New research says breastfeeding does not protect children against developing asthma or allergies.
The researchers from McGill University in Canada say babies who live on breast milk solely or for a long time do not have a lower risk of developing allergies or asthma compared to a baby who is not breast fed.
Breastfeeding has been a hotly debated issue in the last decade and whether it protects from asthma and/or allergies is a controversial subject; the researchers say to date the only evidence has been based on observational studies.
For their study the researchers recruited 17,046 breastfeeding mothers who attended 31 maternity hospitals attached to polyclinics in Belarus during the 1990s.
The mothers were divided into two groups, one group was encouraged to breastfeed, while in the other, the control group, were not.
At the three month stage the number of mothers breastfeeding in the first group had increased substantially compared to the control group and these mothers continued breastfeeding for much longer.
A follow up 6.5 years later of 13,889 children included testing for symptoms of allergies and/or asthma.
The testing was carried out between December 2002 and April 2005 and a questionnaire was used to garner information on the diagnoses of eczema, hay fever and asthma.
The children also underwent prick tests to measure their sensitivity to house dust mites, birch pollen, mold, cats, and mixed northern grass.
The scientists found that breastfeeding does not provide any protection against asthma or allergies.