Breastfeeding does not protect against urinary tract infection in the first 3 months of life, but vitamin D supplementation increases the risk by 76%.
Our goal was to determine if breastfeeding provides any protection against urinary tract infection (UTI) and if vitamin D supplementation imposes any additional risks for UTI in infants < 3 months of age. In this study, 40% of the children who had urine cultures were breastfed, and 18.7% of the children were exclusively breastfed. Twenty percent of all of the urine cultures tested positive, and this number was greater in females (22.5%) than in males (18.1%, P < .05). There was no significant difference between the rates of positive urine cultures in exclusively breastfed (22% vs 21%, nonsignificant [NS]) formula-fed infants. The relative risk of UTI with breastfeeding versus formula feeding was 1.03 (0.58-1.82), and any breastfeeding versus no breastfeeding was 0.92 (0.58-1.45). Vitamin D supplementation increased the UTI risk, with a relative risk of 1.76 (1.07-2.91, P < .05). However, only formula-fed infants showed an increased risk of UTI after vitamin D supplementation.
Katikaneni
Ranjitha
R
Pediatric Endocrinology Research Laboratory, Ochsner Clinic Foundation, New Orleans, Louisiana 70121, USA.
Ponnapakkam
Tulasi
T
Ponnapakkam
Adharsh
A
Gensure
Robert
R
D001903:Bottle Feeding; D001942:Breast Feeding; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012306:Risk; D012737:Sex Factors; D014552:Urinary Tract Infections / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014807:Vitamin D / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014815:Vitamins / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D014815:Vitamins; D014807:Vitamin D