Influence of fatty diet on neonatal jaundice in breast-fed infants

Breast milk jaundice and maternal diet with chinese herbal medicines

Our objective was to identify the association between maternal diet with Chinese herbal medicines and prolonged jaundice of breast-fed infants. Healthy infants at 25 to 45 days of age were eligible for enrollment into this prospective study. Jaundice was defined as a transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) value ≥ 5 mg/dL. A questionnaire survey asking feeding type, stool pattern, and maternal diet was conducted at the time of TcB measurement. A total of 1148 infants were enrolled, including 151 formula-fed, 436 combination-fed, and 561 breast-fed infants. The incidences of jaundice were 4.0% in formula-fed infants, 15.1% in combination-fed infants, and 39.8% in breast-fed infants (P < 0.001). In addition, jaundice was noted in 37.1% of preterm infants and 25.0% of term infants (P < 0.001). Furthermore, jaundice was more common in breast-fed infants whose mothers did not consume the traditional Chinese herbal medicines than in breast-fed infants whose mothers did consume such medicines (P < 0.001). In conclusion, this cohort study has identified late-preterm birth and breast feeding as the contributory factors for prolonged jaundice of apparently well infants. The data indicate that postpartum diet with Chinese herbal medicines is associated with breast milk jaundice.

Correlation between unconjugated bilirubin and total cholesterol in the sera of 1-month-old infants

AIM

To investigate why breastfed infants are more likely to have prolonged jaundice than formula-fed infants.

METHODS

Serum unconjugated bilirubin (UCB), total cholesterol (TC) and triglyceride (TG) were measured for 102 infants of 1 month. Enrolled infants were 42 breastfed, 40 mixed-fed and 20 bottle-fed infants. Statistic analyses for relationship among UCB, TC, TG, perinatal factors and post-natal factors were performed for these infants.

RESULTS

In correlation analyses UCB was correlated with peak transcutaneous bilirubin value in neonatal period (TcBn) (r = 0.612, P < 0.0001) and with TC (r = 0.383, P < 0.0001). When analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) for UCB were performed using TcBn as the covariate, the results indicated that there was neither significant main nor interaction effect of feeding method on UCB, and that main and interaction effects of TC on UCB were significant when TC was categorised into two groups (≤150 mg/dL and >150 mg/dL).

CONCLUSIONS

It is suggested that both neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and subsequent higher plasma TC are associated factors for prolonged jaundice.