Study to tell if allergy friendly feed is winning formula

DOCTORS launched a major study yesterday to investigate how a new infant formula similar to breast milk could help prevent eczema in babies.

They appealed for pregnant women or mothers with babies to consider taking part in the Cork-based research project.

The study is being conducted by the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at University College Cork (UCC) and the Division of Paediatrics at Cork University Hospital (CUH), and is being led by Professor Jonathan Hourihane.

His team is looking for babies whose parents or siblings have allergies like asthma and the skin condition, eczema, and who are therefore at a higher risk of developing allergic conditions, to take part.

They plan to investigate the influence of a new infant formula on the occurrence of eczema.

The study will follow all babies with a high risk of developing allergies from birth until 18 months of age. It will include babies who are breastfed and babies who are formula fed.

The new formula at the centre of the study contains pre-digested proteins, broken into smaller pieces to make them less likely to cause an allergic reaction.

It also contains prebiotics — natural compounds found in breast milk that encourage healthy bacteria in the infant gut.

It will be compared with a standard infant formula, which contains whole proteins and no prebiotics.

There has been a sharp increase in the occurrence of allergic diseases in children over the past 20 to 30 years with the irritating skin condition eczema and asthma among the most common.

While breastfeeding is widely regarded as the best early food, particularly for babies with an increased risk of becoming allergic, mothers can decide for many reasons not to breastfeed or to formula feed.

* Details: Sinead Lafford 021 4901258 or Deirdre Daly 021 4901258.