Infant milk-feeding practices and food allergies, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, and asthma throughout the life span: a systematic review

Darcy Güngör; Perrine Nadaud; Concetta C LaPergola; Carol Dreibelbis; Yat Ping Wong; Nancy Terry; Steve A Abrams; Leila Beker; Tova Jacobovits; Kirsi M Järvinen; Laurie A Nommsen-Rivers; Kimberly O O'Brien; Emily Oken; Rafael Pérez-Escamilla; Ekhard E Ziegler; Joanne M Spahn

doi:10.1093/ajcn/nqy283

Infant milk-feeding practices and food allergies, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, and asthma throughout the life span: a systematic review

Am J Clin Nutr. 2019 Mar 1;109(Suppl_7):772S-799S. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqy283.

Authors

Darcy Güngör¹, Perrine Nadaud¹, Concetta C LaPergola¹, Carol Dreibelbis¹, Yat Ping Wong², Nancy Terry³, Steve A Abrams⁴, Leila Beker⁵, Tova Jacobovits⁶, Kirsi M Järvinen⁷, Laurie A Nommsen-Rivers⁸, Kimberly O O'Brien⁹, Emily Oken^{10

11}, Rafael Pérez-Escamilla¹², Ekhard E Ziegler^{1

13}, Joanne M Spahn²

Affiliations

¹ Panum Group, Bethesda, MD.
² USDA, Food and Nutrition Service, Alexandria, VA.
³ National Institutes of Health Library, Bethesda, MD.
⁴ Dell Medical School at the University of Texas, Austin, TX.
⁵ US Food and Drug Administration, contractor, College Park, MD.
⁶ US Food and Drug Administration, College Park, MD.
⁷ University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY.
⁸ University of Cincinnati College of Allied Health Sciences, Cincinnati, OH.
⁹ Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
¹⁰ Division of Chronic Disease Research Across the Lifecourse, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA.
¹¹ Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
¹² Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT.
¹³ Department of Pediatrics, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA.

Abstract

Background: During the Pregnancy and Birth to 24 Months Project, the USDA and Department of Health and Human Services initiated a review of evidence on diet and health in these populations.

Objectives: The aim of these systematic reviews was to examine the relation of 1) never versus ever feeding human milk, 2) shorter versus longer durations of any human milk feeding, 3) shorter versus longer durations of exclusive human milk feeding prior to infant formula introduction, 4) feeding a lower versus higher intensity of human milk to mixed-fed infants, and 5) feeding a higher intensity of human milk by bottle versus breast with food allergies, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, and asthma.

Methods: The Nutrition Evidence Systematic Review team conducted systematic reviews with external experts. We searched CINAHL, Cochrane, Embase, and PubMed for articles published between January 1980 and March 2016, dual-screened the results according to predetermined criteria, extracted data from and assessed the risk of bias for each included study, qualitatively synthesized the evidence, developed conclusion statements, and graded the strength of the evidence.

Results: The systematic reviews numbered 1-5 above included 44, 35, 1, 0, and 0 articles, respectively. Moderate, mostly observational, evidence suggests that 1) never versus ever being fed human milk is associated with higher risk of childhood asthma, and 2) among children and adolescents who were fed human milk as infants, shorter versus longer durations of any human milk feeding are associated with higher risk of asthma. Limited evidence does not suggest associations between 1) never versus ever being fed human milk and atopic dermatitis in childhood or 2) the duration of any human milk feeding and allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis in childhood.

Conclusions: Moderate evidence suggests that feeding human milk for short durations or not at all is associated with higher childhood asthma risk. Evidence on food allergies, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis is limited.

Keywords: allergic rhinitis; asthma; atopic dermatitis; breastfeeding; child; food allergy; human milk; infant; systematic review; toddler.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Systematic Review

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Asthma* / etiology
Asthma* / prevention & control
Breast Feeding
Child
Dermatitis, Atopic* / etiology
Dermatitis, Atopic* / prevention & control
Diet
Feeding Behavior*
Food Hypersensitivity* / etiology
Food Hypersensitivity* / prevention & control
Humans
Infant
Infant Formula*
Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
Infant, Newborn
Milk, Human*
Rhinitis, Allergic* / etiology
Rhinitis, Allergic* / prevention & control