Study: Breast feeding wards off bed-wetting
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-07-05 16:25
Children breast-fed as infants are less likely to wet
the bed later on, researchers reported on Wednesday, probably because they have
a developmental edge.
A woman breastfeeds
her baby in Bordeaux, southwest France April 27, 2006. Children breast-fed
as infants are less likely to wet the bed later on, researchers reported
on Wednesday, probably because they have a developmental edge.
[Reuters] |
There is strong evidence that in many cases bed-wetting can "result from
delayed neurodevelopment," said the report from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical
School in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
"There is biological plausibility in inferring that breast-feeding protects
against bed-wetting and our results show a strong statistical association"
although not enough to prove a direct cause-effect, the study said.
Breast-feeding is beneficial because of the role that certain fatty acids
passed onto the infant play in brain development, said the study published in
the July issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The study was based on 55 children who were bed-wetters at ages 5 to 13 and
117 in the same age range who were not. Of the bed-wetters, 45 percent had been
breast-fed, compared to 81 percent of those who were continent at night. The
study also found that babies who received breast milk supplemented with formula
had a similar rate of bed-wetting as those who received formula
alone.
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