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[Type of diet and "ambulatory" pathology in the first 6 months of life]
Insights
Breastfeeding for at least six months significantly reduces respiratory and intestinal illnesses in infants. Extended breastfeeding offers robust protection against common infant pathologies.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Infant Health
- Immunology
Context:
- Growing interest in evaluating breastfeeding's protective effects against infant illnesses.
- Focus on common pathological occurrences in the first months of life.
Purpose:
- To investigate the protective role of breastfeeding against respiratory and intestinal diseases in infants.
- To compare disease frequency between breastfed and formula-fed infants.
Summary:
- A six-month study of 117 infants revealed that exclusive breastfeeding for six months correlated with lower respiratory pathology rates (p<0.05).
- Breastfeeding for at least two months showed a reduced frequency of intestinal pathology compared to formula feeding (p<0.05).
- Findings indicate breastfeeding's protective benefits extend to respiratory illnesses, provided the duration is sufficient.
Impact:
- Highlights the extended protective benefits of breastfeeding beyond intestinal health to include respiratory health.
- Provides evidence supporting extended breastfeeding recommendations for comprehensive infant disease prevention.
- Contributes to understanding the immunological advantages of breastfeeding in early life.
Abstract:
This work is a contribution to the investigation that mainly in the last year have been widely performed to evaluate the protecting action of breast feeding against some typical pathological occurrences in the first months of life. Authors studied, for six months, 117 babies. The respiratory and intestinal illness have been found (in progress or anamnestically) during pediatric monthly or occasionally visits. 33% of the babies were fed with milk formula since the first life months; the remainder 67% were breastfed during one month at least. By statistic correlation of type of feeding and disease frequency, there is evidence of the following: 1) Babies, breastfed during 6 months, have lower frequency of respiratory pathology, when compared (p 0.05) with 6 months bottle fed ones. 2) Babies, breastfed during 2 months have lower frequency of intestinal pathology when compared (p 0.05) with bottle fed ones. Therefore, it seems that the most interesting results coming out from this study is that the protective action of breast feeding concerns not only the intestinal disease, but the respiratory ones too, when, however, the breast feeding period is enough extended.