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Breastfeeding Decreases Snoring During Childhood

Napping NewbornMany of the short term and long term benefits of breastfeeding a widely known. Now a new cohort study from researchers at The University of Sydney Medical School in Australia discovered that breastfeeding for at least one month is associated with decreased snoring during childhood.

Snoring belongs to a range of respiratory sleeping outcomes referred to as sleep disordered breathing (SDB). Children with SDB including snoring have an increased risk of hyperactivity, inattention, increased daytime sleepiness, lower academic performance, high blood pressure, and growth failure.

Although snoring can occur for temporary reasons such as an illness that affects the nasal passageways such as a common cold, habitual snoring, which is defined as snoring more than three times per week, occurs in seven to 22 percent of children.

The present study on the link between breastfeeding and decreased childhood snoring is part of a larger study, the Childhood Asthma Prevention Study (CAPS), which is a randomized controlled trial designed to test the effectiveness of house dust mite avoidance and fatty acid supplementation during the first five years of life as strategies for preventing asthma and allergy in children at high risk for asthma. Participants included 616 pregnant mothers and their unborn babies who were recruited between September 1997 and November 1999 from two hospitals in Sydney, Australia.

Nurses recorded the breastfeeding status of the babies participating in the study at 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. The researchers defined “any breastfeeding” as any breast milk given for at least one month regardless of whether other breast milk substitutes or solids had been given.

The study followed up the children in the study at 8 years old to assess snoring status.

Of the total participants in the study, habitual snoring was reported in 18.8 percent of the children. Another form of SDB, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), was reported in 2.7 percent of the children.

However, the researchers also discovered that any breastfeeding for longer than one month was associated with a reduced risk of habitual snoring at age 8. Furthermore, duration of breastfeeding was inversely associated with snoring.

In other words, breastfeeding decreases the risk of snoring in children, and, the longer a child breastfeeds, the lower the changes of snoring.

The same protective benefits of breastfeeding were also true for OSA.

Although the underlying cause for the decreased risk of snoring as a result of breastfeeding has not yet been determined, the researchers hypothesize that the finding would be consistent with a beneficial effect of breastfeeding on oropharyngeal development.

Another study from 2012 also concluded that breastfeeding reduces the risk of snoring in children.

References

Breastfeeding and Snoring: A Birth Cohort Study: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0084956
Breastfeeding Associated with Reduced Snoring in Children: http://www.unicef.org.uk/BabyFriendly/News-and-Research/Research/Mental-development/Breastfeeding-associated-with-reduced-snoring-in-children/

Image Credits

Napping Newborn: http://www.freeimages.com/photo/1407412

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