The breastfeeding as a protection factor to allergy to cow milk protein in childhood: what the scientific evidences say?

Abstract

Objective: To investigate what say the scientific evidences about the breastfeeding as a protection factor to cow’s milk protein allergy (CMPA) in childhood. Methods: Integrative literature review. Were selected 7 articles, consulted using the Health Sciences Descriptors “risk factors, allergy and breast-milk substitutes”, which were combined using the Boolean operator AND. The inclusion criteria were publications the past 5 years in English, Portuguese and Spanish. Were excluded the repeated articles and those with didn’t answer the research question. Results: All the articles consulted pointed to breastfeeding as a way to prevent allergies, characterizing the breast milk as the most adequate aliment in the CMPA prevention. In light of this, maintenance time of exclusive breastfeeding was characterized as statistically significant to occurrence of CMPA and the breast milk as protection factor against allergies, among which the CMPA. Final considerations: Considering that the CMPA is the most common allergy in childhood, with a lot of manifestations that compromise the health and the life quality of child, it’s necessary to foster this practice as form to promote the child health.