Fish-Eating Infants Are Less Likely To Have Respiratory Problems In The Preschool Years

Eating fish during the first nine months of life reduces the likelihood of preschool respiratory wheezing, a Swedish study of 4,171 randomly selected families has found. The researchers also noticed that infants treated with antibiotics in their first week – or whose mothers took the pain/fever reducing drug paracetamol during pregnancy – had a higher risk of preschool wheezing. Researchers analyzed responses from families who answered questions when their children were six months, 12 months and four-and-a-half years of age. Eating fish before the age of nine months almost halved the likelihood of suffering recurrent wheezing at 4.5 years. The fish most commonly eaten was white fish, followed by salmon and flat fish.