Relationship of infant feeding to recurrent wheezing at age 6 years

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 1995 Jul;149(7):758-63. doi: 10.1001/archpedi.1995.02170200048006.

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the relationship of infant feeding to recurrent wheezing at age 6 years and to assess whether this relationship is altered by a history of wheezing lower respiratory tract illnesses.

Design: Prospective, longitudinal study of healthy infants followed up from birth to 6 years of age.

Setting: Nonselected health maintenance organization population in Tucson, Arizona.

Participants: There were 1246 healthy infants enrolled at birth, 988 of whom had data on both infant feeding and wheezing at age 6 years.

Interventions: None.

Main outcome measures: Recurrent wheeze (four or more episodes in the past year) was assessed by a questionnaire that was completed by parents when the children were 6 years old. Children were classified by atopic status on the basis of skin prick tests.

Results: Breast-feeding information was collected prospectively, and lower respiratory tract illnesses in the first 3 years of life were diagnosed by the pediatrician. Being breast-fed was associated with lower rates of recurrent wheeze at age 6 years (3.1% vs 9.7%, P < .01) for nonatopic children; this relationship was not significant for atopic children. The relationship of breast-feeding with recurrent wheeze was apparent among nonatopic children both with and without a wheezing lower respiratory tract illness in the first 6 months of life. When potential confounders, including early wheezing lower respiratory tract illness, were included in a multivariate model, nonatopic children who had not been breast-fed had three times the odds of wheezing recurrently (odds ratio, 3.03; confidence interval, 1.06 to 8.69). Eleven percent of recurrent wheeze among nonatopic children could be attributed to not breast-feeding.

Conclusions: Recurrent wheeze at age 6 years is less common among nonatopic children who were breast-fed as infants. This effect is independent of whether the child wheezed with a lower respiratory tract illness in the first 6 months of life.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Breast Feeding*
  • Child
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Hypersensitivity
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Logistic Models
  • Longitudinal Studies
  • Male
  • Odds Ratio
  • Prevalence
  • Recurrence
  • Respiratory Sounds*
  • Respiratory Tract Infections / epidemiology
  • Risk Factors