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- Published on: 12 June 2021
- Published on: 12 June 2021Breastfeeding and CMV infection -risks and benefits for the very premature babies
CMV exposure of breast milk fed infants from seropositive mothers is a well known phenomenon. Patel et al. excellent research has shed a very important and troubling consequence of this infection on very low birth premature babies. Yet, some of the information needed for decision making and recommendations is lacking from the published data. From the data we see that 17% (76 of 457 infants) of seropositive mothers decided not to give there babies any breast milk in contrast to 0% ! of seronegative mothers. I think that in order to make a proper decision we need to compare the incidence of Necrotizing Enterocolitis and other complications of prematurity between this group of exclusively formula fed babies and CMV infected babies. Although the numbers may not be sufficient for statistical analysis we might benefit as caregivers from this important information.
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