Mother &
Child Health
& Nutrition
Breastfeeding is the gold standard in infant nutrition. Studies have shown that exclusively breastfed children benefit from better immunity and optimal growth and development.
get the science of expertsThe importance of Nutrition
& Feeding
According to the “Convention on the Rights of the Child”, every infant and child have the right to good nutrition. Breastmilk is the ideal food for infants. The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months.
The first 1000 days - referring to the period from conception to 2 years of age – is a crucial period for immune, endocrine, metabolic and neural developmental pathways. Any adverse insult in this period, such as suboptimal feeding, may contribute to lifelong and intergenerational deficits in growth and development.
Emerging perspective of human developmental biology includes the microbiota (and the microbiome) that reside within the human body. The microbial establishment and succession during early life plays a critical role in the maturation of developmental pathways, which may lead to later-life health impacts.
Beyond the first 1000 days period, and more globally, adequate nutrition during infancy and childhood is essential not only to ensure that the child’s nutritional needs are met for healthy growth and development, but also provides a window of opportunity for interventions to reduce the burden of noncommunicable diseases in later-life.
Experts Interviews on mother & Child health & nutrition
Experts Interview - Maternal Health and Pre and Postpartum Depression
Prof. Jayashri Kulkarni
Mother & Child Health & Nutrition
Around 10% to 20% of women experience perinatal and postnatal depression. This condition is characterized by intense feelings of sadness, despair, anxiety and irritability during pregnancy and after birth. In this interview, Prof. Kulkarni explains the causes and symptoms of and interventions for pre and postpartum depression.
Jayashri Kulkarni is a Professor of Psychiatry. She is the founder and leader of a large psychiatric research group, the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre (MAPrc). She is also the President of the International Association for Women’s Mental Health. Prof. Kulkarni has been working for 25 years in the field of women’s mental health and has improved the quality of care for mental issues by developing treatments specifically conceived to respond to women’s biological, psychological and social needs.
More Experts interviews on mother & Child health & Nutrition
experts publications on mother & Child health & nutrition
Precision Nutrition and the Microbiome, Part I: Current State of the Science
Biotics & Microbiome Health
S. Mills et al. (2019)
The gut microbiota is a highly complex community which evolves and adapts to its host over a lifetime. It has been described as a virtual organ owing to the myriad of functions it performs, including the production of bioactive metabolites, regulation of immunity, energy homeostasis and protection against pathogens.
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Precision Nutrition and the Microbiome Part II Potential Opportunities and Pathways to Commercialisation
Biotics & Microbiome Health
S. Mills et al. (2019)
Modulation of the human gut microbiota through probiotics, prebiotics and dietary fibre are recognised strategies to improve health and prevent disease. Yet we are only beginning to understand the impact of these interventions on the gut microbiota and the physiological consequences for the human host.
Xiang Study: an association of breastmilk composition with maternal body mass index and infant growth during the first 3 months of life
Mother & Child Health & Nutrition
Xuyi Pen et al. (2021)
This study aimed to establish a mother and child cohort in the Chinese population, and investigate human breastmilk (HBM) composition and its relationship with maternal body mass index (BMI) and infant growth during the first 3 months of life.
Comparative Structural and Compositional Analyses of Cow, Buffalo, Goat and Sheep Cream
Mother & Child Health & Nutrition
V. Felice et al. (2021)
Factors affecting milk and milk fraction composition, such as cream, are poorly understood, with most research and human health application associated with cow cream. In this study, proteomic and lipidomic analyses were performed on cow, goat, sheep and Bubalus bubalis, bulk milk cream samples.
Human milk oligosaccharide-sharing by a consortium of infant derived Bifidobacterium species
Biotics & Microbiome Health
Walsh C. et al. (2022)
Bifidobacteria are associated with a host of health benefits and are typically dominant in the gut microbiota of healthy, breast-fed infants. A key adaptation, facilitating the establishment of these species, is their ability to consume particular sugars, known as human milk oligosaccharides (HMO), which are abundantly found in breastmilk.
Human Milk Oligosaccharide Utilization in Intestinal Bifidobacteria Is Governed by Global Transcriptional Regulator NagR
Biotics & Microbiome Health
Arzamasov A. et al. (2022)
Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis is a prevalent beneficial bacterium that colonizes the human neonatal gut and is uniquely adapted to efficiently use human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) as a carbon and energy source.
Human milk oligosaccharides: Shaping the infant gut microbiota and supporting health
Biotics & Microbiome Health
Walsh C et al. (2020)
Recent research has highlighted that HMOs have various functional roles to play in infant development. These sugars act as prebiotics by promoting growth of beneficial intestinal bacteria thereby generating short-chain fatty acids which are critical for gut health.
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From lab bench to formulated ingredient: Characterization, production, and commercialization of human milk oligosaccharides
Immunity & Allergy
Walsh et al. (2020)
Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are known to positively influence infant health. Extensive variation exists in the levels, diversity, and complexity of oligosaccharides in the milk of a lactating mother.
Webinars on mother & Child Health & nutrition
Webinar - Cow's milk allergy
Prof. Christophe Dupont
Immunity & Allergy
Cow’s milk allergy is a common diagnosis in early life. It consists of an allergic reaction to the protein present in cow’s milk and manifests as a variety of symptoms such as skin reactions and digestive issues which commonly develop in infants. In this webinar, Prof. Christophe Dupont, from the University of Paris Descartes, addresses the clinical symptoms and the treatments for this condition.
Dr. Christophe Dupont has been a Paediatric Gastroenterologist (GI) since 1980, and has specialised in endoscopy, with a focus on endoscopy in neonates and allergic children. He was formerly head of the ambulatory paediatric GI department at Hospital Necker in Paris and Emeritus professor at Paris-Descartes University. Dr. Dupont is now president of the Committee of Nutrition of the French Society of Pediatrics and he is currently working in the field of pediatric GI and severe food allergy, diagnosis and treatment. He is also the co-founder of the company DBV Technologies. He is the principal investigator in numerous clinical trials, in the field of gastroesophageal reflux, diarrhea, constipation, infant nutrition and food allergy. Dr. Dupont has published over 300 publications in peer-reviewed papers.
Funded projects on mother & CHild health & Nutrition
Microbiota-diet-host interplay during pregnancy: relevance for the maternal-neonatal health MIDIHOP
Mother & Child Health & Nutrition
Collado M. C., CSIC, National Research Council, Spain, 2022
Conception, gestation, and lactation are critical periods for human development. The exposure to unhealthy dietary patterns, excess weight gain and other environmental factors results in a higher risk of pregnancy complications affecting both mothers and infants.
Nutritional therapies targeting the neuronal AhR for functional bowel disorders and IBS in children
Brain Development
De Jonge W., Amsterdam UMC, Netherlands, 2022
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most common disorder of the gut-brain interactions diagnosed in gastroenterology in children and adults. In addition to the increased bowel reactions such as cramps and diarrhea, pain receptors seem to be more sensitive.
PROTECT: Priming for healthy eating via the diet-microbiota -gut-brain axis
Mother & Child Health & Nutrition
Schellekens H., University College Cork, Ireland, 2021
Diet remains one of the main drivers of the obesity pandemic, in particular the overconsumption of calorically dense palatable foods in early life. There is increasing interest to further our understanding of the pathways in the brain that drive excess unhealthy food consumption and how they are established from the onset.
Maternal malnutrition: mother-infant microbiota transmission and susceptibility to metabolic disease
Mother & Child Health & Nutrition
Vonaesch P., University of Lausanne, Switzerland, 2021
The exact causes linking prenatal and early life under- or over-nutrition with a higher risk of obesity and metabolic disease in later life remain uncertain. Previous work shows that the human body can adapt to changing nutrient availability through epigenetic mechanisms, for which plasticity is especially pronounced in early life thereby increasing the adaptability of newborns to their environment.
Sex matters! The role of maternal gut microbiota in shaping in- creased susceptibility of females to stress-related psychiatric disorders
Mother & Child Health & Nutrition
O’Leary O., APC Microbiome, University of Cork, Ireland 2020
Stressors during childhood including parental neglect and poverty, increase risk to develop depression and anxiety disorders (Heim and Binder, 2012, O'Leary and Cryan, 2013). Biological sex is also a risk factor for these disorders.
Therapeutic potential of the nutraceutical nicotinamide mononucleotide to treat early‐life stress‐induced emotional and metabolic alterations
Mother & Child Health & Nutrition
Sandi C., EPFL, Switzerland, 2020
Our overarching hypothesis is that the behavioral reprogramming induced by peripubertal stress is mediated by decreased signaling of the adipokine eNampt and subsequent impairment of the NAD+/SIRT1 pathway in the NAc.
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Predictors and associations of childhood dietary inflammation with obesity
Mother & Child Health & Nutirition
Philipps C., University College Dublin, Ireland, 2020
Better understanding of the relationship between dietary inflammation and adiposity in childhood may be important in the context of identifying modifiable behaviours for early prevention of childhood obesity. In this project we characterised childhood dietary inflammation using the recently described child dietary inflammatory index (C-DII).
Intestinal homeostasis in the prevention of pediatric obesity and its consequences on health
Mother & Child Health & Nutrition
Eberl G., Department of Immunology, Institute Pasteur, France, 2019
The objective of this project is to assess the efficacy of dietary fibers, short chain fatty acids and tryptophan metabolites, and of the bacteria species able to process fibers and tryptophan, in the prevention of childhood obesity and associated risks.
Influence of post-partum depression and probiotic treatment on maternal brain serotonin and caregiving behaviors
Mother & Child Health & Nutrition
Pawluski J., Institut de Recherche en Santé, Environnement et Travail, University Rennes, France, 2019
This study will provide valuable information on the effects of pregnancy stress and PPD on maternal caregiving, the maternal brain-gut axis, and how these factors are altered by probiotic treatment.
Transmission of obesity from mother to child through microbiota transfer and impact on feeding behavior
Mother & Child Health and Nutrition
Parnet P., INRA, France, 2018
Studies suggest that obesity could be ‘transmitted’ from mother to child. Since maternal microbiota is the main determinant of child intestine colonization, the transmission of a maternal microbiota "signature" of obesity to her child during perinatal period, could potentially affect his metabolism.
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Early gut microbiota signatures of diseases
Biotics & Microbiome Health
Butel M.-J., INSERM, France, 2018
Early gut microbiota establishment is suggested to be an important factor for the health of the infant and future adult. In this context, we propose to identify early intestinal microbiota signatures or predictive microbiota profiles in children of the occurrence of overweight and obesity.
4 areas of expertise
Stay at the forefront of healthcare innovation and best practices, empowering yourself with the latest research and insights in our four areas of expertise : mother and child health, biotics and microbiome health, immunity and allergy and brain development.
Resources Information for parents
Raising awareness of maternal and infant health to parents is an important duty of health care professionals. We created the parents corner to provide you with insightful resources to help you in your mission.
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