Tropical Doctor > Volume 38, Number 4 > Pp. 235-236

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Does breast feeding provide protection against acute appendicitis? A case-control study

João Guilherme Bezerra Alves MD PhD      José Natal Figueiroa BSc MSc     Isabela Barros

Instituto Materno Infantil Prof. Fernando Figueira (IMIP), Escola Pernambucana de Medicina (Faculdade Boa Viagem – FBV/IMIP), Recife, Brazil

Correspondence to: João Guilherme Bezerra Alves, Instituto Materno Infantil Prof. Fernando Figueira (IMIP), Rua dos Coelhos, 300, Boa Vista, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil, CEP: 50.070-550 Email: joaoguilherme{at}imip.org.br

Breast feeding stimulates a more tolerant lymphoid tissue at the base of the appendix and this could provide protection against acute appendicitis. Two studies reported that children and adolescents with appendicitis were less likely to have been breast fed. In a case-control study of 200 children with histologically confirmed acute appendicitis matched by 200 siblings with the same sex and difference age – up to three-year-old – we found breast feeding in at least the first two months of life and for more than four months provides protection against acute appendicitis. These findings suggesting that breast feeding may possibly give protection against the development of appendicitis.

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