Breast-Feeding and Illness

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Abstract
To the Editor.— Holmes et al1 underestimated the association between breast-feeding and lowered illness rates. A separate comparison for their subgroup of more serious illnesses (lower respiratory tract infection, acute otitis media, gastroenteritis, meningitis—table 3) shows the following: For maternal education ≤11 years there were 53 such illnesses per 100 formula-fed infants (28 illnesses/53 infants) compared with 13 illnesses per 100 breast-fed infants (3/23), a fourfold excess. For maternal education ≥12 years formula-fed infants had 42 illnesses per 100 infants (raw data: 30 illnesses/71 infants) whereas the breast-fed infants had 27 illnesses per 100 infants (raw data: 28/104).

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