BReastfeeding and Cancer Risk

Breastfeeding Can Reduce Cancer Risks

Children who are artificially fed or breastfed for only 6 months or less, are at an increased risk of developing cancer before age 15. The risk of artificially fed children was 1-8 times that of long-term breastfed children, and the risk for short-term feeders was 1-9 times that of long- term breast feeders. Source: Davis, M.K. Infant Feeding and Childhood Cancer. "Lancet 1988 Others studies have shown that for both premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer, women who were breastfed as children, even if only for a short time, had a 25% lower risk of developing breast cancer than women who were bottle-fed as infants Sources: Schwartzbaum, J. et al. An exploratory study of environmental and medical factors potentially related to childhood cancer. Med & Pediat Oncology 1991; 19(2): 115-21. Freudenheim, J. et al. 1994 Exposure to breast milk in infancy and the risk of breast cancer. Epidemiology 5:324-331. Website Source:

http://www.breastfeeding.com/all_about/all_about_cancer.html