Formula with long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acids reduces incidence of allergy in early childhood

Abstract

Background Allergy has sharply increased in affluent Western countries in the last 30 years. N-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LCPUFAs) may protect the immune system against development of allergy. Methods We prospectively categorized illnesses by body system in a subset of 91 children from the Kansas City cohort of the DIAMOND (DHA Intake and Measurement of Neural Development) study who had yearly medical records through 4 years of age. As infants, they were fed either a control formula without LCPUFA (n=19) or one of three formulas with LCPUFA from docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (ARA) (n=72). Results Allergic illnesses in the first year were lower in the combined LCPUFA group compared to the control. LCPUFAs significantly delayed time to first allergic illness (p=0.04) and skin allergic illness (p=0.03); and resulted in a trend to reduced wheeze/asthma (p=0.1). If the mother had no allergies, LCPUFAs reduced the risk of any allergic diseases (HR = 0.24, 95% CI = 0.1, 0.56, p=0.0.001) and skin allergic diseases (HR = 0.35, 95% CI = 0.13, 0.93, p=0.04). In contrast, if the mother had allergies, LCPUFAs reduced wheezing/asthma (HR = 0.26, 95% CI = 0.07, 0.9, p = 0.02). Conclusions LCPUFA supplementation during infancy reduced the risk of skin and respiratory allergic diseases in childhood with effects influenced by maternal allergies.

International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids 2018 Symposium: Arachidonic and Docosahexaenoic Acids in Infant Development

“…Clinical studies demonstrate that consuming formula with DHA and ARA contributes to the development of a more mature immune system [58,59], improves immune responses to dietary allergens [60], may reduce the risk of allergic diseases in the first year of life [61], and may reduce the risk of upper respiratory infections and diarrhea [33,62].…”

Nuevos ingredientes en fórmulas infantiles. Beneficios sanitarios y funcionales

“…Sin embargo, sus precursores, los ácidos grasos esenciales linoleico y α-linolénico, se encuentran en bajas proporciones a nivel cerebral. Asimismo, también se han atribuido funciones inmunomoduladoras a los ácidos grasos poliinsaturados de cadena larga (6).…”

Docosahexaenoic Acid and Arachidonic Acid Nutrition in Early Development

“…They found fewer medically documented allergic illnesses in the first 3 years of life in children receiving formula with compared with without LCPUFA. Similarly, the authors recently reported fewer medically documented allergies in the first 4 years of life with formulas containing DHA (0.32%–0.96%) and ARA (0.64%) compared with formula without LCPUFA [103]. When the authors assessed predictors of skin allergy and wheeze/asthma, we found an interaction with maternal allergy: LCPUFA protected against skin allergy in children of women who did not report allergy and against wheezing/asthma in children of women who reported allergy [103].…”

“…Similarly, the authors recently reported fewer medically documented allergies in the first 4 years of life with formulas containing DHA (0.32%–0.96%) and ARA (0.64%) compared with formula without LCPUFA [103]. When the authors assessed predictors of skin allergy and wheeze/asthma, we found an interaction with maternal allergy: LCPUFA protected against skin allergy in children of women who did not report allergy and against wheezing/asthma in children of women who reported allergy [103]. There is a need to determine when in development LCPUFA is important for reducing allergy [104–106].…”

“…Field and colleagues [101] found that infants fed formula with DHA and ARA had immune cells and cytokine profiles more similar to infants fed human milk and different from infants fed formula without LCPUFA. Two US studies show lower allergy incidence in young children randomly assigned to formula with DHA and ARA compared with formula without LCPUFA during infancy [102,103]. Birch and colleagues [102] analyzed combined studies of formulas containing ~0.3% DHA and 0.6% ARA that were fed for varying periods of time during infancy.…”