Infant Feeding Regimens and Gastrointestinal Tolerance: A Multicenter, Prospective, Observational Cohort Study in China

• Main Authors: Meng Mao MD (Author), Lan Zhang MD (Author), John Ge MD (Author), Jian Yan PhD (Author), Robert Northington PhD (Author), Manjiang Yao MD, PhD (Author), Joyce Nowacki MS, RD (Author), Nicholas P. Hays PhD (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: SAGE Publishing, 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.

Summary

To study feeding tolerance in infants fed formula with increased sn -2 palmitate and oligofructose ( sn -2+OF) in a real-world setting, healthy Chinese infants were enrolled in this 48-day observational study on their current feeding regimens: exclusively breastfed (BF; n = 147), exclusively sn -2+OF formula-fed (FF; n = 150), or mixed-fed with breast milk and sn -2+OF formula (MF; n = 163). Throughout the study, incidence (90% confidence interval) of hard stools was ≤2.1% (0.0-5.3) in FF and 0.8% (0.0-3.5) in MF, with no hard stools in BF. Incidence of watery stools was ≤5.0% (1.0-9.2) in FF and ≥5.1% (2.4-9.3) in MF and BF. Gastrointestinal tolerance scores, although low in all groups (lower scores indicating better tolerance), were slightly higher ( P ≥ .03) in FF (17.5 ± 4.8) and MF (18.2 ± 5.0) versus BF (16.3 ± 3.2) at mid-study; this difference disappeared at study end. Overall, low incidences of hard and watery stools and good feeding tolerance were observed in infants fed sn -2+OF formula.

Item Description

2333-794X
10.1177/2333794X17750271