Observations questioning a protective role for breast-feeding in severe rotavirus diarrhea

To investigate whether breast-feeding protects children against rotavirus diarrhea (RVD), we compared rates of breast-feeding by age and enteric pathogens among 2,276 children with diarrhea 0-4 years of age who attended a diarrhea hospital in Bangladesh. Infants 0-5 months were less likely to be breast-fed than children 6-11 months of age suggesting that some protection against diarrhea with all agents was associated with early breast-feeding. In every age group studied, breast-feeding was more common among children with RVD than among children with non-RVD whereas it was less common among children with cholera and shigellosis. Twenty percent of breast milks consumed by infants less than 1 year of age had high levels of neutralizing activity (greater than or equal to 320) to the Wa strain of rotavirus but this activity did not appear to be protective since the 30 infants with RVD consumed milk which had titers that did not differ significantly from those consumed by 44 infants with diarrhea of other cause. Despite the prolonged breast-feeding which is common in Bangladesh, the mean age of hospitalization with RVD is approximately the same as in countries where the duration of breast-feeding is quite short. None of these 3 independent observations support a protective role for breast-feeding against rotavirus diarrhea after the first months of life.