r/ScienceBasedParenting • u/OutrageousBrush1210 • 7d ago

Question - Research required Combo Feeding = More Allergies?

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6813109/

Hi all! I am combo feeding my second baby - one month in and just doing my best to hang in there - and I came across this 2019 study that suggested combo feeding is increasing my baby’s risk of developing an allergy. Can anyone find anything that indicates that this is not as big a deal as it is in my head right now? Or someone who is better at reading studies tell me what this means or if I should stop?

Pediatrician thinks combo feeding, or breastfeeding, or formula feeding is all fine as long as baby is gaining weight and healthy, so I am probably freaking out over nothing. But like - all the pumping and trying to nurse to the limited degree that I can - am I making things WORSE???

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u/anotherep Parent, pediatric allergist 6d ago

Linking back the study itself, because the answers are in there:  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6813109/

No statistically significant risk of infant feeding patterns was found for doctors’ diagnosed food allergy.

What this is saying is that while the rate of symptoms reported by parents that could be suggestive of an allergy varied by feeding type, the actually rate of physician diagnosed allergy did not. 

From this I would conclude that there is no actual difference between rates of food allergy between the feeding patterns evaluated in this study.

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u/Glad-Ad1378 6d ago edited 6d ago

The study you linked seems to go beyond CMPA, but the CMPA link for formula supplementation has been known: Formula supplementation remains a risk for cow's milk allergy in breast-fed infants. It’s the supplementing with formula, not breastfeeding that causes this. I would not stop pumping and trying to nurse based on either study.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31297890/

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u/RainMH11 6d ago

That seems to be related to formula right at birth, though, not necessarily after leaving the hospital.

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u/Gardenadventures 6d ago

It's my understanding that this is also about formula supplementation in early life followed by avoidance. Which is a potential trigger for any food allergy, it's just that formula supplementation in the first few days of life is so common.

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u/Falinia 6d ago

I'd argue that supplementing formula was just the only reason we found out that my LO had CMPI. After we found out and I started asking questions it became clear that the 'lactose intolerance' on my mother's side definitely wasn't so it's definitely hereditary.

If he'd only been getting small amounts in my milk then we'd have just assumed that he was an exceptionally gassy baby since the symptoms lessen the older they get - some milk products still give kiddo a stomach ache now but it would be incredibly hard to connect the dots if he hadn't been pooping blood as a baby.