Breastfeeding benefits girls more than boys

Breastfeeding offers baby girls more protection from respiratory infections than baby boys.

So says a new US study, which challenges the long-held belief that immune system chemicals passed from mothers to newborns during breastfeeding offers babies equal protection from disease.

Researchers at the John Hopkins Children Centre, in Baltimore, also found that formula-fed girls had the highest risk of contracting severe infections.

“In light of these results, we are starting to think that milk does not directly transfer protection against lung infections but instead switches on a universal protective mechanism, already in the baby, that is for some reason easier to turn on in girls than in boys,” said senior investigator Dr. Fernando Polack, an infectious disease expert at Hopkins Children’s Center.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics in June and examined 119 premature babies in Argentina, stated girls who are breastfed are eight times less likely to develop respiratory problems than those who are formula-fed.

“When resources are limited, it helps to know that your high-risk group is formula-fed girls,” said Polack, who added that mothers of premature girls should be strongly encouraged to breast-feed.

These findings could be vital in developing countries, in which 25 per cent of premature infants are hospitalised with severe respiratory problems.

Source: Forbes.com

Picyure: www.specialdeliveries.org