Breastfeeding benefits include less risk for eye problems in premature babies: study

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Breastfeeding brings a plethora of health benefits, and the American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement about breastfeeding outlines these health benefits for both mother and child. While breastfeeding is known to help decrease the risk for a baby to get infected with illnesses, a new study published in the journal Pediatrics reveals that breastfeeding a premature baby may help decrease the risk of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).

Healthday reports that researchers from China, Canada, and the United Kingdom have found that premature babies who were fed breastmilk exclusively had a 75-percent lower rate of developing ROP, and the risk for severe ROP was reduced by 90 percent.

Retinopathy of prematurity is defined by the National Eye Institute as "a potentially blinding eye disorder that primarily affects premature infants weighing about 2¾ pounds (1250 grams) or less that are born before 31 weeks of gestation". Additionally, the NEI says that the smaller the baby at birth, the higher the risk for developing ROP.

For the study, researchers analyzed five studies from 2001 to 2003 and found that premature babies who were fed breast milk from their mothers had 46 to 90 percent less at risk for developing ROP, depending on how much breastmilk they consumed and how severe the ROP was.

Researchers looked at results of 2,208 preterm babies and checked if they were fed exclusively human milk, any human milk, mostly human milk (over 50 percent), exclusive formula, any formula, or more formula milk. Those who received only breast milk had an 89 percent less risk of severe ROP compared to their counterparts who received any formula.

"Human milk feeding potentially plays a strong role in protecting very preterm newborns from any-stage ROP and severe ROP," the study authors wrote.

"It makes sense that human milk can be protective against retinopathy of prematurity because we know it's protective against abnormal neurological outcomes in tiny babies," neonatologist and member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Breastfeeding Executive Committee Susan Landers told NPR. "Retinal tissue is just like neural tissue embryologically; it grows from the same immature cells."

However, the study was observational, so a cause and effect link between breastmilk and the lowered risk could not be shown.

According to University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine associate professor of pediatrics and neonatology Tarah Colaizy, "Breast milk, specifically maternal breast milk, has been shown to be associated with reduced risk of many severe complications of prematurity, including a severe gastrointestinal disease called necrotizing enterocolitis."

"It has also been shown to decrease the risk of potentially life-threatening blood infections, and there is some evidence that the severity of lung disease due to prematurity is reduced in infants fed maternal milk," she commented.

Lead study author Dr. Jianguo Zhou wrote in the study, "Theoretically, exclusive human milk feeding could potentially prevent 8 percent (160,000) very preterm infants from severe ROP globally. That is an enormous influence and prevents thousands of preterm infants from blindness or visual impairment."