2023, Vol. 6, Issue 2, Part A

Background: The normative standard for infant feeding is exclusive breastfeeding for the initial six months of life, followed by continued breastfeeding for a duration of two years. The aim is to compare urinary Calcium/creatinine ratio between artificial fed and breast fed healthy infants.

Methods: This cross-sectional comparative study was carried out upon 80 healthy full-term infants at the out-patient clinic of Pediatric Department, Tanta University hospital during the period from December 2021 to December 2022. Inclusion criteria were infants with age ranging from 2-6 months, Healthy infants, Exclusive breast feeding, Exclusive artificial feeding. The infants were divided into two groups according to the type of feeding: Group A: 40 healthy born full term exclusively artificial fed infants. Group B: 40 healthy born full term exclusively breast-fed infants.

Results: A urinary calcium creatinine ratio that was significantly higher in artifical fed infants compared to breast fed infants was observed. And age exhibits a negative significant correlation with the Ca/Creat ratio, however in both groups, no correlation was found to be statistically significant between the Ca/Creat ratio and Hb, PLTs, TLC, urea, creat, CRP, Na, Ca T, Ca I, Mg, Ph, and anthropometric measurements.

Conclusions: A higher level of UCa/Cr is observed in infants who are artificially fed due to the higher sodium content in artificial milk, which influences calcium excretion during the first few months of life and This observation could potentially suggest that maintaining a low-sodium diet is crucial in order to prevent the impact of developing urinary tract stones and hypercalciuria.