Put breast milk in baby's eyes: Don't arbitrarily

This is an automatically translated article.

The article is professionally consulted with Master, Doctor Phan Ngoc Hai - Department of Pediatrics - Neonatology - Vinmec International General Hospital Da Nang. Dr. Hai used to work at the Neonatology Department of Da Nang Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital and Hoan My Da Nang Hospital. His strength is in general pediatric examination and treatment, neonatal examination and treatment, pediatric resuscitation.
Breast milk not only provides optimal nutrition for infants and young children, but also provides protective immunity that no other product can replace. There are many mothers who believe that instilling breast milk in the eyes is an effective treatment for eye infections such as conjunctivitis. The oral evidence for this use of breast milk is overwhelming, but there is no scientific proof yet.

1. What is conjunctivitis?

Conjunctivitis is inflammation with or without swelling of the membrane lining the inside of the eye. Symptoms include swelling and redness of the eye. The primary cause of conjunctivitis is a viral infection, also known as pink eye. Pink eye is highly contagious and often causes epidemics in schools.
Viral conjunctivitis usually goes away on its own without any treatment. Bacterial conjunctivitis is less common and is usually treated with antibiotic eye drops. In addition, conjunctivitis in young children can be caused by allergies or irritation from other external agents (maybe shampoo).

2. Are there any studies on breast milk and eye infections?

A few studies have been implicated in this issue, but all have focused on eye infections and lacrimal gland blockages in neonates, but there have been no direct studies of breast milk instillation in the treatment of conjunctivitis in children. young .
Note that colostrum has been used in the studies below. Colostrum is the first milk produced within a few days of birth. Colostrum contains more antibodies.
Study 1: conducted in India. 51 infants received colostrum instillation for 3 days compared with a control group of 72 other infants who did not receive any treatment. There were 35% of children in the control group and 6% of children in the colostrum subgroup who had eye infections during the experiment. At first glance, it seems that colostrum is superior in its ability to prevent eye infections in infants. However, this study has many design problems.
In the 4 years prior to the study, only about 5% of the hospital had conjunctivitis. So why is the rate of eye infection in the control group up to 35%? That is not transparent at all. The group of children who received colostrum instilled in their eyes was arranged in the southern wing of the hospital and most were delivered by caesarean section. The control group was placed in the northern wing and the majority were delivered vaginally. On the other hand, research has not shown it is safe to put colostrum in the eyes of infants.
Study 2: was an in vitro study of eye infections in 22 Nigerian neonates. The infected baby's eyes are wiped with gauze, and the bacteria on the gauze are added to various antibiotics or colostrum or mature breast milk. The main bacteria found in the study were staphylococcus and enteric bacilli. The diagram below shows the susceptibility of bacteria to the three main antibiotics, colostrum and mature breast milk.

For example, staphylococcus is 100% inhibited by Gentamicin, 50% by colostrum and not inhibited by normal breast milk. What does research show us? The effectiveness of breast milk in treating eye infections depends on the type of bacteria, and colostrum is more effective. However, the study only focused on two types of bacteria, although there are many causes of eye infections, and the study did not focus on viral infections. Furthermore, this is an in vitro study, that is, a laboratory study because bacteria will grow completely differently on a slide than on a child's eyes.
Study 3: 1 small retrospective study performed in Spain, comparing breast milk instillation and antibiotic instillation in neonatal lacrimal occlusion. The results showed that tear duct obstruction resolved faster in the breast milk subgroup than in the antibiotic subgroup.

3. Can breast milk treat eye infections in babies?

There is insufficient evidence that breast milk is effective in treating eye infections in young children. The studies above show that breast milk appears to be safe and effective in bacterial eye infections and blocked tear ducts. And instilling colostrum into the eyes has a superior effect than that of mature breast milk. However, the children in the above studies were neonates, there were no studies in older children and the in vitro studies were significantly different from the in vivo studies performed on humans.
In addition, most conjunctivitis in children is viral conjunctivitis, which usually clears up on its own within a week without any treatment. There are no studies on instillation of milk into the eyes of infants outside of infancy, no studies in viral conjunctivitis.
If your child has an eye infection, you should take him or her to see your pediatrician or eye specialist right away. With neonatal conjunctivitis can lead to severe eye damage, including blindness.
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Article reference source: scienceofmom.com