Human milk feeding and wheeze in Black infants born preterm

Objectives To determine the association between human milk exposure at 3 months corrected gestational age and recurrent wheeze in preterm Black infants. Methods This is a secondary analysis of data from the D-Wheeze trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT01601847). Associations between human milk feeding at 3 months corrected age and wheezing outcomes were examined by generalized linear models. Results Exclusively human milk fed infants (n = 13) had significantly fewer wheezing episodes than formula fed infants (n = 230) (IRR (95% CI) = 0.25 (0.07, 0.89), p = 0.03). There were no hospitalizations in infants receiving exclusive human milk. Receiving any human milk was associated with decreased odds of hospitalization by 12 months corrected age (OR (95% CI) = 0.12 (0.02, 0.79), p = 0.03). Conclusions Exclusive human milk feeding at three months corrected gestational age is associated with decreased number of wheezing episodes in the first year of life in preterm Black infants.