Breast-feeding is the best nutrition for infants. It is full of hormones, enzymes and growth factors and reduces infections, respiratory illness and diarrhoea in babies. The researchers suspect chemicals in the mother's milk affect the child's immune system and the onset of asthma. Mothers were questioned about the disease and the length of time they breast-fed their babies. Asthma affects the small tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs.
Scientists suspect that sterile modern lifestyles are contributing to the increase.
There is no cure for asthma, but drugs can relieve many of the symptoms.