Effect of Breast-Feeding on the Development of Atopic Dermatitis

Atopy can be defined as the genetically determined risk to develop allergic disease.avoidance of one specific allergen may decrease the risk for sensitization against thisallergen, but it will not affect atopy. our aim was to investigate if exclusive breastfeedingis associated with atopic dermatitis during the first 5 years of life.data on 200 children were taken from parental-administered questionnaires from acase control study in birjand - iran (recruited 2003) comprised of a case (100 childrenwith atopic dermatitis) and a control (100 normal children) subgroup. outcomes werephysician-diagnosed atopic dermatitis (ad) and itchy rash. data were analyzed byusing spss package, chi square and exact fisher tests.thirty-four of the case and 50 of control group were exclusively breast-fed, whereas6 of the case and 2 of control group were exclusively cow milk-fed. these differenceswere statistically significant. (p<0.05)duration of breast-feeding in case and control group was different. thesedifferences were statistically significant (p<0.001).duration of cow’s milk formula feeding in case and control group was different, butthese differences were not statistically significant. (p=0.6) positive family history ofallergy in case and control group was 63% and 23% respectively and this differencewas statistically significant (p<0.001).these findings support the hypothesis that exclusive breast-feeding is a protectivefactor for development of atopic dermatitis if compared with conventional cow's milkformula.