Breast feeding, cow milk feeding, and allergy.

Information about every 10th child aged 14 to 38 months was collected by means of a questionnaire in Turku, Finland in March, 1983. This paper reports on the occurrence of allergy in relation to the duration of breast feeding and to the age of the child when cow milk feeding was started. The average duration of breast feeding was 5.7 months and the average age at the introduction of cow milk-based products was 4.3 months. Allergy was reported in family members of 47.6% of the children. In 30.3% the child himself was reported allergic. The occurrence of allergy was unaffected by the duration of breast feeding and the age at introduction of cow milk feeding.