Human milk: From complex tailored nutrition to bioactive impact on child cognition and behavior

Human milk is a highly complex liquid food tailor-made to match an infant's needs. Beyond documented positive effects of breastfeeding on infant and maternal health, there is increasing evidence that milk constituents also impact child neurodevelopment. Non-nutrient milk bioactives would contribute to the (long-term) development of child cognition and behavior, a process termed 'Lactocrine Programming'. In this review we discuss the current state of the field on human milk composition and its links with child cognitive and behavioral development. To promote state-of-the-art methodologies and designs that facilitate data pooling and meta-analytic endeavors, we present detailed recommendations and best practices for future studies. Finally, we determine important scientific gaps that need to be filled to advance the field, and discuss innovative directions for future research. Unveiling the mechanisms underlying the links between human milk and child cognition and behavior will deepen our understanding of the broad functions of this complex liquid food, as well as provide necessary information for designing future interventions

Human milk: From complex tailored nutrition to bioactive impact on child cognition and behavior

Human milk is a highly complex liquid food tailor-made to match an infant's needs. Beyond documented positive effects of breastfeeding on infant and maternal health, there is increasing evidence that milk constituents also impact child neurodevelopment. Non-nutrient milk bioactives would contribute to the (long-term) development of child cognition and behavior, a process termed 'Lactocrine Programming'. In this review we discuss the current state of the field on human milk composition and its links with child cognitive and behavioral development. To promote state-of-the-art methodologies and designs that facilitate data pooling and meta-analytic endeavors, we present detailed recommendations and best practices for future studies. Finally, we determine important scientific gaps that need to be filled to advance the field, and discuss innovative directions for future research. Unveiling the mechanisms underlying the links between human milk and child cognition and behavior will deepen our understanding of the broad functions of this complex liquid food, as well as provide necessary information for designing future interventions.All authors participated in the four-day hybrid meeting on ‘Lactational Programming: joining forces to optimize research on how maternal milk composition influences child cognition and behavior’ (Zeist, the Netherlands, 16-19 November 2020), which was financed by an Early Career Partnership 2020 Grant of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (awarded to Beijers). Funding sources for individual authors: Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research VICI grant (016.Vici.185.038-to de Weerth), The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences Clinical Science and Translational Award (UL1TR001863-to Dettmer), NWO Food Cognition and Behaviour (057-14-003-to Korosi), Turku University Foundation, Maire Taponen Foundation and Finnish Psychiatry Foundation (-to Aatsinki), Polish National Science Centre OPUS grant (2015/17/B/NZ8/02436 -to Ziomkiewicz), Canadian Research Chair in Human Nutrition and Metabolism and funding from Natural Science and Engineering Council of Canada NSERC (RGPIN-2017-04746-to Field), The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch Project (1021411-to Slupsky), USDA NRI (2007-35203-18098 and 2013-67016-20523-to Bartol), Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation grant (PID2019-105606RB-I00-to Rodríguez), UC San Diego Chair of Collaborative Human Milk Research, endowed by the Family Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation, Switzerland (-to Bode), Wellcome Trust (220225/Z/20/Z-to Moore), Tier 2 Canada Research Chair and Fellow in the CIFAR Humans and the Microbiome Program, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Research Manitoba, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Manitoba Children’s Hospital Foundation, Prolacta Biosciences, Mitacs, CIFAR, and the Garfield G. Weston Foundation (-to Azad), CIHR Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (-to Turner), European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (ERC starting grant, no. 639226-to Collado), Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research VENI grant (016.195.197-to Beijers).Peer reviewe