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Breastfeeding: How the components of breast milk help develop the circadian rhythms of a baby
Quick Summary: Breastfeeding info for parents. New review paper from Mexico on how the complex nutritive and non-nutritive components of breast milk change over the day/night to help a baby develop its own circadian clock. The paper includes a great description of the difference between these components in human milk vs infant formula.
Helpful breastfeeding info — for parents and health professionals
Human milk is incredibly complex, with many bioactive and immune factors.
Breast milk also contains human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) which help the development of the infant gut microbiome. All these components are crucial for infant health.
Now a new review paper by scientists from Mexico explains how the concentrations of milk components change over the day and night to help the development of a baby’s circadian rhythms.
As the paper describes, the development of the circadian system begins in utero, with a baby receiving time cues from the mother’s temperature, metabolites and hormones.
When a baby is born, the circadian rhythms are not yet fully developed.
