Mom's Behavior Might Affect Child's Asthma
With asthma and allergy rates among children continuing to rise, parents and doctors alike are eager to find answers. Two new studies may bring us one step closer to finding a cure for these alarming disorders.
According to a recent study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine young children (under the age of 7) whose mothers suffer from recurring bouts of despair or angst are 25% more likely to develop asthma. Unfortunately, the link between a mother’s chronic stress and her baby’s asthma remains unclear. Researchers hypothesize that anxious or depressed moms may smoke more, ignore their children more often and breastfeed their babies less frequently, all of which can attribute to an asthma diagnosis in children.
Another asthma study conducted in
The
scientists behind both of these studies acknowledge that additional research is
necessary in order to more fully understand their findings. Other doctors and
scientists admit that the results of these studies may have some validity. However,
they remain skeptical and are wary about attaching too much significance to
them.
What do you think? Do you believe that the emotional and physical state of a pregnant woman has this strong of an impact on the future health of her child? Share your thoughts.
-- Victoria Loustalot, Associate Real Time Producer
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I read this article with dismay; yet another thing to blame on the mother! I ate a very healthy diet when I was pregnant with my son, did not smoke before, during, or after he was born, and he developed asthma. I did bottlefeed him; however, my identical twin sister breastfed her daughter; both of our children have asthma. She is a nonsmoker, also, and has always ate incredibly healthy. My opinion....it is inherited. Both of us had asthma as a child, and still suffer with bouts of it in our adulthood.
This is bull. I have postpartum depression and a child with Brittle Bone Disease. yeah, im anxious and yeah, Im depressed. I also formula fed my daughter because she cant breastfeed with fractures. I want to know the basis for their test...who did they test on? WHY do they think this? Did they just grab a bunch of emotional women and test their kids for asthma? They dont give any medical information- so scaring moms like this on the internet is deceitful and unsubstantiated.
My two cents.
Both of my children were breastfed, I ate well, never smoked in my life and was an attentive mom. However my childrens father smoked, and was an alcoholic, so we did not stay around forever. SO maybe instead of blaming the mom they could research the rest of the household, find out where the child spent a lot of time (babysitters, smoking grandparents) and most of all heredity! My parents and grandparents were smokers and we were bottle fed and ignored and none of us have asthma!
)One of my chilren has severe asthma and the other has exercise induced asthma)
My grand son is almost 20 months old . he use to sleep pretty good all night , but now he has a hard time sleeping waking up every 1 or 2 . what is wrong ? He will not eat like he should either . what can we do ?
It isn't saying this is true in every case, just that in some cases it happens!
I breastfed my daughter for almost 18 months, exercised while pregnant, ate the right amount of fruits and vegetables, avoided red meat and Lily still suffers from acute asthma and all sorts of bloody allergies. My husband and I don't smoke either and the only despair I ever experienced was in the delivery room. I think pollution and all the additives in the food nowadays are a major culprit in childhood asthma and allergies. We try to eat as much of an organic diet as we can afford...emphasis on afford.
However, that's not to say that the social, emotional and physical health of the mother doesn't affect her child. I'm convinced it does, it's just one of several factors that do. I guess Lily just wasn't one of the lucky ones.
I am a mother of two daughters who have exercise induced asthma that is getting worse since we recently moved to a different state. I have NEVER smoked, eat fairly healthy and I am a very attentive mother. I also breastfed all three of my children past the first year! I think that asthma is more likely hereditary. I also have asthma as do many of my extended relatives. However, my mother smoked before, during and after her pregnancies, and all of my grandparents smoked and I was bottle fed. That still does not explain why my girls have it too, since their experience was the complete opposite! This study sounds like a shot in the dark.
Hello,
Great blog and great post. Thank you for encapsulating so well the informations.
The rate for asthma in children has risen parallel to carbon emissions in the atmosphere. People living in cities obviously run a higher risk, but people in rural areas can't avoid it all together either. Here's a link to one article:
http://www.upi.com/Consumer_Health_Daily/Reports/2006/10/17/new_study_links_diesel_emissions_asthma/9441/
You can inherit the tendency to get asthma, along with one or more other side effects like rhinitis, eczema, hay fever, etc:
http://www.surgerydoor.co.uk/medical_conditions/Indices/A/asthma.htm
Hope some of this helps. If you're trying to eat right, exercise and avoid cigarette smoke, you're doing fantastic and will set good habits in your children at a young age, to help them avoid other health problems and increase their life expectancy.
The reason why more and more kids are getting asthma are because of all the chemicals we use. Think about it,you spray air freshener and they breath it in. Read the ingredients.Do you know what they are? Even clothes detergent and dryer sheets.All the chemicals they are exposed to.I use essential oils for fragrance instead.And I make my own cleaning solution with vinegar,lemon and baking soda.If you clean surfaces with chemicals children touch those surfaces then put their hands in there mouth.We need to be more concious of what is going into our bodies!