Karleen Gribble wrote:
<Did you see my post some days ago? There is a lot of research looking at infection rates in exclusively vs predominantly vs partly breastfed infants.>

Certainly did, thanks - been meaning to reply to it but kept getting sidetracked!

Yes, I've seen some research looking at infection rates in mixed-fed babies, but there seems to be very little breaking it down according to amount of formula in the diet. The Scariati study from Pediatrics (http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/99/6/e5.full) is the best one I know of, and of course that one *doesn't* support the hypothesis that low-level supplementation increases infection rates. I haven't seen any studies looking specifically at infection rates associated with small amounts of supplementation in the early days (for that matter, I haven't seen much research even on effects on the gut flora).

We don't have the TRIGR results on the diabetes study yet, and won't for a few years. We've got some research pointing to an association with allergy risk, but, as you pointed out, the research there is retrospective and thus not brilliant quality, and against that we've got the RCT from De Jong et al that didn't find a difference and from Lindfors et al which actually showed a *reduced* risk in exposure in infants with atopic heredity (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1717657/pdf/v079p00126.pdf, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3344931, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1510232).

So what I'm wondering is - what evidence do we really have, at this point, to support the hypothesis that even small amounts of formula are harmful? There seems to be a major disconnect between the emphasis with which people are stating this as an inarguably proved fact, and the amount/quality of evidence actually available for it. This is why I keep asking. Are there actually studies demonstrating harmful effects of even small amounts of formula supplementation? If such studies exist, I'm more than happy to look at them.


Best wishes,

Dr Sarah Vaughan (already using up the post allotment for the day - bah)
MBChB MRCGP

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