Is it true that breast feeding prevents ear infections?

Question

I nursed my baby for 11 months, and since I stopped he has had 7 ear infections in the past 3 months. We will be seeing a ENT Doctor next week.

Answer 1

From what I have heard, yes breastfeeding can prevent ear infections.
My son is 8 months old and is still breastfeeding and he has been fine!

Answer 2

NO - it REDUCES THE RISK by enhancing the baby's immunity; and by the positioning and mechanics of suckling keep the fluids from getting up through the Eustachian tubes into the middle ear space the way bottle-feeding can.

I am an Audiologist AND I nursed my son for more than a year, but he had tubes put in before his first birthday. He inherited the tendency for ear infections from his father.

Someone asked the question the other day about a good diet being able to prevent cancer, and I think that people do not realize that preventing something means that it won't happen. 100% prevention of any disease is essentially impossible; there are only some measures that we can take to lower the chance that we might get certain illnesses. For example, breastfeeding your baby for a year has reduced your risk of getting breast cancer, but it does not guarantee that you will never get it.


PREVENT
|priˈvent| verb [ trans. ]
keep (something) from happening or arising : action must be taken to prevent further accidents.
• make (someone or something) unable to do something

Answer 3

Breastfeeding doesn't prevent ear infections, but it does HELP to prevent them. I don't think you could make a blanket statment that there are NO breastfed babies get ear infections. Statistically speaking, breastfed babies have fewer ear infections than formula-fed babies. Some babies, though, are just prone to them more than others.

I have also heard that if your baby is prone to ear infections, whether you breast or bottle feed him, you should be carefful to keep his head elevated above the rest of his body so that he isn't horizontal. I guess the idea behind it is that when they are horizontal or even tilted the other way, the fluids drain back somehow to irritate their ears or something... not entirely sure how that works or even if it is true, it's just something I heard.

Congratulations on breastfeeding your baby for as long as you did. So many people barely make it to the six month mark anymore!

Answer 4

Not really.
Google it, it comes up with many answers for this. Breastfeeding, does help but its not the complete cure.
www.babycenter.com, look at their message boards for info and advice.

My son had recurrent ear infections and it was due to the ear canal/tubes being short which is quite common.He had ear tubes inserted at 18mos and hasnt had one ear infection since. He is almost 3yrs now. It was like night and day. He started talking nonstop and was a little sponge taking in all information. His ears had been really plugged up till then. It was a new world of hearing after that.

If your child has too many in 6mos time the Drs usually rec ear tubes. Too many ear infections can cause some hearing damage but not a high percentage have a prob.(per our ENT)

Good luck!

Answer 5

During the time you are nursing, the risk of infection is reduced due to the fact that some of your antibodies are in the milk and help the baby fight of infections.
The fact that you stopped nursing may not be the reason your child has the ear infections, however. My son had them because of an allergy that was not diagnosed because of the ear infections. The doctors did not see what else was happening because his ears were soooooo bad. Ask your ENT about allergy testing.
Treating an allergy could save you a lot of worry over his ears. My son had 3 surgeries before we realized what was going on. It was only because he started sneezing out puddles of mucus that we figured it out.

Answer 6

There are antibodies in breast milk that prevent or reduce MANY illnesses in babies. This does not mean that a breast fed baby will never get an ear infection, but you have to ask how often and how severe would this be for that baby if he/she were NOT breast fed. Its the absolute perfect designer baby food. Designed by the creator of babies.

Answer 7

Nursing a baby is great for their immune system especially in the very beginning. I nursed my kids.. but two of them still got ear infections and tubes put in. My middle son is now 15 and he had to get his tonsils out last spring. With my lack of medical training.. I would say that it gives a child a great boost over a bottle fed baby but it is not a cure all/sure thing. Wouldn't that be a hoot if it were.. everyone would nurse their babies and no one would ever get sick again!

Answer 8

Breastfeeding helps to prevent ear infections because when they're feeding from a bottle they are more likely to let the milk sit in their mouth, and moreso it drains from their mouth into their ear.

Answer 9

it may help in preventing ear infections but is not a guarantee..I didn't breast feed my oldest who is now 22 mos and he has never had an ear infection..go figure huh?

Answer 10

Maybe it is true,I breast fed my son till he was 2 and he never had an ear infection.