Longer Baby's on Formula, Higher the Leukemia Risk, University of Texas Study

Results of one study indicate that the risk for developing pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia increased the longer a baby was fed formula and the longer solid foods were delayed. "For every month that a child was fed formula, taking into account other feeding practices, we found that the risk for this type of cancer was higher," said Jeremy Schraw, a graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin, who presented the findings of an epidemiological study at the 11th Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, held in Anaheim, Calif. Oct. 16-19, 2012. "If a baby is fed only formula, he or she will not be getting any immune factors from the mother, which could be leading to this greater risk."