Allergy consultant said latest finding no benefits to allergies to BF beyond 3 months

[Tapster]

She went to a symposium last week and this was one of the findings no benefit to allergy reduction from BFing beyond 3 months. She also said (that old chestnut) that no health/nutritional benefits to BFing beyond 6 months.

She said I would find it very difficult to wean my 1 year old off BF as I had missed the 9-10 month window.

DD has an egg allergy and has a 50% increased chance in getting asthma as a result so I had carried on BFing. Feel a bit down about BFing not going to help.

keep up bf as long as you and baby want to. what on earth does an allergy consultant know about anything except allergies
my two dses have dairy intolerance, bf til 10 and 11 months, DD no allergies, tho has asthma, bf til 17mo. No 'scientific' reason as such for stopping with each, just when they seemed ready and wanted to move on.
bu11sht about difficulties weaning 1y.o. i promise you!!

tapster one of my friends who is a pharmacist says there's no
health/nutritional benefits to BFing beyond 6 months.

i don't agree though

i think there are plenty of benefits aside from the nutritional.
And if the mum's milk is made jusst for her baby, it is easier for the baby to digest etc. no matter what size of baby it is

Since when was there supposed to be a window in which babies should be weaned from the breast? I am flabbergasted that this idea is even being suggested by someone with medical training....humans are supposed to feed beyond 9-10 months just like most mammals do ...that alone would make me question her information....but I would seriously ask her for the full references (ie dates, names, titles etc) of the studies that her information is based on (& who gave out the information at the symposium) and when/where they are/will be published. If she can't give you any of that then you could either suppose she wasn't listening that closely at the symposium (in which case how can her information be relied upon!) or there are no studies (in which case there is no basis for her information). If she is giving out statements like this then she needs to have the background information to back them up

sounds like the usual old b**cks... Tapster's right - before you do or believe anything, find out more about the studies in question. Then post all the details of the studies on MN and we can all give a proper review of the evidence!!

God these people talk shit and should be ashamed of themselves for not keeping abreast (geddit??) of current research.

rubbish.

i have it on good authority from my immunologist friend that it's very beneficial to bf up until 18 months, longer if you like. i trust her implicitly.

I've never really understood the thing about no nutritional benefits.
it's food, it's got nutriments in it, surely that means it's nutritious? So whether or not there are any added benefits, what sense does it make to say there's no nutritional benefit??

Is there a clock in your breasts that automatically turns off the nutrients when you hit 6 months?

The nutritional stuff is clearly bollocks, but there have been quite a few papers showing no benefit to allergies for extended breastfeeding, certainly. I am surprised that it's as far back as 3 months, but it's hard to judge without seeing the papers.

To be honest I was so flabbergasted plus DD hated being in the doctors room that I just was a bit speechless. Consultant said that she stopped BFing when her baby started biting at 8 months and all her friends that continued BFing 12months struggled to give up.

DD is completely a BF addict and always has been. It has been a saviour when she has been very poorly. I may well feed until 2 years but will be ttcing post Christmas so she may well self wean if I get pregnant. Definitely won't wean her until after the winter, she has been far less poorly with colds than her FF friends.

Wonder why the WHO suggests breastfeeding until 2 years or beyond then?
I dont listen to most health pros when it comes to breastfeeding, most of them are not at all knowledgeable about it.
I b-fed DS1 till he was 2 and he has never been ill in his life, unlike most of his friends who were on formula by 3/6 months...

I've read everything I can lay my hands on about bf and allergy because we're a very allergic family.

Every study is contradicted by some other study. 9 out of 10 studies are so poorly designed that you can throw them out of the window straight away, and with the rest, there's so much postential for confounding that you can't really rely on them either.

Dog only knows what is truly going on.

But when health professionals come out strongly against bf you can bet your grandmother that they're rationalising a personal decision of one kind or another. That comment had nothing to do with the evidence and everything to do with the consultant's own feelings about bf.

If I had heard the "no nutritional benefits" being uttered, I would interperet it as a big sign on the consultant's forehead saying "I know eff all about breastfeeding" and disregard anything she said on the subject.

DS (age 2) saw the allergy consultant the other day and he asked what I was giving him instead of cows milk. He gave no comment either way when I said we were still breastfeeding. Wonder what he was really thinking...

how about this...

dd has been diagnosed recently with egg allergy and asthma. Also has moderate eczema and milk allergy (mild).

However, at 2y 8mo, she has never had a bout of d&v, a chest or an ear infection or even a rattly chest that lingers. she recovers quickly from any of the illnesses which she and her little nursery mates trade around. she goes to nursery full time and still bf when we are together.

in addition, as a toddler, i find that bf has headed off many a tantrum when other techniques don't work. hunger? tiredness? emotional stress? a finger caught in a draw? all remedied with a bit of milk.

do you think i think bf has played a role in her overall health? yup. do you think I would do this again even with exactly the same outcomes as now? Yup.

If you have a dairy-allergic child (as I do) it's lovely to be able to just bf instead of faffing about with special milk or worrying about their calcium intake.

The 'no nutritional benefits' is baffling....does it turn to water or something after six months/12 months/whatever age the doctor concerned weaned?

Allergies is always a tricky one....the studies are difficult to carry out and difficult to interpret. And 'allergy' is a massive topic anyway.