Breast feeding and artificial feeding in infants with Tetralogy of Fallot

ABSTRACT

This work aimed to study the physical growth of 30 cases with TOF [26 males, 14 females] with age ranging from 14 days to 6 months, 20 cases were breast-fed and 20 cases were artificially-fed. This done by taking full history, clinical examination, anthropometric measurements [weight, length, head and chest circumferences and skin fold thickness]. Infants with TOF showed various degrees of growth retardation, which may be due to tissue anoxia, insufficient nutrient intake, malabsorption, hypermetablism, hypocellularity, dysphagia and recurrent respiratory tract infections. The study found no difference between breast and bottle feeding. Though breast feeding is the ideal method of feeding infants with cardiac problems, especially those with TOF due to the plenty of advantages of breast milk