Associations between Delayed Introduction of Complementary Foods and Childhood Health Consequences in Exclusively Breastfed Children

The timing of complementary food (CF) introduction is closely related to childhood health, and it may vary depending on the region, culture, feeding type, or health condition. Despite numerous studies on the benefits of breastfeeding and the optimal timing of CF introduction, there have been limited investigations regarding delayed CF introduction in exclusively breastfed children. We compared an exposed group (CF introduction ≥7 months) with a reference group (CF introduction at 4 -< 7 months) regarding hospital admission, disease burden, and growth until age 10. Data from a nationwide population-based cohort study involving children born between 2008 and 2012 in the South Korea were analyzed. The final cohort comprised 206,248 children (165,925 in the exposed group and 40,323 in the reference group). Inverse probability of treatment weighting with propensity score matching was used to balance baseline health characteristics in the comparison groups. We estimated the incident risk ratios (IRR) for outcomes using modified Poisson regression and weighted odds ratios (weighted ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using multinomial logistic regression. The exposed group was associated with low height-for-age z-score (HAZ) (IRR (95% CI) for -1.64 < HAZ ≤ -1.03: 1.11 (1.08 to 1.14); HAZ ≤ -1.64: 1.21 (1.14 to 1.27)) and frequent (≥6 events) hospitalizations (weighted OR 1.18 (1.09 to 1.29). The rates of hospital admission, death, and specific medical conditions did not differ between groups. However, delaying the introduction of CF until seven months in exclusively breastfed infants was associated with frequent hospitalization events and lower heights.