What we can say is that the data doesn’t support the claim of a reduction in respiratory infections as a result of breastfeeding. Given these findings, why do we continue to see the “evidence-based” claim that breastfeeding reduces colds and ear infections? The main reason is there are many observational studies—which compare kids who are breastfed with those who are not, but not where breastfeeding is randomly varied—that do show that breastfeeding affects these illnesses. An especially large set of studies argues for an effect of breastfeeding on ear infections.10
