Early Life Nutrition and Lifelong Health - Lactation Science and Barriers Flashcards
(39 cards)
Is there a biological difference between breast milk and formula?
Yes, they are totally different
But 67% of people said no
72% of people do not think being formula fed has long-term consequences for health
What are the WHO guidelines for the length of breast feeding?
Exclusive for 6 months
But up to 2 years and beyond with complimentary food
What is the full duration of breastfeeding per child?
From primate studies and tribal humans
Between 4 and 7 years
How does breastfeeding differ in Western cultures?
Many mothers do not breastfeed
Most mothers stop breastfeeding by the time their child is 1 years old
1 in 200 mothers in the Western World continue to breastfeed their child after 1 year
How do milk teeth correlate with breastfeeding?
Children start to lose their milk teeth at 6 y/o
Corresponds with children weaning away from breastfeeding at this age, as their jaw and teeth structure changing
What is formula milk made up of?
Usually cow’s milk
What is a unifying factor of mammals?
All mammals have the capacity to lactate
Even if they are egg laying or placental mammals
What is the difference between cows and human milk?
Cows milk have more protein
As they are bred to have a lot of muscle mass
Infants on formula grow faster
But human breastmilk has more fatty acids - humans are better at extracting the fat from their maternal diets for their breastmilk than other mammals
How does human breast milk vary over 24 hours? How does this affect the baby?
There is a diurnal rhythm to milk
Contains typtophan, an amino acid that is found in larger quantities in the evening
Tryptophan helps the infant set a diurnal rhythm too
What else is found in human milk? How does this affect the baby?
Pluripotent stem cells - taken up and absorbed in the gut of the infants, found in all organ systems
Unknown the benefits of this
What are the benefits of human milk?
Developmental tool Epigenetic regulator Innate immunity Antimicrobial factors High fatty acid composition Pluripotent stem cells
What is a proposed theory for why human brains are different?
Infant brain growth is incredibly fast
Could be as a result of the breast being good at extracting fats
What are the broad classes of molecules in milk that have antiviral properties?
SigA Gangliosides Glycosaminoglycans Oligosaccharides Mucins Lactadherin Lewis X Lysozyme Tenascin C Cytokines Bacteriophages Extracellular vesicles Monolaurin Lactoferrin Vitamin A Oxysterols
Why do babies put things in their mouth?
Fumbling their environment - for the development of their innate immune system and gut microbiome
How does breastfeeding affect the gut microbiome?
Exposure to breast milk feeding up to 14 months that principally was responsible for patterning the immune system and gut microbiome
How does breastmilk shape the infant’s gut microbiome?
Complex oligosaccharides found in human breast milk - over 200 oligosaccharides identified
20 of these cannot be metabolised by the infants - therefore there to preferentially select the bacteria bifidobacteria and lactobacillus bacilli to grow and reproduce
What influences the components of a mother’s breast milk?
Each mother has unique fingerprint for their breast milk dependent on:
- Genetics
- Environment influences
- Local environment pathogens
- Season
What does the gut epithelium look like in infants? Why is the structure important / relevant to milk feeding?
Single cell layer
2 way process in infant’s gut - gaps between cells allows big molecules e.g. immunoglobulins (Igs), stem cells etc. to be taken up from the milk
BUT also enables dendritic cells to poke tendrils out into the lumen to sample the gut bacteria and proteins - which are then chopped and presented to the T and B cells in the gut
Allows infant’s immune system to differentiate between friend and foe
When do the gaps in the junctions close up? Why is it important?
When infant starts eating solid food - i.e. as soon as non-human protein is identified by the gut epithelium, a range of genetic signalling pathways activate to close the gaps between the cells / activate tight junctions
To stop slid food from getting through the gut walls
Also blunts the immune programming mechanism - may be a reason for friving infants towards having increased auto-immune disease risk later in life
What is a modulator of diathesis stress model?
Gut microbiome
Although genetic susceptibility and environmental stressor lead to disease outcome, aberrant microbiome is the mediator between these two
What is a primary modulator of the gut microbiome?
Infant feeding
What diseases are being implicated by poor of infant feeding?
Asthma
Obesity
T1DM (type 1 diabetes mellitus) - although not previously associated with any lifestyle factor, T1DM cases have risen by 20 fold since 40 years ago
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Neurological disease - dementia, parkinsons, alzheimers
Why is breast feeding very important?
Setting infants on a trajectory of health from the beginning
How is infant temperature control influenced by human milk?
Unique fatty acids (alkylglycerols) found in only human milk (And in small amounts in donkey milk) that act to keep Basch Thermogenic Adipocytes
Basch Thermogenic Adipocytes - produce a heat drive of 300x the utilisation of ATP to produce heat
Helps infants regulate their body temperature
