New mothers should be doing this.
Recent studies underscore the critical role of initiating breastfeeding during a newborn’s stay in the hospital. Research indicates that infants who are exclusively breastfed while hospitalized immediately after birth have a 22% reduced risk of developing asthma in early childhood. These findings will be shared at the upcoming annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics in Orlando, Florida. The significance of this study remained intact even after accounting for various factors, including maternal ethnicity, insurance coverage, infant gender, and the duration of the hospital stay.
Dr. Laura Placke Ward, who serves as co-director of the Center for Breastfeeding Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and is the principal investigator of the study, emphasized that even a short hospital admission can be pivotal for establishing successful breastfeeding. She noted that early breastfeeding experiences can substantially affect health outcomes, particularly concerning childhood asthma risk.
While the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding in reducing asthma have been well established, the specific advantages of breastfeeding right after birth are less understood. Researchers highlighted that breast milk serves as the best nutrition for newborns, and those who are breastfed tend to have a lower incidence of various childhood illnesses, asthma included. However, earlier studies have mainly concentrated on the duration of breastfeeding rather than the practices during the initial hospital stay.
In this study, data revealed that out of 9,649 newborns, 81% were given some breast milk during their hospital stay, with 31% being exclusively breastfed. Among these infants, 5% received an asthma diagnosis later in life. Those who were exclusively breastfed had a notably lower rate of asthma diagnoses compared to infants who either did not receive breast milk or were not exclusively breastfed. Moreover, infants whose first feeding was breast milk had a lower incidence of asthma than those whose first feeding was formula or another substance.
Ward called for greater emphasis on promoting exclusive breastfeeding during the critical early days of a newborn’s life. By prioritizing support for breastfeeding in this essential timeframe, we can potentially enhance children’s health and mitigate the risk of chronic conditions like asthma. However, it is important to recognize that these findings are preliminary and require further validation through research published in peer-reviewed journals.
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