Breast feeding reduces risk of SIDS

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is a major cause of death in infants during the first year of lfe and parents receive advice on how to prevent it. Risk factors  include in the infant sleeping prone, infant being overclothed and sleeping with excess bedding, mother smoking during pregnancy and the infant sleeping with adults. A German study has found that breast feeding can protect the infant from SIDS (1).

The study's aim was to look at the assocation between SIDS and type of feeding. Undertaken between 1998 and 2001, the case controlled study involved a 333 infants who had died of SIDS and 998 age matched controls. A questionnaire, asking whether the infant was fully breast fed, partially breast fed and partlially bottle fed, fully bottle fed and whether solids had been introduced, was completed by parents. The information was collected monthly until death for cases or until a reference date for controls. The analyses undertaken controlled for variables such as maternal smoking, socioeconomic status, previous live births, birth weight, bed sharing in last night, pillow in infants bed, infants sleeping position and pacifier use in infants last sleep.

The peak age for SIDS was between 2 and 5 months of age. Of those infants who died of SIDS during the first two weeks of life 49.6% were breast fed compared to 82.9% of controls. At one month of age 39% of SIDS infants were exclusively breast fed compared to 71.9% in controls. Partial breast feeding at one month was associated with reduced risk of SIDS but was not significant after variables were adjusted. However both exclusive breast feeding and partial breast feeding during last month of life or before interview significantly reduced the risk of SIDS.  Breast milks immunological properties are put forward as one reason why breast fed infants are more protected.

The study provides more evidence for the benefits of breast feeding. With breast feeding reducing the incidence of SIDS by about 50%, the authors recommend that SIDS prevention campaigns recommend breast feeding for the first 6 months.

Reference.

1. Vennemann MM, Bajanowski T et al. Does breastfeeding reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome? Paediatrics 2009;123;e406-e410. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2008-2145