Breastfeeding Duration in Families with Type 1 Diabetes Compared to Non-Affected Families: Results from BABYDIAB and DONALD Studies in Germany

Abstract

There are only a few small studies that compare breastfeeding rates in mothers with and without type 1 diabetes (T1D). We studied breastfeeding duration in 665 German infants whose mother and/or father had T1D from the BABYDIAB Study (data collected between 1992 and 2000) and compared it with data from 268 German infants of unaffected parents from the DONALD Study. Infants with a parent who had T1D were less likely to be breastfed and breastfed for shorter lengths of time than infants from unaffected families. Mothers with T1D showed a positive long-term breastfeeding time trend, but did not reach the rates of the DONALD Study. This study identified minor secular trends influencing the differences in breastfeeding initiation and duration between families affected with T1D and those without.