ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1606169
This article is part of the Research TopicHuman Milk, Nutrition and Infant Development, Volume IIView all 15 articles
Examining Associations between Human Milk Fatty Acids, Oligosaccharides, and Early Infant Cognitive, Language and Motor Development in the CHILD Cohort Study
Provisionally accepted- 1Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM), Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
- 2Manitoba Interdisciplinary Lactation Centre, Winnipeg, Canada
- 3Department of Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
- 4Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, Max Rady College of Medicine ,University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
- 5Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
- 6Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
- 7Department of Paediatrics, Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- 8Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- 9Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
- 10Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- 11Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- 12Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation Mother-Milk-Infant Center of Research Excellence, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States
- 13Department of Pediatrics University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- 14Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
- 15School and Child Psychology Program, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
- 16Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- 17Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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Introduction: Human milk fatty acids and human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are milk components inconsistently associated with neurodevelopment. The objective of this research is to examine the link between fatty acids, HMOs and neurodevelopment. Methods: This study includes a subset of 240 parent-infant pairs from the Edmonton site of the CHILD Cohort Study. At 3-4 months post-partum, breastfeeding parents provided a milk sample which was analyzed to identify 20 fatty acids and 19 HMOs. Research assistants administered the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development at one and two years of age, comprising cognitive, language and motor development scales (standardized to a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15; higher scores indicate better development). Adjusted linear regression was used to estimate the relationships between individual milk components or principal components and neurodevelopment, adjusting for maternal and infant factors. Interactions were tested with infant sex and maternal secretor status.Results: After adjustment, the first fatty acid principal component, characterized by high saturated fat and low n-3 and n-6 fatty acids, was related to higher motor scores (β= 1.59; 95% CI: 0.75, 2.43). Higher concentrations disialyllacto-N-tetraose were related to lower motor scores (β=-3.91, 95% CI: -5.81, -2.01). Higher concentrations of difucosyllacto-N-hexaose were related to higher language and motor scores for infants of maternal non-secretors, while higher concentrations of 3'-sialyllactose were related to higher scores for infants of maternal secretors.Both fatty acids and HMOs are related to early neurodevelopment. Maternal secretor status moderates the relationship between select HMOs and neurodevelopment.
Keywords: cognitive develoipment, Language Developement, Motor development, Breast milk composition, Bayley-III Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, cohort study
Received: 04 Apr 2025; Accepted: 14 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Turner, Roos, Nickel, Moraes, Turvey, Simons, Subbarao, Robertson, Chikuma, Goruk, Field, Bode, Pei, Mandhane and Azad. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sarah E Turner, Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM), Winnipeg, MB R3E 3P4, Manitoba, Canada
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