Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute; Department of Maternal and Child Health, Gillings School of Global Public Health, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA.
Curr Allergy Asthma Rep. 2011 Dec;11(6):508-12. doi: 10.1007/s11882-011-0218-3.
Human milk provides infants with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory agents that contribute to optimal immune system function. The act of breastfeeding allows important bacterial and hormonal interactions between the mother and baby and impacts the mouth, tongue, swallow, and eustachian tubes. Previous meta-analyses have shown that lack of breastfeeding and less intensive patterns of breastfeeding are associated with increased risk of acute otitis media, one of the most common infections of childhood. A review of epidemiologic studies indicates that the introduction of infant formula in the first 6 months of life is associated with increased incidence of acute otitis media in early-childhood. More recent research raises the issues of how long this increased risk persists, and whether lack of breastfeeding is associated with diagnosis of otitis media with effusion. However, many studies suffer from lack of study of younger populations and imprecise definitions of infant feeding patterns. These findings suggest that measures of the association between breastfeeding history and otitis media risk are sensitive to the definition of breastfeeding used; future research is needed with more precise and consistent definitions of feeding, with attention to distinctions between direct breastfeeding and human milk feeding by bottle.
母乳为婴儿提供了抗菌、抗炎和免疫调节因子，有助于其免疫系统的最佳功能。母乳喂养的行为使母亲和婴儿之间产生了重要的细菌和激素相互作用，并影响口腔、舌头、吞咽和咽鼓管。先前的荟萃分析表明，母乳喂养的缺乏和母乳喂养模式不够密集与急性中耳炎风险的增加有关，急性中耳炎是儿童中最常见的感染之一。对流行病学研究的综述表明，婴儿配方奶粉在生命的头 6 个月内的引入与幼儿期急性中耳炎的发病率增加有关。最近的研究提出了这样的问题，即这种风险增加会持续多久，以及母乳喂养的缺乏是否与分泌性中耳炎的诊断有关。然而，许多研究都缺乏对年轻人群的研究，并且对婴儿喂养模式的定义不够精确。这些发现表明，母乳喂养史与中耳炎风险之间关联的测量结果对所使用的母乳喂养定义敏感；需要进行更多的研究，使用更精确和一致的喂养定义，并注意直接母乳喂养和奶瓶喂养母乳之间的区别。
