Influence of a Functional Nutrients-Enriched Infant Formula on Language Development in Healthy Children at Four Years Old.

Ana Nieto-Ruiz,José Antonio García-Santos,Elvira Catena,Natalia Sepúlveda-Valbuena,Estefanía Diéguez,María Rodríguez-Palmero,Cristina Campoy,Mercedes G Bermúdez,Jesús Jiménez,M Teresa Miranda,Andrés Catena

doi:10.3390/nu12020535

Abstract

Nutrition during early life is essential for brain development and establishes the basis for cognitive and language skills development. It is well established that breastfeeding, compared to formula feeding, has been traditionally associated with increased neurodevelopmental scores up to early adulthood. We analyzed the long-term effects of a new infant formula enriched with bioactive compounds on healthy children’s language development at four years old. In a randomized double-blind COGNIS study, 122 children attended the follow-up call at four years. From them, 89 children were fed a standard infant formula (SF, n = 46) or an experimental infant formula enriched with functional nutrients (EF, n = 43) during their first 18 months of life. As a reference group, 33 exclusively breastfed (BF) were included. Language development was assessed using the Oral Language Task of Navarra-Revised (PLON-R). ANCOVA, chi-square test, and logistic regression models were performed. EF children seemed to show higher scores in use of language and oral spontaneous expression than SF children, and both SF and EF groups did not differ from the BF group. Moreover, it seems that SF children were more frequently categorized into “need to improve and delayed” in the use of language than EF children, and might more frequently present “need to improve and delayed” in the PLON-R total score than BF children. Finally, the results suggest that SF children presented a higher risk of suffering language development than BF children. Secondary analysis also showed a slight trend between low socioeconomic status and poorer language skills. The functional compound-enriched infant formula seems to be associated with beneficial long-term effects in the development of child’s language at four years old in a similar way to breastfed infants.

Highlights

The first years of life are critical for the development of language skills, including learning to understand and speak language
We evaluated the association between the type of feeding and PLON-R scores categorized in each scale into normal or need to improve/delayed outcomes according to the standards test (Table 3)
The present study suggests the long-term beneficial effects of a new infant formula enriched with functional nutrients on children’s language development at four years of age

Summary

Introduction

The first years of life are critical for the development of language skills, including learning to understand and speak language. Infants learn their mother tongue quickly and without effort from six months to three years old, when they are capable of composing full sentences. This is a complex process that need further analysis, since it has been shown that maturational and experiential factors play a key role in the development of language and human speech [2,3]. The development of language depends on brain maturation, which is modulated, among other environmental factors, by differences in infant diet. Mothers from the BF group showed a higher educational level (p = 0.001) than those from EF and SF groups. No differences were observed in children IQ, bilingual children, and need for speech therapy at four years old

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion