On Thursday, Feb 27, 2003, at 13:33 Australia/Perth, Toni Donadio wrote:
> Speaking of that...has anyone ever done a study on hospitalized
> infants....which ones are or were breast fed and which ones are formula
> fed....I am a pediatric nurse and we don't get a lot of babies in the
> hospital that are breast fed...I don't think it is because not many
> moms
> breastfed...I am sure it is because breast fed babies don't get sick
> enough
> to be hospitalized as often...Anyone have any percentages or studies
> with
> numbers...It sure would be intersting to have at hand...
Hi Toni,
Did you know that Medline is publically available now? I like biomednet
http://research.bmn.com/medline
but a lot of people use Pubmed too.
Using the first search terms that came to mind, "breastfed and
hospitalization", I got hits like the ones I've appended (abstracts
edited by me for brevity). There are bound to be gazillions more; the
fact that formula fed babies are sicker is very well established. Also
have a search through the Lactnet archives.
Interesting that the one study looks at the "costs" of formula feeding,
while another looks at the "protective" effects of breastfeeding...
perceptions of norms makes a big difference.
Lara
===
Health care costs of formula-feeding in the first year of life.
Ball TM, Wright AL
Pediatrics 1999 Apr 103:870-6
Abstract
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.
[snip]
RESULTS: In the first year of life, after adjusting for confounders,
there were 2033 excess office visits, 212 excess days of
hospitalization, and 609 excess prescriptions for these three illnesses
per 1000 never-breastfed infants compared with 1000 infants exclusively
breastfed for at least 3 months. These additional health care services
cost the managed care health system between $331 and $475 per
never-breastfed infant during the first year of life. CONCLUSIONS: In
addition to having more illnesses, formula-fed infants cost the health
care system money. Health care plans will likely realize substantial
savings, as well as providing improved care, by supporting and
promoting exclusive breastfeeding.
(these are data from Tucson and Dundee)
===
Exclusive breastfeeding: protective efficacy.
Kasla RR, Bavdekar SB, Joshi SY, Hathi GS
Indian J Pediatr 1995 Jul-Aug 62:449-53
[snip] Exclusively breastfed babies were three-times less likely to
fall sick than artificially fed babies. Exclusive breastfeeding was
also associated with significantly lowered rate of serious illnesses as
shown by fewer rate of hospitalisation (0.52/100 children months vs
4.5/100 children months). Premature introduction of supplementary
feeding diluted the protective effects of breastmilk.
===
Relationship between type of infant feeding and hospitalization for
gastroenteritis in Shanghai infants.
Chen Y
J Hum Lact 1994 Sep 10:177-9
[snip] The risk of hospitalization for gastroenteritis in the ever
breastfed infants was significantly lower than that in the never
breastfed infants, 3.4 percent versus 5.3 percent (p < .01). After
controlling for covariates, the odds ratio was 0.66 (95% confidence
interval = 0.46-0.94). The data suggest that breastfeeding offers
moderate protection against hospitalization for gastroenteritis in
Shanghai infants.
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