Breastfeeding in PKU and Other Amino Acid Metabolism Disorders—A Single Centre Experience

Abstract

In addition to the numerous immunological and nutritional benefits that breast milk offers to infants, its proportion in the diet must be limited or even excluded in the case of inborn errors of amino acid metabolism (IEM). The objective of the study was to expand knowledge about breastfeeding and the degree of contribution of breast milk to the feeding of infants with IEM before and after the introduction of expanded newborn screening. A retrospective single-centre study was conducted on 127 infants born between 1997 and 2020: 66 with phenylketonuria (PKU), 45 with other IEM (non-PKU), all diagnosed through newborn screening (NBS), and 16 non-PKU diagnosed through selective screening (SS). The time of initiation of dietary treatment and the proportion of breast milk in the diet, both expressed and breastfed, with or without intake control, were analysed at 1, 3, and 6 months after birth. For 47% of the newborns in Groups 1 and 2, the dietary treatment was started before the 10th day of life; in Group 3, the dietary treatment was started after the 10th day of life for all children. During the first month of life, the proportion of infants receiving breast milk was higher in the NBS-PKU (74%) and the NBS non-PKU (80%) groups, compared with 38% in the SS non-PKU infants. In the subsequent months of life, the proportion of infants receiving human milk (either from the breast or a bottle) declined in all groups. This decline occurred more in bottle-fed rather than directly breast-fed infants. Our observations indicate that the model of feeding from a bottle with expressed milk may have had an adverse effect on maintaining lactation and may have contributed to a faster transition to formula milk. Maintaining lactation and extending the period of feeding the infant with human milk in the first 6 months of life is possible by breastfeeding on demand, under regular biochemical monitoring: preferably weekly in PKU infants, and at least every 2–4 weeks in infants with other IEM.