Background Research has shown that being born preterm may affect lung capacity later in childhood. It is unknown if type of early nutrition influences lung capacity and the risk of developing asthma in childhood.

Aim Was to investigate type of early nutrition and impact on lung function and possible risk of developing asthma among 6 year old children born very preterm.

Method A prospective, randomised, interventional multicentre study on nutrition of a preterm birth cohort has been established and described previously. Inclusion criteria were gestational age ≤32 weeks. From hospital discharge to 4 month corrected age, the children received three types of nutrition: A: Human milk (HM) B: HM enriched with fortifier (HMF) C: Preterm formula (PF). At the age of 6, the children performed an occlusion test (Rocc) and a lung resistance test (SRtot).

Results 277 children are included in this project [SH1]. So far 96 children have performed the lung function tests (Group A: 31 B: 29 C: 36 respectively). The results (mean) from the Rocc-test were very similar comparing the groups with no significant differences: A: 1.05 B: 1.05 C: 1.04 (kPa*s/L). The SRtot test showed that group B and C had a significant lower value compared to group A: A 1.21 B: 0.98 C: 1.01 (kPa*s). P-value= 0,017 when comparing A and C, p-value= 0,003 when A compares to B.

Conclusion This preliminary result indicates that children who received exclusively breastfeeding have better lung function/lung resistance compared to not exclusively breastfed infants at the age of 6.