Literature review for - Flourish Paediatrics

26 OPTIMISING BREASTFEEDING OUTCOMES (U1.7)
What nutritional factors are important in optimizing breastfeeding outcomes?
Search results
The initial search of the data bases included 555 references for U1.7 What nutritional factors are
important in optimizing breastfeeding outcomes? and the specified disease outcomes with 40
duplicates. The detailed search is included in a separate document on searches. In all 87 references
concerning nutritional factors and breastfeeding outcomes were retrieved, 18 had data extracted and
12 systematic reviews were used to form the body of evidence statements. Sufficient evidence was
found to make Body of Evidence statements for nutritional factors relating to alcohol, selenium,
support for breastfeeding and maternal perceived milk supply in relation to breastfeeding outcomes
for mothers and infants, as detailed below. There were no recent good quality reviews of nutrients
and breastfeeding, except for alcohol and selenium.
There were two systematic reviews on n-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LCPUFA)
supplementation and infant outcomes, but they reviewed those same RCTs [103] and [189].
Therefore no body of evidence statement was made. Collectively, these reviews suggest that there is
no evidence supporting a beneficial effect in term infants on visual development as measured by
electrophysiological tests, with supplementation of LCPUFAs. There is also suggestive, but
inconclusive, evidence for a beneficial effect of maternal and supplementation during pregnancy and
lactation on infant mental development and longer term cognition, but the evidence is inconclusive
beyond age two years.
The majority of studies were excluded because they were not reviews. The abstract of nonsystematic
reviews that were recent have been included at the end of this section.
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