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No protective effect of breastfeeding on inhibitor formation in severe hemophilia.

Jansen IM, Fischer K, Van Der Bom JG, Van Den Berg HM

Van Creveldkliniek, Dutch National Haemophilia Treatment Centre, UMC Utrecht, The Netherlands.

It has been suggested that breastfeeding may prevent inhibitor formation in patients with hemophilia. In a single-center retrospective cohort study, the authors studied the association between breastfeeding and inhibitor development in 90 severe hemophilia A patients born 1975-2003. Mean follow-up was 13.2 years (standard deviation 8.7). A total of 62% of patients received breastfeeding and 20% developed inhibitors. The inhibitor rate according to breastfeeding was similar: 21% in patients who were breastfed and 18% in others. Patients who were breastfed received their first treatment 0.3 years earlier. After adjustment for age at first treatment, we found no protective effect of breastfeeding on inhibitor formation.

Published 16 September 2005 in Pediatr Hematol Oncol, 22(7): 575-80.
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