Four in 10 Babies Given Solid Foods Too Early, Study Finds

Title: Four in 10 Babies Given Solid Foods Too Early, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 3/25/2013 10:35:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 3/25/2013 12:00:00 AM

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A Little Formula Might Help Breast-Feeding for Some Babies

Early study looked at newborns who were losing weight

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, May 13 (HealthDay News) -- Giving small amounts of infant formula to newborns who experience significant weight loss can increase the length of time that they are breast-fed, according to a new study.

New mothers do not immediately produce high volumes of milk and their babies can lose weight during this period, said the researchers from the University of California, San Francisco.

"Many mothers develop concerns about their milk supply, which is the most common reason they stop breast-feeding in the first three months," study author Dr. Valerie Flaherman, an assistant professor of pediatrics and epidemiology and biostatistics, said in a university news release.

"But this study suggests that giving those babies a little early formula may ease those concerns and enable them to feel confident continuing to breast-feed," added Flaherman, who also is a pediatrician at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital.

Flaherman and her colleagues looked at 40 full-term newborns between 24 and 48 hours old who had lost more than 5 percent of their birth weight. Some babies received early limited formula consisting of one-third of an ounce of infant formula by syringe after each breast-feeding session. The babies stopped receiving the formula when their mothers began producing adequate volumes of milk, about two to five days after birth.

The babies in the early-limited-formula group were compared to a control group of infants whose mothers tried to breast-feed only.

After one week, all the babies in both groups were still breast-feeding, but only 10 percent of those in the early-limited-formula group had received formula in the past 24 hours, compared with 47 percent of those in the control group.

After three months, 79 percent of the babies in the early-limited-formula group were still breast-feeding, compared with 42 percent of those in the control group, according to the study, published online May 13 and in an upcoming print issue of the journal Pediatrics.

The researchers said their findings need to be confirmed in larger studies, a point also made by an expert who wasn't involved in the study.

"The results of this study are provocative and challenge conventional wisdom," Dr. James Taylor, medical director for the University of Washington Medical Center's Newborn Nursery, said in the news release.

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Early Exposure to Gluten May Help Babies Avoid Celiac Risk: Study

By Kathleen Doheny

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Feb. 19 (HealthDay News) -- Modifying an infant's diet to include the protein gluten while the mother is still breast-feeding could lower the risk of celiac disease, a common intestinal disorder, according to a new Swedish study.

That finding may sound counterintuitive, because celiac disease is a condition in which the lining of the small intestine is damaged by gluten-containing foods.

However, the researchers who conducted the study speculate that there may be a window of opportunity in which an infant can develop tolerance to the protein to possibly escape getting the disease.

"We now have proven this way of introducing gluten reduces the risk of getting celiac disease," said Dr. Anneli Ivarsson, a pediatrician at Umea University in Umea, and lead author of the study published online Feb. 18 and in the March print issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Gluten refers to proteins found in specific grains, including all forms of wheat and related grains such as barley and rye, according to the Celiac Disease Foundation.

Celiac disease affects about 1 percent of the population, according to Ivarsson. Genetic susceptibility plays a role. For those affected, a life-long gluten-free diet is advised.

Ivarsson and her team compared two groups of Swedish children: one born in 1993, during a time when the diagnosis of celiac disease increased four-fold, and the other group born in 1997, when it declined about the same amount. The children born later had a 25 percent lower risk of having celiac disease than those born earlier, they found.

"That's quite a lot," Ivarsson said.

While 2.9 percent of those in the earlier born group had the disease, 2.2 percent of those in the later-born group did.

The beginning and the end of the period in which the celiac disease diagnoses rose were both marked by changes in recommended feeding of infants, including the best age to introduce gluten-containing foods, the researchers noted.

In 1982, experts recommended that gluten-containing foods not be given until an infant was 6 months old. In 1996, the experts recommended that gluten be introduced from 4 months on.

Experts know that a baby develops what they call oral tolerance to an antigen (a substance that produces protective antibodies) early in life. Celiac disease ''can be viewed as a failure to develop oral tolerance to gluten, or a later loss of this tolerance," Ivarsson wrote in her report.

In her study, babies born in the later group, who were introduced to gluten-containing foods at 4 months on, were less likely to develop celiac disease.

"We can't prove there is a window of opportunity" for developing tolerance, Ivarsson said, but that is one speculation.

The findings suggest -- but don't prove -- that gradually introducing gluten-containing foods in small amounts from 4 months of age, ideally while breast-feeding is ongoing, may protect against celiac disease.

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Caffeine Linked to Low-Birth-Weight Babies

Feb. 19, 2013 -- New research suggests that caffeine is linked to low-birth-weight babies and that drinking coffee is linked to a longer pregnancy.

The report suggests that drinking 200-300 milligrams of caffeine per day raised the risk of a baby being born small by between 27% and 62%.

Smaller babies have higher risks of certain health problems, and the researchers say recommendations on safe limits need to be reconsidered.

Everything the mom-to-be eats and drinks potentially gets through to the growing baby. That's why health organizations set recommendations for limits on things like alcohol and caffeine in pregnancy.

Along with nutrients and oxygen, caffeine passes from the placenta to the baby. However, the effect isn't the same on a baby as it is in adults.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends limiting caffeine to 200 milligrams per day. That’s equal to two 8-ounce cups of brewed coffee. Caffeine levels may be stronger in coffee bought at a coffee house.

Caffeine is also found in tea, colas, energy drinks, and chocolate.

For the new research, published in the journal BMC Medicine, researchers looked at information about diets and birth details of about 60,000 pregnancies over 10 years.

All sources of caffeine were monitored in the study.

In a news release, researcher Verena Sengpiel, MD, from Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Sweden, says, "In this study we found no association between either total caffeine or coffee caffeine and preterm delivery, but we did find an association between caffeine and SGA [small for gestational age]."

The source of caffeine also seemed to make a difference. Women who daily had 100 milligrams of caffeine in general increased the length of their pregnancy by five hours. However, caffeine from coffee was found to add eight hours overall from drinking 100 milligrams a day.

Sengpiel says the study shows that the guidelines should be looked at again.

So what should a coffee-loving pregnant woman with concerns do?

"Good advice would be to keep it to a minimum,” says Pat O’Brien, MD, a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in the U.K. “One or a maximum of two cups a day."

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'Bilingual Babies' Can Tell Languages Apart

Title: 'Bilingual Babies' Can Tell Languages Apart
Category: Health News
Created: 2/14/2013 12:35:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 2/15/2013 12:00:00 AM

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Obese Black Women at Higher Risk for Having Very Large Babies

Title: Obese Black Women at Higher Risk for Having Very Large Babies
Category: Health News
Created: 2/14/2013 2:36:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 2/15/2013 12:00:00 AM

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C-Section, Formula May Disrupt 'Good' Gut Bacteria in Babies

Title: C-Section, Formula May Disrupt 'Good' Gut Bacteria in Babies
Category: Health News
Created: 2/11/2013 12:35:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 2/12/2013 12:00:00 AM

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C-Section, Formula May Disrupt 'Good' Gut Bacteria in Babies

By Amanda Gardner

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Feb. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Being born by cesarean section has been tied to higher risks for various health problems in children, and now a new study finds these babies also have fewer "good" bacteria in their digestive tract.

Similarly, babies who were exclusively or even partially formula-fed rather than breast-fed also had markedly different gut flora than babies who were breast-fed, according to the study appearing in the Feb. 11 issue of the CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

"Since other [researchers] have found associations between cesarean section delivery or formula-feeding and infant gut changes and conditions like allergy [and] asthma, we speculate that our observations may lead to poor health in later life," said study senior author Anita Kozyrskyj.

The findings support current clinical practice guidelines which favor vaginal delivery whenever possible, added Kozyrskyj, who is research chair and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton.

About a third of all U.S. births occur by C-section, a number considered by many to be far too high and potentially harmful to both the child and the mother.

Vaginal delivery, among other advantages, fosters the growth of trillions of good bacteria that reside peacefully in the human body (collectively know as a person's microbiome), many of them in the intestine.

Meanwhile, C-sections interfere with the newborn's exposure to bacteria in the vaginal tract, bacteria that essentially trains the immune system to react appropriately to future events, according to study background information.

Mothers who have C-sections also tend to start breast-feeding later and require antibiotics, both of which could also affect the baby's microbiome.

In the new study, researchers analyzed DNA from fecal samples taken from 24 healthy infants in four Canadian provinces at 4 months of age.

Compared with children who had been born vaginally, children who had been delivered by C-section had less diverse flora, lower levels of Shigella bacteria and none of the bacteria known as Bacteroides at all.

"Shigella and Bacteroides are organisms picked up from mom and considered first colonizers," Kozyrskyj explained. "They lay the foundation for further microbes that become part of our normal microbiome."

Meanwhile, infants who were fed formula as opposed to breast milk also had less diverse flora and, in addition, had more of the bacteria Clostridium difficile, which had been associated with the development of allergies.

The study was a small one, but the researchers have collected fecal samples on 200 children and will be analyzing those in the future. They hope to eventually enroll 2,500 children in the study.

It's too soon to say definitively that the changes in the gut microbiome of children born by C-section will develop health problems. And it's possible that changes in the bacterial composition of the intestine as people age will compensate for diminished levels of bacteria in newborns, Kozyrskyj added.

A pediatric expert praised the new study.

"This is an important first step to make an association between intestinal bacteria and mode of delivery and type of feeding," said Dr. Michael Morowitz, a pediatric surgeon with Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Although follow-up studies will be needed, Morowitz added, "This is the latest piece of pretty convincing evidence that determinants very, very early in life can have an impact that lasts for months or years."

More information

Visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health for more on the Human Microbiome Project.

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Babies Listen and Learn While in the Womb

Jan. 3, 2013 -- Sometimes she just tells him about her day. Other times, Ruthie W. rubs her pregnant belly and tells her future son that she can’t wait to meet him (which should be any day now).

And a new study shows that he not only hears his mom, but may understand her and is already learning language from her. 

“I talk to him all the time, even when I am in stores shopping for a layette and other things we will need once he is born,” says the New York City-based cosmetic executive. “People probably think I am crazy if they overhear me!”

Far from it.

In fact, she is giving her son a foundation for language development.

The new research suggests that babies began to absorb language when they are inside the womb during the last 10 weeks of pregnancy -- which is earlier than previously held. Newborns can actually tell the difference between their mother’s native tongue and foreign languages just hours after they are born.

“The main message for new moms is that their babies are listening and learning and remembering during the last stages of pregnancy. Their brains do not wait for birth to start absorbing information,” says study author Patricia K. Kuhl, PhD. She is the Bezos Family Foundation endowed chair in early childhood learning and a professor of speech and hearing sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle.

How can researchers tell?

Kuhl and colleagues used a high-tech pacifier that was connected to a computer that measured infants' reactions to sounds. The study included 80 infants who were, on average, about 30 hours old and from Tacoma, Wash., and Stockholm, Sweden. They listened to vowel sounds in their native language and a foreign tongue while sucking on the pacifier. 

Vowels are the loudest units in speech. The number of times they suck on the pacifier indicates which vowel sounds attracted their attention. Babies sucked longer for foreign languages than their native tongue in both countries, the study showed.

“The mother's voice can be heard because it is amplified by her body," Kuhl says.  

Sorry, Dad. The father's voice cannot be heard in the womb, she says.  

“Mothers shouldn't try putting earphones on their bellies and playing music because it's already noisy in there,” she says. “Learning the mother's voice and her vowels happens naturally as the mothers speak,” she says.  

“Expectant moms should have confidence that their developing baby is making sense out of the sounds that she is providing for the baby,” says another study author, Christine Moon, PhD. She is a psychologist at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. “This is how we launch off into language.”

The sound of their mom’s voice is also associated with movement. “The mom moves when she talks, and her diaphragm is moving when she talks, and we think that this pairing may be useful and may help make the sound more salient."

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