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The Effect of Breastfeeding on Childhood Otitis Media

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Breastfeeding and Metabolic Programming

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Abstract

Throughout history, breastfeeding has been the obvious and natural way for mothers to feed their infants. Despite the widespread availability of alternatives to mothers breastfeeding their own offspring, in every culture and country the option to breastfeed remains a significant method for the nutrition of neonates. Breastfeeding, however, like other cultural practices, has waxed and waned over the years. Three hundred years ago, the infants born to mothers of high social class tended to be breastfed by wet nurses, and this trend then spread towards members of lower socioeconomic groups over the next 200 years [1, 2]. The trend in the twentieth century was towards fewer mothers breastfeeding infants, from a peak of around 90% to the current rate of 42%. Unlike many determinants of health, where less healthy practices are more common amongst lower income groups, breastfeeding is actually more prevalent in societies which are poorer overall. The decline in breastfeeding comes despite the accumulating evidence that breast milk has numerous advantages over artificial baby milk, such as providing immunity against frequently occurring pathogens encountered in infancy [3, 4].

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Faculty, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Istanbul Altinbas University, İstanbul, Türkiye

    Muhammet Pamukcu

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Kırıkkale University, Kırıkkale, Türkiye

    Nuray Bayar Muluk

  3. School of Medicine, St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Department of Otolaryngology, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA

    Peter Catalano

Authors
  1. Muhammet Pamukcu
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  2. Nuray Bayar Muluk
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  3. Peter Catalano
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child Health and Diseases, Arel University, Medical Faculty, Istanbul, Türkiye

    Özlem Naciye Şahin

  2. Pediatrics Department, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Despina D. Briana

  3. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Perugia, Perugia, Perugia, Italy

    Gian Carlo Di Renzo

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Pamukcu, M., Muluk, N.B., Catalano, P. (2023). The Effect of Breastfeeding on Childhood Otitis Media. In: Şahin, Ö.N., Briana, D.D., Di Renzo, G.C. (eds) Breastfeeding and Metabolic Programming. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33278-4_49

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33278-4_49

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-33277-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-33278-4

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