Study the oropharyngeal bacterial flora in breast fed and bottle fed newborns and their mothers

ABSTRACT

The present work was conducted on 50 newborns and their mothers, 25 breast-fed and the other 25 bottle fed. The first group consisted of 15 newborn infants [7 breast fed and 8 bottle-fed] aged less than one week. The second group consisted of 15 newborn infants [8 breast-fed and 7 bottle-fed] aged from one week to 20 days. The third group of 20 newborns [10 breast fed and 10 bottle fed] aged from 20 days to one month. The swabs were cultured and organisms identified according to the standard bacteriological techniques. The oropharyngeal bacterial flora of the breast fed and bottle fed infants and their mothers were studied and compared. The roles played by the mother, hospital and bottle feeding in the transmission of organisms to the infants were assessed. The importance of breast feeding was emphasized