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689 BREAST FEEDING AND PREVENTION OF ATOPIC ECZEMA

The offspring of parents suffering from atopic disease are at higher risk of developing eczema, asthma and other manifestations of allergy compared with children of non-atopic parents. In a group of 31 such “high risk” neonates, breast feeding was employed as the exclusive form of infant feeding for the first 8 weeks or longer after birth. Followup for 12 to 36 months (mean 20.6 months) showed the development of clinical eczema in 4, compared with 19 of 31 matched controls fed cow's milk formula. Serum IgE concentration at one year of age was elevated in the artificially fed (121 ± 39 IU/ml) and normal in the breast fed (17 ± 8 IU/ml). The incidence of positive radioallergosorbent test for IgE antibodies to cow's milk, complement activation in vivo after challenge with cow's milk, and of respiratory disease characterized by bronchospasm, was higher in the cow's milk fed group. These data confirm the positive beneficial effect of breast feeding in the prevention of atopic disease in early childhood.