Interesting tidbit, though a little late to benefit most here. Well, for those of you that are going to have children it is good info.
Breast fed babies have significantly fewer ear infections than formula feed babies. That was one (of many) reasons my wife nursed our daughter. Not only did she never have an ear infection, she only needed antibiotics once or twice in her entire life.
Dairy products are a factor in ear and sinus problems in babies and children. My daughter was very sensitive to dairy so she had very little as a kid. That helped too I believe.
I had terrible recurrent middle ear infections as a child that were finally cured by tubes. I was an adopted child and so not breast fed. I breast fed both my babies, and to date neither has had a middle ear infection, and the oldest is almost a teenager. My daughter has never taken an antibiotic and my son has only taken an antibiotic once.
I've also heard that but it didn't hold true in our family. I breast fed our daughter and she had several ear infections as a toddler, and can still manage to get one occasionally (usually associated with a cold) even though she's now a college student.
I was bottle fed and have never had an ear infection in my life. Go figure..
>>Breast fed babies have significantly fewer ear infections than formula feed babies.<<
Then why were there ear infections at all before bottles?
I find the "breastfeeding" cure all to goes a little far.
My sisters had five children, all bottle fed.
There are now eight grandchildren from those kids, all bottle fed.
None of them had chronic ear infections and neither did my two bottle fed babies.
Breastfeeding is great but not the cure to the world.