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Children who are born four months before the height of cold and flu season have a greater risk of developing childhood asthma than children born at any other time of the year, according to researchers from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Led by Dr. Tina V. Hartert, who is an associate professor of medicine and director of the center for Asthma Research at Vanderbilt, the team analyzed the birth and medical records of more than 95,000 children and their mothers in Tennessee to determine whether date of birth in relationship to the peak in winter respiratory viruses posed a higher risk for developing early childhood asthma. They found that while having clinically significant bronchiolitis at any age during infancy was associated with an increased risk of childhood asthma, for autumn babies, that risk was the greatest. "Infant age at the winter virus peak following birth independently predicts asthma development, with the highest risk being for infants born approximately four months prior to the peak, which is represented by birth in the fall months in the Northern Hemisphere. Birth during this time conferred a nearly 30 percent increase in odds of developing asthma," Hartert said. The study demonstrated for the first time that the timing of a baby's birth in relationship to the peak in winter virus activity independently predicts the risk of developing asthma. Why? There are two reasons.
What can parents do? Other than planning pregnancies for spring or summer delivery dates, the best protection for an infant is a vaccine for flu and other respiratory viruses. The research was published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, a publication of the American Thoracic Society. --From the Editors at Netscape | |||||||||||||
It is said that timing is everything, and that certainly appears to be true for autumn infants.
