Abstract
It is unknown whether maternal health and nutrition are related to human milk composition or growth and development of infants and children. Here, we describe a protocol for a prospective five-year cohort study to clarify (i) how maternal health and nutrition, socioeconomic factors, and lifestyles affect human milk composition, and (ii) whether these are associated with growth and development of infants and children. In our study, we recruited 1210 Japanese mothers with singleton pregnancies from 73 obstetrics clinics and hospitals across Japan, between 2014 and 2019. We will measure the following: health information regarding maternal-child dyads using a self-administered questionnaire, maternal nutrition during breastfeeding using a Brief self-administrated Diet History Questionnaire, the development of infants and children using the Kinder Infant Development Scale, and the stress related to child rearing using the Mother’s Child Care Stress Scale. Simultaneously, we will collect human milk every 2 months during the first year after birth to measure its composition and levels of macronutrients. This study will generate useful data to investigate whether health status, nutritional status, lifestyle, and socioeconomic factors affect human milk composition and the growth and development of infants and children.
Highlights
An adequate supply of nutrition during “the first 1000 days of life”, i.e., the period from conception to 2 years of age, is essential to ensure the development and health of infants and children [1,2]
We found variance found variance according to ethnicity in that high levels in of breastmilk osteopontinisin breastmilk is more common according to ethnicity in that high levels of osteopontin more common in Asians than in Danes thanHence, in Danes there still room forasconsideration as to what affect the in there is still room forisconsideration to what factors affect thefactors composition of composition of human milk, and it is important to understand ethnicity, maternal diet, cultural human milk, and it is important to understand ethnicity, maternal diet, cultural background, and living background, and living environments before evaluating them.unknown
We will measure the development of infants and children using the kinder infant development measure the development of infants and children using the kinder infant development scale (KIDS) [14]
Summary
An adequate supply of nutrition during “the first 1000 days of life”, i.e., the period from conception to 2 years of age, is essential to ensure the development and health of infants and children [1,2]. Human milk provides optimal nutrition for infants, as it contains various physiologically active substances in addition to fundamental nutrients such as proteins, fats, minerals, and vitamins [3]. In 2016, the Lancet published a special issue on breastfeeding that addressed its importance for both mother and child [4]. This overview revealed that the protective effects of breastfeeding have been. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 1869; doi:10.3390/ijerph17061869 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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