HHS HealthBeat (November 05, 2007)

Breathing and breastfeeding

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Some babies snore. And when they do, it’s not cute. They tend to have more chronic illnesses, might have heart problems, and could develop problems in thinking.

So researchers at West Virginia University looked at what affects whether a baby snores. Hawley Montgomery-Downs suspected viruses might infect the tonsils and adenoids, making them bigger and partially blocking airways. And she thought substances in breast milk might make the children better able to stand off the viruses.

She did find a benefit from breastfeeding:

``In children who already had symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing, their sleep-disordered breathing was not as bad as the children who had not been breastfed, for longer durations.’’ (8 seconds)

The study in the American Academy of Pediatrics’ journal Pediatrics was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: May, 26 2008