Father's role in supporting breastfeeding of preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit: a qualitative study.

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the social beliefs, representations and experiences of fathers of preterm newborns (NBs) regarding breastfeeding. DESIGN: A qualitative interview study with analysis of transcripts using the Alceste software. SETTING: A tertiary university hospital neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in France. PARTICIPANTS: 20 fathers of preterm NBs hospitalised in an NICU. RESULTS: The software classified 72% of the corpus into six lexical classes. Two main networks of classes emerged from the analysis: one for lactation, consisted of 'breastfeeding' and 'expression of milk' classes, and one for 'care'. The analysis demonstrated that fathers were sensitive to arguments related to the health benefits of human milk. Fathers mentioned that breastfeeding preterm NBs was constraining and tiring for their partners (multiple daily sessions of milk expression with breast pumps, time constraints and need for supplements to tube-feeding…). They also mentioned how they could genuinely help their partners during breastfeeding. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this qualitative study provide insight into how fathers can be supportive of breastfeeding when experiencing a preterm birth. Targeted information and practical advice provided by caregivers on the first days of life can help fathers to get involved in the breastfeeding process.

[Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in children aged 5-10 years in western Brittany]. / Prévalence du déficit en vitamine D chez les enfants âgés de 5 à 10ans en Bretagne Occidentale.

UNLABELLED: French guidelines do not recommend systematic supplementation of vitamin D in children aged 5-10 years old owing to the lack of data on vitamin D status in this age group. Our objective was to assess the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in these children. METHODOLOGY: Single-center, prospective, epidemiological study including 358 children aged 0-15 years. The endpoint was the concentration of vitamin D. RESULTS: In all, 316 children were divided into four groups according to age: 0-18 months (n=113); 18 months to 5 years (n=103); 5-10 years (n=62); and 10-15 years (n=38). The median concentration of vitamin D decreased with age (P<0.001): 90.2 nmol/L in the group aged 0-18 months; 56.7 nmol/L in the group aged 18 months to 5 years; 49.05 nmol/L in the group aged 5-10 years; and 42.45 nmol/L in the group aged 10-15 years. This corresponds to an increase in the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in children aged 5-10 years (51.6% vs. 8.8% in the group aged 0-18 months, P<0.001). For children aged 5-10 years, the prevalence of deficiency was greater in the non-supplementation group (75%) compared with the supplementation group (13%; P<0.001). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in children aged 5-10 years and the relationship between supplementation and vitamin D status. It provides an argument in favor of supplementation in children aged 5-10 years in this region and a reconsideration of the French recommendations.