Relation between Exclusive Breastfeeding and the Primary Prevention of Adverse Food Reactions in Children

• Autor(a) principal: Santos, Maria Thereza Ghelere dos
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Outros Autores: Barbosa, Carmem Patrícia
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Saúde e Pesquisa (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.unicesumar.edu.br/index.php/saudpesq/article/view/1261
• topic: Breastfeeding; Food Reactions; Children.; Aleitamento Materno; Reações Alimentares; Crianças.

The breastfeeding is a fundamental practice of nutrition to the infant, giving protection and improving the development. However, it is common that the mother ceases the breastfeeding before the correct time and introduces, prematurely, other kinds of food in the infant’s diet. Such fact can lead to the appearance of food reactions, because the infant loses benefits from the components of the maternal milk and gets in touch with other kinds of food that are not well processed by his still immature organism. The present study aimed at investigating the relation between exclusive breast feeding and the primary prevention of food reactions. It was applied a questionnaire containing questions related to the breastfeeding, development of illnesses, food reactions and family history. From the 48 children that participated in this study, 39.58% (19) were female and 60.42% (29) were male, with average age of 4.42± 1.2 years. The analysis of the results identified that 100% of the children exclusively breastfed up to 6 months did not present adverse food reactions, whereas among those that did not receive exclusive maternal milk, 11.43% presented food reactions. In this way, despite the necessity of more studies to attest the efficacy of exclusive breast feeding as primary prevention to food reactions, the breastfeeding should be encouraged due to all the benefits that it brings to the health of the infant.