14 DAY TRIAL // Experts at the University of Virginia say that breastfeeding lowers the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), a condition in which newborns and small children simply die in their cradles.
For a long time, an explanation as to why this happens has been pending. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) managed to reduce SIDS rate decades ago, when it started its “Back to Sleep” campaign, urging mothers not to put their children to sleep on their bellies.
This contributed to reducing the incidence of sudden deaths, as evidenced by the attached image. However, many children continue to die from this horrible condition. Now, experts show that these rates may be further reduced by breastfeeding.
The habit has already been demonstrated to provide numerous benefits to both mother and children, and healthcare authorities have been trying to get more mothers to do it for many years. Their success has been limited, due to a variety of reasons.
In a new set of experiments, it was demonstrated that babies in a group that was breastfed for 6 months had a 73 percent lower chance of dying. Children breastfed for any amount of time had a 60 percent lower chance of dying as well.
“There's lots of reasons that breast-feeding is the best form of feeding infants. This study provides even further reason to breast-feed,” University of Virginia study researcher Dr. Fern Hauck explains.
For their meta-analysis, the experts Hauck led looked at about 18 studies previously conducted on the correlations between breastfeeding and SIDS. Details of their work appear in the June 13 online issue of the top medical journal Pediatrics.
One of the reasons why breastfeeding may be protecting against sudden death is that babies fed exclusively by their mothers tend to wake up faster than those who are fed only formula. This may contribute to avoiding SIDS, experts say.
Another reason could be that breastfeeding boosts the strength of infants' immune systems, making them more resistant to whatever is causing sudden death. However, experts warn that parent should not share a bed with their kids. Sharing a room is however preferable, LiveScience reports.