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An Econometric Analysis of Growing Up in Ireland Data to look at the incidence of illnesses, such as respiratory infections and diarrhoea, among breastfed and non-breastfed cohorts.

Breast milk can be described as nature’s own immunisation protecting babies against a wide variety of illnesses and conditions. It is not only a perfectly adapted nutritional supply for the infant, it is their own personalised medicine. We know that breastfeeding provides major protection against many harmful childhood illnesses such as diarrhoea, respiratory infections and infectious diseases but to name a few. With this information it may surprise you that Ireland has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world and easily the lowest rate in Europe. The World Health Organisation recommends that babies are exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months, however according to the latest studies only 58% of babies in the Republic of Ireland were receiving any breast milk on discharge from hospital.
Our study aims to compare the rates of certain childhood illnesses between breastfed and non-breastfed groups. We are looking at this data in order to determine whether an increase in the prevalence of breastfeeding in Ireland would have a positive impact on children’s health, and consequently lead to an improvement in the health of the population.