Background :
Calcium is essential to maintain normal body homeostasis, and breast milk is an important source of this nutrient in exclusively breast-fed infants. This study aimed to assess serum calcium levels of exclusively breast-fed newborns and infants up to 6 months of age and their mothers to determine any correlation between them.
Methods :
A total of 50 mother?baby pairs aged 0 to 6 months, exclusively breast-fed, term, and appropriate for gestational age, who attended the vaccination center or outpatient department during the study period, were randomly selected.
Among the 50 mothers, 20 took regular calcium supplementation during pregnancy, 20 took calcium irregularly, and the remaining took no calcium. During lactation, 15 mothers had regular calcium intake, 19 had irregular intake, and 16 did not take any calcium after delivery.
Total serum calcium and albumin levels of both mothers and babies were measured, and corrected serum calcium levels were calculated.
Result :
Among the 50 babies, 35 (70%) had normal serum calcium levels, 11 (22%) had mild hypocalcemia, and 4 (8%) had moderate hypocalcemia. Overall, 15 (30%) babies had hypocalcemia.
Among the 50 mothers, 42 (84%) had normal calcium levels and 8 (16%) had mild hypocalcemia.
Among babies of mothers on regular antenatal calcium (n=20), 13 (65%) had normal serum calcium, 5 (25%) had mild hypocalcemia, and 2 (10%) had moderate hypocalcemia.
Among babies whose mothers took calcium irregularly (n=20), the results were similar. Among the remaining 10 babies whose mothers took no calcium supplementation, 9 (90%) maintained normal serum calcium, while 1 (10%) developed mild hypocalcemia.
Conclusion :
No significant statistical association was detected between maternal calcium supplementation during pregnancy and lactation and serum calcium levels of exclusively breast-fed newborns and infants up to 6 months of age.