NY Times article on asthma: anyone want to tackle it?

[nabigus]

So the article on what causes asthma is one of the most emailed at the NYT right now. It doesn't go into bfing in detail, just has a line at the end about bfing not preventing asthma. Article is here.

Anyone feel like tackling this with a letter to the Times??

[De-lovely]

Nutrition is another mystery. Studies of fruits, vegetables, cereals, fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants have been inconclusive, and little is known about the effects from what pregnant women eat. Experiments in which pregnant women avoided cow’s milk and eggs in hopes of preventing asthma in their infants did not work, and breast-feeding doesn’t prevent the disease, either. Quoted from the article.....


Waiting for the tackling to commence......I would love to hear it.....not my forte but I know some MDC mama can get it done.

[Lisoula]

I don't have a lot of time, but I do know this:

October 2004 Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology

"Breastfeeding reduces chance of developing asthma in the first four years of life."

I'll research more when I have a second.

[Meiri]

Reducing the chances of developing asthma is not the same a preventing it. Therefor, the article is factually correct, if incomplete, in that statement.

Accuracy and full disclosure would have had them saying "not breastfeeding might increase the chances of the person developing asthma." or similar.

I was breastfed for several months; still developed asthma in early adulthood. It's a complex condition, so to go off because the article wasn't spouting propaganda claiming that breastfeeding prevents asthma (as opposed to facts) will only make those who do so look like they don't understand how statistics and risk factors work.

[Sabo]

As far as that goes, bfing does not completely prevent or completely cause anything. Those who bf are less likely to reject organs should they need transplant; they may reject the organs anyway. Bfing mothers are less likely to get breast cancer; they may get breast cancer anyway. Bfing children tend to suffer from less childhood illness; they may still get sick though.

The article implies that bfing does nothing to prevent asthma by their omission of the fact that bfing reduces the risk of developing asthma.

[nabigus]

I completely agree. Wearing seatbelts doesn't "prevent" death, since lots of people still die while wearing them. But it sure does reduce the risk. The article implies that it doesn't, and that's just not correct.

[veganf]

Interesting. My SIL and I both breastfeed for extended lengths of time. All of her children have asthma and none of mine do. But all of the kids share numerous relatives with asthma. I don't eat dairy, she does. None of our kids have ever had any dairy, all of her's consume copious amounts.

I've had a few IRL friends as adults who have ceased dairy consumption and they were able to completely forgo their everyday asthma meds.

As a preschool teacher I watched one boy go from multiple daily nebulizer treatments and inhalers to none when his mother removed dairy products from his diet.

Sure, these are all anecdotal, but somebody must have done a study out there about it! And if not, I think it really needs to be done.

But I don't have the time to search out more info on the subject as I'm leaving in 24 hours for Europe (yay, NIP on a long flight).

Human milk for human babies!!!