Breastfeeding may help protect infants from developing eczema

Children, who were exclusively breastfed for the first three months of their life may have a lower risk of developing eczema.

According to a new report published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, exclusively breastfeeding decreased the odds that a child had eczema by the time they were 6 years old compared to children who were not breastfed or were breastfed for less than three months.

“The evidence that being exclusively breastfed protects children from developing eczema later in life remains mixed,” says Katherine M. Balas, a clinical research assistant at Children’s National Health System in Washington, DC, and the study’s lead author. “Our research team is trying to help fill that data gap.”

Balas and her team looked at data from a federal feeding study conducted from 2005 to 2007, as well as a follow-up study from 2012. The feeding study tracked the diets of about 2,000 pregnant women from their third trimester and looked at feeding practices during the children’s first year of life. Researchers then followed up when 1,520 of the children were 6 years old.

Overall, at some point during the study, just over 20 percent of the children were diagnosed with eczema, which is an inflammatory disease that causes extremely itchy, cracked skin. Among children with a previous diagnosis, 58.6 percent had eczema at age 6. They found that kids with a family history of food allergies and those with a higher socioeconomic status had higher odds of having eczema.

“While exclusive breastfeeding may not prevent kids from getting eczema, it may protect them from experiencing extended flare-ups,” Balas said in a statement.

Dr. Karen A. Robbins, an allergist at Children’s National Health System and co-author of the research, told Healthline that parents should be aware that there are many factors related to eczema development and duration, and that breastfeeding exclusivity may be one protective factor that reduces the duration of eczema symptoms.

“We are not using the results of this study to change guidelines about breastfeeding or eczema management,” Robbins added.

“At this time we don’t definitively know that it is breastfeeding that is related to lower eczema rates,” she said. The data suggests that it is likely there is an association between the two, but they need more information about what drives this relationship, such as maternal diet during breastfeeding.

Source: Health Line

Follow NEWS.am Medicine on Facebook and Twitter