Review of Breastfeeding on Hypothyroidism in Infants and Early Childhood

Introduction: deficiency of thyroid hormones at any time from the first weeks of life to twoyears after birth can impair the growth and activity of brain cells and affect brain function andintelligence. numerous pieces of evidence show the benefits of breastfeeding in theprevention of many medical conditions for the child. while congenital hypothyroidism islinked to prenatal circumstances, mostly related to maternal factors, later hypothyroiddiseases in infants might be associated with the nutritional status of the newborn. in thisstudy, we reviewed different aspects of breastfeeding or formula feeding concerninghypothyroidism in early childhood.methods: this was a narrative review study.results: our review abstracted the link between breastfeeding with hypothyroidism in threemain topics of (i) iodine concentrations of the maternal milk and hypothyroidism in the infant;(ii) comparison of breastfeeding and bottle feeding for incidence of hypothyroidism or thyroidautoimmunity; and (iii) role of breastfeeding in treatment of the congenital hypothyroidism.conclusion: our study discussed the gain-a victory benefits of breastfeeding over theformulas and disadvantages of the soy-based formulas. in case of indications of formulanutrition in infants, iodine intake and supplementation should be considered.