Breast-feeding protects babies against asthma: study

London, Jan 28 (UNI) Breast feeding could protect babies against asthma triggered by allergies, a research shows.

Researchers from France believe that airborne allergens, which are inhaled and cause the immune system to overreact, pass from mother to child through breast milk, and as a result, the baby may develop a tolerance to them.

'' We found that airborne allergens were also efficiently transferred from the mother to the neonate through milk, '' they said.

The researchers at the University of Nice studied the effects of allergens on breast-feeding mice and discovered that exposing them to airborne allergen called ovalbumin, helped prevent their offspring from developing asthma. Ovalbumin is a chicken protein commonly used to stimulate an allergic reaction.

They found the allergen was efficiently transferred from the mother to the new-born through the milk, leading to ''immunological tolerance''. The findings are published in the journal Nature Medicine, the Daily Mail reported.

''This study may pave the way for the design of new strategies to prevent the development of allergic diseases, ''the researchers added.

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