Nutrition Through the Life Cycle: Lactation

Multiple factors affect milk composition in general and its lipid composition in particular. The physiological conditions and pathologies that change milk lipid composition include lactation stage, maternal diet, preterm delivery, maternal age, parity number, and gestational diabetes. While the effects of some of these conditions on milk have been well described, those of others, such as gestational diabetes, have scarcely been studied. Moreover, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the possible consequences of changes in milk composition in terms of development and health of the suckling neonate; these warrant profound and comprehensive studies. Due to the difficulty involved in collecting breast milk under controlled physiological state, dietary status and lactation stage, the generation of reliable data is challenging. Therefore, further study is required, in both animal models and breast milk, to shed light on the processes controlling milk composition with special consideration on milk collection method.