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Infant feeding practices and reported food allergies at 6 years of age

Stefano Luccioli1, Yuanting Zhang2, Linda Verrill2

  • 1Offices of Food Additive Safety, and stefano.luccioli@fda.hhs.gov.

Pediatrics
|September 4, 2014
PubMed

Insights

Physician-diagnosed food allergies affect 6.34% of US children by age 6. Socioeconomic and atopic factors, not breastfeeding, predict allergy development, though prolonged exclusive breastfeeding may offer some protection for non-high-risk infants.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Allergy and Immunology
  • Public Health Nutrition
  • Epidemiology

Background:

  • Physician-diagnosed food allergy (pFA) prevalence in US children is a significant public health concern.
  • Understanding risk factors is crucial for developing effective prevention strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the frequency of pFA in 6-year-old US children.
  • To investigate the influence of exclusive breastfeeding and complementary food introduction on pFA development.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of data from the Infant Feeding Practices Study II Year 6 Follow-Up Study (Y6FU).
  • Definition of probable food allergy (pFA) based on physician diagnosis at age 6.
  • Subgroup analysis included new pFA (diagnosed after 1 year) and high-risk children (with atopic risk factors).

Main Results:

  • The prevalence of total pFA was 6.34% in the Y6FU cohort.
  • Higher maternal education, family income, family history of food allergy, and early eczema were associated with increased pFA odds.
  • Exclusive breastfeeding duration and timing of complementary food introduction were not significantly linked to total pFA, but ≥4 months of exclusive breastfeeding showed a marginal association with lower odds of new pFA in non-high-risk children.

Conclusions:

  • Socioeconomic status and atopic factors are primary predictors of pFA in US children at age 6.
  • Exclusive breastfeeding for ≥4 months may offer a protective effect against developing pFA after the first year of life, particularly in children without high-risk factors.
Abstract

Keywords:
breastfeedingchildrencomplementary foodsfood allergyphysician diagnosisprevalencerisk factors

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