The association between breastfeeding and tonsillectomy in children

Background: One of the most common surgical operations carried out on children especially those under the age of fifteen is tonsillectomy. There are two main indications for tonsillectomy either recurrent tonsillar infections or obstructive sleep disorder. Breastfeeding is one of the factors that play a major impact on decreasing recurrent respiratory infections and improving immunity, this effect may prolong during childhood.
Objective: To study the rate of tonsillectomy during childhood concerning the duration of breastfeeding during their infancy.
Methods: In this study, 150 cases underwent tonsillectomy as a case group in Alfayhaa Teaching Hospital in the period from January 2017 to July 2018 to children aged 1–12 years. Parents of those patients asked about the sex of the child, the feeding habit during infancy, type of delivery, order of the child in the family, the cause of tonsillectomy, and paternal smoking. 300 controls had been taken including those children attending the hospital for other reasons. Analysis of data was done using odds ratio, chi-square test, and probability value.
Results: The main reasons for tonsillectomy were recurrent respiratory infections (66%), followed by obstructive respiratory symptoms (30%) and the least one was a recurrent ear infection (4%). The difference was not significant between sex, mode of delivery, order of the child in the family, and paternal smoking with breastfed. Other groups as compared with those who complete more than 6 months, never and 0-3 months showed weak relation. Conclusions: We found that breastfed infants for more than 6 months are less likely to have tonsillectomy during their childhood. Keywords: Breastfeeding, Tonsillectomy, Childhood
Conflicts of interest. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Funding. There was no funding for this study