Breast milk helps lungs but not if mom has asthma

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Breast-feeding seems to protect children from asthma later in life, but only when the mother does not have the respiratory disorder herself, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

They found that breast-feeding for more than four months helped improve lung function in children whose mothers did not have asthma.

But breast-fed children whose mothers had asthma did not benefit and actually showed a significant drop in lung function later in life.

That does not mean women with asthma should stop breast-feeding.

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.

Breast milk is almost always considered best for infants. It can be digested easily and supplies antibodies that can protect babies from bacterial and viral infections, including many of the respiratory tract.

Dr. Theresa Guilbert of the University of Wisconsin-Madison wanted to see if longer breast-feeding -- lasting four months or more -- improved lung function in children.

She 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.