Toddlers have Lower Blood Pressure

According to a new study, infants who were breastfed for any amount of time had Lower Blood Pressure than those who were not breastfed at all. Dr Lori Feldman-Winter said that the reduction in blood pressure found in the study is important and surprising.

Feldman-Winter, the chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Breastfeeding. He wrote that they expected a difference to be apparent just before or during adolescence. These differences were seen as early as three years of age indicating that breastfeeding participates in metabolic programming that spans the life cycle.

The study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, used data from almost 2,400 children who are part of the CHILD Cohort Study. CHILD is a longitudinal study that tracks the health of thousands of Canadian mothers and their children born between 2009 and 2012.The study assessed data on the length of time infants were breastfed and compared it to their blood pressure at age 3. Breastfed children had Lower Blood Pressure regardless of the amount of time spent breastfeeding.

The senior study author Meghan Azad, deputy director of the CHILD Cohort Study, an associate professor of pediatrics and child health at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada said that they found, contrary to our expectations, it did not matter how long you were breastfed, whether it was two days, two weeks, two months or two years. Researchers saw an improvement in blood pressure profiles from any breastfeeding at all.