Table 1.
Demographic and infant feeding characteristics of children with food allergy and matched controls
(Numbers of participants and percentages; medians and ranges)
| Food allergy group (n 39) | Control group (n 78) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics | n | % | n | % | P |
| Male | 25 | 64 | 51 | 65 | 0·98 |
| Birth weight (kg) | 0·15 | ||||
| Median | 3·8 | 3·6 | |||
| Range | 2·09–4·54 | 2·13–4·80 | |||
| Maternal age (years) | 0·56 | ||||
| Median | 29 | 29·5 | |||
| Range | 20–44 | 18–43 | |||
| Maternal education | |||||
| School | 10 | 25·6 | 21 | 26·9 | 0·21 |
| Further | 15 | 38·5 | 40 | 51·3 | |
| Higher | 14 | 35·9 | 15 | 19·2 | |
| Did not complete school | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2·6 | |
| Maternal smoking | 6 | 15·4 | 16 | 20·5 | 0·50 |
| Only child | 21 | 53·8 | 27 | 34·6 | 0·58 |
| Maternal asthma | 9 | 23·1 | 18 | 23·1 | 1·00 |
| Maternal hayfever | 16 | 41·0 | 26 | 33·3 | 0·41 |
| Maternal eczema | 13 | 33·3 | 19 | 24·4 | 0·31 |
| Maternal food allergy | 12 | 30·8 | 13 | 16·7 | 0·43 |
| Initiation of breastfeeding | 31 | 79·5 | 55 | 70·5 | 0·30 |
| Breastfeeding duration (d) | 0·58 | ||||
| Median | 56 | 42 | |||
| Range | 0–730 | 0–730 | |||
| Exclusive breastfeeding duration (d) | 0·74 | ||||
| Median | 45 | 21 | |||
| Range | 0–182 | 0–168 | |||
| Solid food introduction (d) | 0·037* | ||||
| Median | 112 | 112 | |||
| Range | 84–168 | 42–168 | |||
| Bottle feeding introduced (d) | 0·38 | ||||
| Median | 31·5 | 11 | |||
| Range | 0–276 | 0–276 | |||
| Any concurrent breastfeeding and cows’ milk consumption | 22 | 56·4 | 43 | 55·1 | 0·90 |
*
P < 0·05.