Abstract

BACKGROUND:
Urinary tract infection is the third most common pediatric bacterial infection in developing
countries. Exclusive breastfeeding as World Health Organization recommendations in infants
provides the simplest method that provides protection against infant’s infections including UTI.
OBJECTIVE:
To assess the possible protective effect of exclusive breastfeeding on infant UTI.
PATIENTS AND METHODS:
A case control study was carried out in Children Welfare Teaching Hospital from March to
September 2018. The study group included 300 infants (100 cases and 200 controls). Cases were
selected from Pediatric Nephrology Department when clinically suspected as UTI. Controls were
selected from the patients of other diseases in the hospital. Both cases and controls were divided
according to the type of feeding during first 6 months of life into three groups: Exclusive
breastfeeding, bottle feeding and mixed feeding.
RESULTS:
Infants exclusively breastfed for 6 months, shown to have a lower risk of UTI 12% than partially
breastfed 68% or bottle fed peers 20%. This protective effect after fixation of other variables (P
value=0.0001). The study also showed that lack of circumcision in male infants, having a previous
history of UTI and use of antibiotics inappropriately were significant risk factors for UTI in infants.
CONCLUSION:
This study showed a protective role of breastfeeding on UTI in infancy. Other risk factors for the
UTI were uncircumcised male infants, positive history of UTI and improper use of antibiotics.