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JACI Highlights - June 2008
Preventive effect of hydrolyzed infant formulas persists until age 6: long-term results from the German Infant Nutritional Intervention Study GINI
Andrea von Berg, MD, Birgit Filipiak-Pittroff, MSc, Ursula Krämer, Ph.D, Elke Link, Christina Bollrath, MD, Inken Brockow, MD, Sibylle Koletzko, MD, Armin Grübl, MD, Joachim Heinrich, PhD, H.-Erich Wichmann, MD, PhD, Carl-P. Bauer, MD, Dietrich Reinhardt, MD, Dietrich Berdel, MD, and the GINI plus study group
If infants are exposed to allergens early in life, they may have an increased likelihood of developing later allergies. Therefore, it is usually recommended that babies born to a family with a history of allergies avoid allergen exposure as prevention against future allergies. For this reason, hydrolyzed infant formulas with proteins broken down to make them more digestible and less allergenic were introduced for babies at high risk for cow's milk allergies. Recently, the results from the German Infant Nutritional Intervention Study (GINI) were reported, confirming the idea that infant formulas reduce the allergy risk for infants up to 3 years of age. In an upcoming issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, von Berg et al report on a follow-up to the GINI Study, in which they studied whether the protective effect of specific infant formulas would extend to six years of age. The authors found that feeding babies certain hydrolyzed infant formulas in the first four months of life compared with feeding regular cow's milk formula has a long-lasting preventive effect against atopic dermatitis and other manifestations of allergy (food allergy, hayfever) in those with high risk of allergies. They were able to confirm this preventive effect up to six years of age. The prevalence of asthma did not appear to be affected by use of any of the infant formulas tested.
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