BACKGROUND The beneficial effect of breastfeeding on individual components of the metabolic syndrome in children and adolescents has been reported, but it is unknown if there is an association between being breastfed and metabolic syndrome as a whole. Research aim: This systematic review was performed to assess quality and strength of evidence for the association between being breastfed and the...

OBJECTIVE To determine the association of different feeding patterns for infants (exclusive breastfeeding, predominant breastfeeding, partial breastfeeding and no breastfeeding) with mortality and hospital admissions during the first half of infancy. METHODS This paper is based on a secondary analysis of data from a multicentre randomized controlled trial on immunization-linked vitamin A supp...

PURPOSE We assessed the relationships between iron and vitamin D statuses in breastfed infants and their mothers and evaluated the determinants of iron and vitamin D deficiencies in breastfed infants. METHODS Seventy breastfed infants aged 4-24 months and their mothers participated in this study from February 2012 to May 2013. Complete blood counts, total iron binding capacity, and levels of ...

BACKGROUND In breastfed infants, iron deficiency at <6 mo of life, although uncommon, is observed in industrialized countries. Iron supplementation starting at an early age may prevent iron deficiency. OBJECTIVE The study assessed the effect of early iron supplementation of breastfed infants and tested the hypothesis that iron supplementation enhances iron status. Potential adverse effects (t...

Never or curtailed lactation has been associated with an increased risk for incident hypertension, but the effect of exclusive breastfeeding is unknown. The authors conducted an observational cohort study of 55,636 parous women in the US Nurses' Health Study II. From 1991 to 2005, participants reported 8,861 cases of incident hypertension during 660,880 person-years of follow-up. Never or curta...

OBJECTIVE Despite the manufacturer's recommendation that fluoxetine not be used by women while breastfeeding, many women choose to do so. There is little information available in the literature to suggest that this practice is or is not safe. The purpose of this study was to examine weight gain in infants who are breastfed by mothers who take fluoxetine, compared with weight gain in infants who...

The recent Deoni et al. (2013) manuscript proposed that breastfeeding was associated with increased cognitive ability and white-matter in older children (over 26 months), using ms-DESPOT MRI imaging to indirectly measure white matter in children who were either breastfed, formula fed, or combined breast+formula fed. In this response, we identify limitations in drawing causal inference among whi...

OBJECTIVE To determine the excess cost of health care services for three illnesses in formula-fed infants in the first year of life, after adjusting for potential confounders. METHODS Frequency of health service utilization for three illnesses (lower respiratory tract illnesses, otitis media, and gastrointestinal illness) in the first year of life was assessed in relation to duration of exclu...

BACKGROUND Lack of breast feeding is associated with higher morbidity and case-fatality from both bacterial and viral etiologic diarrheas. However, there is very limited data on the characteristics of non-breastfed infants attending hospital with diarrheal illnesses caused by common bacterial and viral pathogens. Our objective was to assess the impact of lack of breast feeding on diarrheal illn...