Last Updated: 2002-12-02 11:08:41 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Alison McCook

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Babies with a family history of allergies may be at a higher risk of developing asthma themselves if they have a bottle in bed before falling asleep, new study findings show.

Lead author Dr. Juan C. Celedon of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, explained to Reuters Health that he and his colleagues suspect that when a baby takes in a large amount of liquid just before falling asleep, some of that liquid can trickle into the baby's airways. The liquid can then irritate and narrow the airways, he noted, which could lead to allergies or asthma.

Celedon added that he and his team suspect "that it is the combination of leaving a sleepy child on its back while ingesting a relatively large liquid meal that leads to problems."

He said, "In other words, the most prudent thing to do would be to wait awhile before putting a child to sleep after a relatively large liquid meal given in a bottle."

Celedon and his colleagues obtained their findings from regular interviews with parents of 448 infants from when the child was 2 months old. In every family, at least one parent had allergies or asthma. Every 2 months during the children's first years of life, the authors asked their parents to report if their child had received a bottle in bed or a crib before falling asleep.

The investigators found that babies whose parents reported giving their infants a bottle in bed before sleep at three interviews were 50% more likely to develop wheezing between the ages of 1 and 5 years than did children whose parents gave no such reports. Celedon and his team report their findings in the December 6th issue of Pediatrics.

Celedon explained in an interview with Reuters Health that wheezing before age 3 is often a transient symptom, and may not result from asthma. However, if the symptom continues until up to age 6, a child who wheezes is likely doing so because of asthma.

"Given that our children have at least one parent with asthma or allergies and that we studied recurrent wheezing and asthma at the age of 5 years, it is likely that wheezing in these children is related to 'true' asthma," Celedon noted.

Since this study included only children of parents with allergies or asthma, Celedon said he could not predict whether these results apply to children whose parents are allergy-free.

He cautioned that these results do not suggest it is unsafe to feed a child in bed--only just before the child is about to fall asleep. "If a baby is awake and sitting up or standing, there should be no problem," Celedon said.

SOURCE: Pediatrics 2002;110:e77.

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