Maternal intake and human breast milk composition

Marzieh Aminzadeh anbouhi,1,*

1. Science and research branch of azad university

Abstract

Introduction

Breast milk is a perfect supplement for infants and it provides many nutrients for them such as vitamins, proteins, fat, calcium and others. as we know, infants won’t be able to chew food for several months after birth and feeding is done by breast milk which that will have healthy effect on infant’s future. therefore, it is very important to recognize breast milk composition and its effective factors because of the close relationship between infant’s health and breast milk composition. in this article we tried to overview effective factors on the quality and composition of the human breast milk, so this information can help us to have better understanding of the role of human breast milk on infant’s health.

Methods

There are different factors that can effect on breast milk composition and its energy, such as maternal diet, month of lactation, parity, complementary food energy, maternal age and infant sex. many of human milk micronutrients depend on maternal diet, such as vitamins a, b1, b2, b6, b12, d, iodine and lactose and some of them are not effected significantly by maternal supplementation, such as thiamin and b6. amount of energy of breast milk is depend on several factors such as amount of fat, protein and lactose of milk that it was estimates from 65 to 70 kcal/dl. amount of fat in vegetarians and non-vegetarians is different and amount of this in vegetarians is 3.21 ± 1.78% and in non-vegetarian is 3.23 ± 2.13% that can be derived from different sources. parity and interval length were negatively correlated with percent of milk fat and this correlation were higher than in total sample of non-vegetarian. according to the last research many food antigen can be found in human milk but maternal dietary exposure during pregnancy and lactation is unlikely contribute significantly to the development of food allergy in the infant. the mean of protein in term milk is estimated about 0.9 to 1.2 g/dl. amount of amino acid concentration of milk if different during lactation, the mean of amino acid of colostrum is higher than intermediate milk and the mean of amino acid concentration of intermediate milk is higher than mature milk. mothers who smoke can affect on their amount of milk and they will reduce daily milk about 250-300 ml.

Results

Concentration of fatty acid, fat soluble and water soluble vitamins in milk are significantly affected by maternal diet but lactose, mineral, trace element and electrolytes concentrations seem comparatively resistant to varying maternal intake.

Conclusion

Breast milk composition has an affective role on infant’s health and human breast milk is one of the most important factor on a quality of breast milk and we can understand it by studying this information, according to the reports in the literature of european and american children who have suffered malnutrition or had lower growth rate while being breast-fed by vegetarian so this kind of information about breast milk composition can help mothers to have correct nutrition.

Keywords

Breast milk, composition, diet