I've been reading The Gluten-Free Bible by Jax Peters Lowell - navigating my new gluten-free lifestyle is a little intimidating, and this book has been highly recommended. You can imagine my delight when I scanned the table of contents and discovered a section on breastfeeding!
The good news? Lowell comes down firmly on the side of the benefits of breastfeeding, listing many reasons why breastfeeding is best for your little one.
The disappointing news? Lowell appears unaware of the research which supports her advice, and misses a great opportunity to educate her readers. Given how much work went into the book, I'm fairly astonished at the oversight.
So, for your reference, here are a couple of the research articles on the topic:
Breast-feeding protects against celiac disease. (Ivarsson A, Hernell O, Stenlund H, Persson LA)
Effect of breast feeding on risk of coeliac disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies (A K Akobeng1, A V Ramanan, I Buchan and R F Heller)
Reading up on celiac disease in Sweden has proved fascinating. In the mid-eighties Sweden experienced a significant spike in the cases of celiac in children two and under; the spike resolved itself within ten years. In trying to figure out what caused the dramatic rise, researchers identified three key factors - the age at which gluten was introduced into the diet, whether the infant was being breastfed at the time of gluten introduction, and how much gluten was given to the infant.
Basically, the younger the child was when gluten was introduced to the diet (typically through cereal), the higher the risk of developing celiac disease. Breastfeeding appears to provide protection; nursing children who were consuming gluten were 40% less likely to develop celiac disease than their weaned counterparts. At the beginning of the time period studied, Swedish breastfeeding rates were at a low (37%); at the end of the time period, breastfeeding rates had increased to 76% and the incidence of celiac disease had decreased.
One of the theories is that the IgA antibodies in human milk provide protection to the infant's gut when gluten is introduced.
Yet another reason I'm glad I breastfed my daughter!
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4 comments:
Great post - thank you! Really good to learn more about this connection.
Thank you, Tanya! It's a fascinating topic.
HI ,
My daughter was breastfed for 4 month and still developped CD and was finaly diagnosed at 18 months. I now am breastfeeding my 5 weeks old little boy and i am trying to find out if following a gluten free diet myself could help reduce the chances of him having CD. Would you know?
many thanks in advance,
claire
Thank you for this
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