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Wendy H. Oddy, PhD, MPH, Jill L. Sherriff, PhD, APD, Nicholas H. de Klerk, PhD, MSc, Garth E. Kendall, PhD, MPH, Peter D. Sly, DSc, MD, Lawrence J. Beilin, MD, MRCP, MA, Kevin B. Blake, PhD, MPH, Louis I. Landau, MD and Fiona J. Stanley, MD, MSC

Wendy H. Oddy and Jill L. Sherriff are with the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Science, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia. Wendy H. Oddy, Nicholas H. de Klerk, Garth E. Kendall, Peter D. Sly, and Fiona J. Stanley are with the Centre for Child Health Research, University of Western Australia, Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, West Perth, Australia. Lawrence J. Beilin, Kevin B. Blake, and Louis I. Landau are with the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Australia, West Perth.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Wendy H. Oddy, PhD, MPH, Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, PO Box 855, West Perth, Western Australia 6872, Australia (e-mail: wendyo{at}ichr.uwa.edu.au).

Objectives. We investigated the relationship between breastfeeding, asthma and atopy, and child body mass index (BMI).

Methods. From a prospective birth cohort (n = 2860) in Perth, Western Australia, 2195 children were followed up to age 6 years. Asthma was defined as doctor-diagnosed asthma and wheeze in the last year, and atopy was determined by skin prick test of 1596 children. Breastfeeding, BMI, asthma, and atopy were regressed allowing for confounders and the propensity score for overweight.

Results. Using fractional polynomials, we found no association between breastfeeding and overweight. Less exclusive breastfeeding was associated with increased asthma and atopy, and BMI increased with asthma.

Conclusions. Less exclusive breastfeeding leads to increases in child asthma and atopy and a higher BMI is a risk factor for asthma.

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