Impact of maternal feeding practices on neonates born to mothers infected with COVID-19: a retrospective cohort study in Sichuan Province.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the impact of different feeding methods on the manifestation of novel coronavirus infection symptoms in newborns following maternal infection with the novel coronavirus.

RESULTS

Among the 257 mother-infant pairs, participants were categorized into three groups according to feeding method: the direct breastfeeding group (n = 125), the bottle-feeding with expressed breast milk group (n = 87), and the artificial feeding group (n = 45). No statistically significant differences were observed in the maternal clinical manifestations of COVID-19 across the three groups (p > 0.05). Importantly, none of the newborns in any of the three groups exhibited symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection either during hospitalization or during the one-week follow-up after discharge.