WESTCHESTER, Ill. – A childhood sleep-related breathing disorder
(SRBD) is known to have negative consequences on cognitive
development, behavior, quality of life and utilization of health
care resources. However, a research abstract that will be
presented Monday at SLEEP 2007, the 21st Annual Meeting of the
Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS), finds that
breastfeeding may provide long-term protection against the
incidence or severity of a childhood SRBD. The study, conducted
by Hawley E. Montgomery-Downs, PhD, of West Virginia University,
focused on the parents of those children who underwent overnight
polysomnography, who filled out a brief survey about whether the
child had been breast, formula or both breast and formula fed as
an infant. There were 197 surveys completed. The average age of
the children at the time of polysomnography was 6.7 years.
Fifty-two percent of them were formula fed, 10 percent breast
fed and 38 percent both breast and formula fed as infants. It
was discovered that child