Negative effect of dietary elimination on breastfeeding mothers having infants with and without food allergy

Abstract Background: There has been no trial evaluating the psychopathology in breastfeeding mothers of infants with food allergy (FA). Objective: To investigate the effect of dietary elimination on maternal psychopathology, specifically stress/anxiety and mother-to-infant bonding and explore the importance of sociodemographic features on these variables. Methods: Breastfeeding mothers following an elimination diet due to FA in their children aged 1-to-12 months were compared with the healthy controls. Physician-diagnosed FA group were divided into IgE-, non-IgE-mediated and infants with some minor symptoms which were not enough to make the diagnosis of FA were classified as Indecisive symptoms for FA group. Mothers completed standardized questionnaires including Symptom Checklist 90R, Beck Depression/Anxiety Inventories (BDI/BAI), Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (Bonding). Results: Of 179 mother-infants, 64 were healthy, 89 were FA, 16 were indecisive symptoms for FA. The mean age of the mothers and infants were 31.1±4.7 years and 6.3±3.6 months. The physician diagnosed FA groups had higher scores for anxiety (p=0.008), anger (p=0.042), depression (p<0.001), obsession (p=0.002), phobia (p=0.008), somatization (p=0.002) and general symptom index (GSI) (p=0.001), BDI (p<0.001), BAI (p=0.008) and Bonding [attachment (p=0.001), anger (p=0.019) and total (p=0.036)] than the healthy. The indecisive symptoms for FA group had a similar score pattern to physician-diagnosed FA except interpersonal sensitivity, BDI and attachment. Conclusion: Breastfeeding mothers of infants with FA were anxious, depressive and had many psychopathologies which affected bonding. Interventions targeting negativity in caregivers’ social relationships are urgently needed.