Chinese herbs in maternal diets related to clinical presentations in breastfed infants

Introduction: Few studies explored the effects of maternal herb consumption on breastfed infants. Our aims were to investigate the relationship between maternal consumption of Chinese herb-enriched diets and clinical presentations of breastfed infants at 1 to 2 months of age.Methods: This prospective study enroled healthy infants aged 25 to 60 days from the Taipei branch of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan during 2013-2019. We measured feeding type, weight gain, jaundice, stool frequency, irritability, sleeping hours, regurgitation, and flatulence. Four commonly used Chinese diets were assessed, including Eucommia ulmoides, Si-Wu-Tan, Sheng-Hua-Tang, and sesame oil chicken.Results: We enroled 751 infants, of whom 359 were on exclusive breastfeeding, 52 on formula feeding, and 340 on partial breastfeeding (at least one meal each of breast milk and formula daily). We observed significant differences in activity, sleeping hours, jaundice, and stool frequency between infants on exclusive breastfeeding, formula feeding, and partial breastfeeding. Regarding infants on exclusive breastfeeding, multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that infants whose mothers consumed E ulmoides were at higher risk of prolonged jaundice. In contrast, infants whose mothers consumed Si-Wu-Tan were at lower risk of prolonged jaundice. Furthermore, stool passage frequency increased in infants whose mothers consumed E ulmoides, Si-Wu-Tang, and sesame oil chicken.Conclusions: Our results showed that maternal diets containing certain Chinese herbs, specifically E ulmoides and Si-Wu-Tan are related to breast milk jaundice, while E ulmoides, Si-Wu-Tang, and sesame oil chicken are related to increased stool frequency among breastfed infants.