Journal
NUTRIENTS
Volume 11, Issue 7, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/nu11071607
Keywords
breastfeeding; infections; birth cohort; hospitalizations; antibiotic use
Categories
Funding
- Ministry of Higher Education and Research
- Institut national de la jeunesse et de l'education populaire (INJEP)
- National Research Agency under the Investissements d'avenir program [ANR-11-EQPX-0038]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In low- and middle-income countries, the protective effect of breastfeeding against infections is well established, but in high-income countries, the effect could be weakened by higher hygienic conditions. We aimed to examine the association between breastfeeding and infections in the first 2 years of life, in a high-income country with relatively short breastfeeding duration. Among 10,349 young children from the nationwide Etude Longitudinale Francaise depuis l'Enfance (ELFE) birth cohort, breastfeeding and parent-reported hospitalizations, bronchiolitis and otitis events, and antibiotic use were prospectively collected up to 2 years. Never-breastfed infants were used as reference group. Any breastfeeding for <3 months was associated with higher risks of hospitalizations from gastrointestinal infections or fever. Predominant breastfeeding for <1 month was associated with higher risk of a single hospital admission while predominant breastfeeding for >= 3 months was associated with a lower risk of long duration (>= 4 nights) of hospitalization. Ever breastfeeding was associated with lower risk of antibiotic use. This study confirmed the well-known associations between breastfeeding and hospitalizations but also highlighted a strong inverse association between breastfeeding and antibiotic use. Although we cannot infer causality from this observational study, this finding is worth highlighting in a context of rising concern regarding antibiotic resistance.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available