Breastfeeding benefits last into childhood; potential to reduce inequalities for low-income families
Indo-Canadian Voice Breastfeeding benefits last into childhood; potential to reduce inequalities for low-income families posted by: Rattan MallNEW research from BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, published in Cell Reports Medicine, finds that breastfeeding can benefit children’s health well into childhood, especially for families of lower socioeconomic status (SES). Children from lower-SES families face a higher risk of chronic disease, which can increase financial strain over time and reinforce existing inequities across generations. […] The post Breastfeeding benefits last into childhood; potential to reduce inequalities for low-income families first appeared on Indo-Canadian Voice.Indo-Canadian Voice
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“Socioeconomic status isn’t biological, but its effects on the body certainly are,” says Dr. Stuart Turvey, co-senior study author, investigator at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute (BCCHR) and professor of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia. “We wanted to understand how differences in early-life conditions shape children’s health, and how we might interrupt that cycle.”
Families with a higher SES demonstrated broad differences from other families, including the composition of the infant gut microbiota, and had a lower risk of asthma, obesity, and behavioural challenges at age five.
When comparing these differences, breastfeeding stood out as a key mediator influencing the effect of SES on infant development. Breastfeeding was shown to protect the infant microbiota well into early childhood, and was associated with a reduced risk of chronic disease at age five. The protective effects of breastfeeding were especially strong among children from lower-SES families. A similar finding was found in an independent Danish cohort, Danish COPSAC2010, suggesting that these results are not unique to Canadian families.
The researchers note that breastfeeding may be only part of the story. Infant microbiota development also depends on exposure to beneficial bacteria in the surrounding environment. “As infants, we don’t just get microbes from our mothers. We also acquire them from the world around us,” said Dr. Charisse Petersen, research associate at BCCHR and co-senior author. “If those beneficial species are disappearing from our communities, babies may not have the microbes they need to fully benefit from breastmilk.”
