Protective role of human milk against sudden death from infant botulism

Is there a link between infant botulism and sudden infant death? Bacteriological results obtained in Central Germany

“…Arnon et al [3,7] encourage breast-feeding. An eventual ingestion of spores may lead to a slower, prolonged toxin formation in the gut and hence to the clinical picture of infant botulism, whereas formula-fed infants may die unexpectedly of increased toxin production.…”

Chemical contaminants in human milk

“…Human milk is usually considered to contain the right balance of fully utilized nutrients required for a growing, full-term infant (Hambraeus 1977). The existence of host-resistant factors in human milk (Branski 1980) gives the infant immunologic protection, making the development of respiratory and gastrointestinal infections (Gerrard 1974, Narayanan et al 1981 or sudden death from infant botulism (Arnon et al 1982) less likely. In addition, the presence of food antibodies in human milk may prevent food allergies (Cruz et al 1981).…”

Infant botulism

“…The syndrome has occurred in both breast-fed and bottle-fed infants, and the role of type of feeding is yet unsettled. 18 Colonization is believed to occur because normal bowel flora that could compete with C. botulinum has not been fully established.…”

“…8 Breast feeding is a risk factor for IB in all studies. [18][19][20][21][22][23][24] These infants may have a slower progression of illness/symptoms so that there may be a delay in hospitalization owing to later identification of illness. However, among hospitalized infants, the formula-fed reported from California 18 had a mean age of onset (7.6±8.4 weeks) that was significantly less than that of their breast-fed counterparts (13.7±8.4 weeks).…”