English.news.cn 2011-06-14
BEIJING, June 14 (Xinhuanet) -- A new study suggests that breastfeeding may protect infants from dying of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), according to media reports.
SIDS happens most often in infants between two and four months old and kills 2,550 infants in the United States each year, according to the National Institutes of Health.
"Breastfeeding is the best method of feeding infants," said Dr. Fern Hauck, the study's lead author from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville.
The researchers, who combined data from 18 previous studies, found that the rate of SIDS was 60 percent lower in infants who had any breastfeeding than those who were not breastfed at all, and 73 percent lower in infants who had been breastfed exclusively.
Therefore, they drew the conclusion, "Breastfeeding to any extent and of any duration is protective against SIDS. The protective effect is stronger for exclusive breastfeeding."
However, the study has shortcomings as the number of past studies was small and the duration was defined in different ways in these studies, which "made it difficult to pool the results".
Editor: Yang Lina
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