer and Lawrence noted the study is a first step in an extensive
longitudinal examination of the possible link between breastfeeding and a
variety of disorders.
 
Kramer plans to follow the infants for years to come, measuring whether
breastfeeding has any link to high blood pressure, intelligence, behavior and
allergies.
 
Lawrence herself, in an editorial accompanying the study, wrote tracking the
children will allow researchers to study the impact of breast feeding on
neurodevelopment. Such studies can also determine whether breastfeeding can
protect against childhood cancers and a variety of intestinal disorders, she
said.
 
(Reported by Harvey Black in Madison, Wisc.)
 
 
 
 
 
 (c) 2001 UPI All rights reserved.
 
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  Copyright 2000 by United Press International.
 
 
 
 
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