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Can breastfeeding raise your baby's risk of heart

disease later in life?

Breastfeeding for more than four months may weaken your

baby's heart, according to a controversial

new study published in the March 17 issue of the British

Medical Journal. But many doctors and

lactation experts are crying foul, saying that the study was

funded by the formula industry and was

expressly designed to undermine the evidence that breast milk

is best for your baby. Extensive studies

have shown that breastfed babies are healthier than their

formula-fed peers: They get fewer earaches,

colds, allergies, and stomach infections.

Researchers from the Institute of Child Health in London

studied 331 adults between the ages of 20

and 28 years old. They found that those who were breastfed

for more than four months had stiffer artery

walls (thought to be an early predictor of heart disease)

than their peers. In fact, the longer a child was

breastfed, the harder his artery walls were found to be in

his twenties.

Critics say the study involved too few participants, relied

too much on peoples' accounts of how long

they were breastfed, and failed to identify which babies were

exclusively fed breast milk (without

formula or solid food) to reach a valid conclusion. They ask

why researchers failed to explore other

variables such as the impact of children's diets and exercise

habits on their arteries, and why people in

regions where long-term breastfeeding is common don't suffer

more heart disease. The authors of the

study say that they " collaborated with the infant food

industry, " an admission that critics say taints the

research.

http://www.babycenter.com/news/20010326.html#14448

Sherri