Breastfeeding and respiratory diseases in the baby

Cold, humidity, rain, autumn and winter usually present a peak in respiratory diseases, and especially the smallest ones are affected. What happens if the baby has an infection in the upper airways and the nostrils are plugged? How is breastfeeding affected? In Guiainfanitl.com we tell you how to fa

Cold, humidity, rain, autumn and winter usually present a peak in respiratory diseases, and especially the smallest ones are affected.

What happens if the baby has an infection in the upper airways and the nostrils are plugged? How is breastfeeding affected? In Guiainfanitl.com we tell you how to facilitate breastfeeding if the baby is plugged.

Does breastfeeding protect against respiratory infections?

When we talk about respiratory diseases, we refer to infections that take place in the airway, whose most common symptoms are rhinorrhea, increased secretions (the little ones have more mucus), possible respiratory distress, cough, wheezing and rales (noises in the chest) ... The most frequent are the common cold of the upper tract, bronchiolitis (bronchitis in older people), pneumonia. They are usually viral, so the only treatment is symptomatic; but when there is a superinfection or the cause is bacterial it is necessary to put an antibiotic treatment.

Children under one year of age are more vulnerable to respiratory diseases because they have a really narrow, easily collapsible airway; The nostrils are small. With the presence of secretions or inflammation, the airway of children can be blocked much more easily than that of adults or older children.

We know that breastfeeding provides multiple benefits long proven by scientific evidence, from a better state of the immune system, reduces the incidence and severity of infectious diseases, to better nutritional status, etc.

Most experts agree that breastfeeding does seem to be a protective factor against respiratory infections, as long as it lasts more than 90 days, that is 3 months. And they invite to stimulate a prolonged lactation in those babies with siblings of school age or who go to nurseries, where logically the probability of contagion is much higher.

Consulting the literature, and specifically its methodology, about breastfeeding and its protective role or not in particular against respiratory diseases, it seems that there is a bit of controversy; since there is much published, however, most of the articles consulted have some bias in the research, methodological errors such as not contemplating certain variables that are fundamental, such as the attendance or not to the nursery, smoking habit in the family environment, number and age of the cohabitants at home. So the appropriate question would be what degree of protection does prolonged breastfeeding provide against respiratory infections?

Relationship between breastfeeding and respiratory diseases

Consulting the AEPED (Spanish Association of Pediatrics) and the articles it supports, we can simplify by saying that among the benefits observed in children who are exclusively breastfed, compared to those who do not. they are:

- Less hospital admission rate secondary to respiratory infection.

- Less complications and less serious episodes.

- The duration of the episode of respiratory infection is shorter.

- Less chance of suffering a first episode of bronchiolitis.

- Less reinfection or new episode of respiratory infection during the first 6 months of life.