Versus Artificially Fed Infants Cadmium Level in Breast Fed

Abstract

There is widespread environmental contamination with cadmium (Cd) thus it has become a more prevalent cause for concern in the recent years. Human exposure to Cd is through air, water and food. Daily Cd exposure ranges from 25 to more than 200 ug mostly from food. As milk is regarded to be one of the routes of excretion of heavy metals that have entered the body of nursing mothers, it's evidenced to be a source of potential risk to breast fed infants of mothers highly exposed environmentally or occupationally to Cd. However, • all heavy metals are more likely to affect bottle-fed infants, as they are water contaminants or contaminants in infant formula. In the present study we tried to evaluate the breast milk as a mean of transmission of Cd to breast fed infants in comparison to formula fed ones. We also tried to illustrate factors affecting the serum Cd level in both studied groups of infants. This study was conducted on 50 infants, 3-18 months old, recruited from the pediatric hospital, Ain Shams University in the period from January to April, 2002. Twenty five of the studied infants were breast fed, and twenty five were artificially fed. Both groups were age and sex matched. After taking verbal consent from the parents, their infants were subjected to: I. Detailed history taking laying stress on the nutritional history of both mother and infant, exposure to passive cigarette smoking, and history of respiratory problems.