Breastfeeding might offer protection against asthma, saysa new study released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

In the two-year study on asthma and wheezing illness in one year olds and kindergarten children, they found that within the first three years of life, almost 17 per cent of Australian infants experienced asthma or wheezing illness.

However breastfeeding within the first 12 months of life may offer a protective effect against asthma or wheezing in infancy, which increases with increasing breastfeeding duration.

Report author Professor Guy Marks, of the Australian Centre for Asthma Monitoring said, ‘Asthma or wheeze in infants was more common in those whose mothers had asthma, were relatively young or smoked during pregnancy.’

The report, Asthma in Australian Children: Findings from Growing up in Australia, the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, also found that asthma or wheeze during the first three years of life was more common among boys, those who had older siblings, those who were born at an earlier gestational age, or who were admitted to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit after birth.

‘There are important differences between wheezing illness in infancy and kindergarten-aged children, both in the nature of the disease and in its risk factors,’ said Professor Marks.

’By the age of 5, 21 per cent of Australian children have been diagnosed with asthma and among those who did not have asthma by age five, 4 per cent per year were diagnosed over the next two years,’ he said.