Breast feeding and hypertrophic pyloric stenosis: population based case-control study

Abstract

Hypertrophic pyloric stenosis is a common infantile disorder characterised by enlarged pyloric musculature and gastric outlet obstruction. Although there is a genetic component,1 some evidence suggests that postnatal factors may also play an important part. Pyloric stenosis has been associated with birth rank, maternal anxiety and drug use, and feeding practices.2 We investigated the association between pyloric stenosis and infant feeding in a population based casecontrol study. All 102 infants admitted to Santobono Paediatric Hospital, Naples between 1 July 1992 and 31 December 1993 with surgically confirmed pyloric stenosis were recruited for the study. All were born and lived in Campania province. Controls were 204 infants randomly selected from around 600 enrolled from a provincial birth list for a child health survey; all were …