London - Babies fed on infant formula grow up to have higher blood pressure than those given breast-milk, new research suggests.
The findings, published in The Lancet medical journal, come from the first experimental study of how early nutrition influences blood pressure.
Earlier studies noted that adults with high blood pressure tended to have been fed formula as babies.
But none took account of other factors that raise blood pressure, such as a bad diet in adulthood, stress and lack of exercise.
Experts say the results bolster the theory that an infant's diet influences the risk of several diseases in adulthood. Breast-feeding is also considered better for children's intelligence.
The study by scientists at the Institute of Child Health in London involved pre-term babies, who are sometimes not strong enough to suck or may need a more concentrated formula.
That also eliminated the ethical problem of experimenting with healthy full-term babies whose mothers can breast-feed easily.
Nearly 20 years ago, the researchers randomly divided 216 pre-term babies into three groups: one received donated breast-milk, one received infant formula made for pre-term babies, and the third received regular infant formula.
Each diet, begun within 48 hours of birth, was used as a sole food or as a supplement to mother's milk, depending on what the mother wanted to do.
The infants remained in the study until they weighed enough to go home, usually after a month. The children returned about 16 years later to have their blood pressure measured.
There were two comparisons made. One compared breast- milk with pre-term formula, the other compared pre-term formula with full-term formula.
The researchers found that the diastolic blood pressure reading was 3,2 points lower in the teens fed breast-milk as infants than in those given pre-term formula. The systolic reading was 2,7 points lower.
There was no difference in blood pressure between the groups fed pre-term formula and regular formula. - Sapa-AP