Effect of Formula and Breast Milk Feeding on Random Blood Sugar Values in Healthy, Full Term Babies, in 1st 48 hours after Birth

Authors

  • Thamer Emad Ahmad College of Medicine Al-Mustansiriah University
  • Ashraf Ahmad Kamel College of Medicine Al-Mustansiriah University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.28922/qmj.2008.4.6.156-171

Abstract

In our study, we tried to discuss the effect of type of feeding on random blood sugar and whether it can be considered as a cause of hypoglycemia. To achieve this, we measured random blood sugar of 100 full term healthy newborn babies using, a blood glucose monitor device called Glucutrend® 2,all of them were delivered by caesarean section as such deliveries stay in the hospital for at least 48 hours and therefore this makes them easy to be followed-up. Among them, 48 babies were milk formula fed and 52 babies were breast-fed .The random blood sugar was measured at specific times after birth. It was found that whether in males or in females or all, there was no significant statistical difference in random blood sugar values at each specific time between babies who were formula-fed as compared to those who were breast-fed. The study showed also that random blood sugar is increasing with time by the effect of feeding .Of the 100 babies studied, only 6 suffered from hypoglycemia presented by jitteriness. However, there was no significant statistical difference between random blood sugar values of hypoglycemic babies who were breast-fed as compared to hypoglycemic babies who were formula-fed. The range at which hypoglycemia showed symptoms presented by jitteriness are around 35-40 mg/dl during the 1st 10 hours after birth. However, the study also showed that hypoglycemia has no standard level but depends on signs and symptoms because some babies did not present with jitteriness at this level.

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Published

2017-08-22

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Articles