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Breastfeeding protects against asthma and wheezing, according to a meta-analysis of 117 studies by researchers from Ipswich, which was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

The authors carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies published between 1983 and 2012 on breastfeeding and asthma in children. They grouped outcomes into:

• Asthma ever (i.e. at any time)
• Recent asthma
• Recent wheezing illness (recent asthma or recent wheeze).

The authors defined “recent” as in the past 12 months.

Breastfeeding reduced the risk of “asthma ever” by 22 per cent, “recent asthma” by 24 per cent and “recent wheezing illness” by 19 per cent. No evidence of a significant difference emerged between studies in “Western and non-Western countries” – for example, breastfeeding reduced the risk of recent asthma by 22 and 28 per cent respectively.

Most pronounced

Breastfeeding’s benefit is most pronounced in children up to two years of age (e.g. 37 per cent reduction in recent asthma) and decreases with age (25 per cent reduction for recent asthma at three to six years).

Nevertheless, breastfeeding’s benefits are still evident at school age with a 19 per cent reduction for recent asthma at seven years and above.