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Children
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Impacts of Newborn Breast Milk Feeding
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Impacts of Newborn Breast Milk Feeding

A special issue of Children (ISSN 2227-9067). This special issue belongs to the section "Global Pediatric Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 August 2025 | Viewed by 2360

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ivan Hand

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Pediatrics/Division of Neonatology, Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn, NY, USA
2. Department of Pediatrics, SUNY-Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Interests: fetus and newborn; neonatology; breastfeeding; neonatal neurology
Dr. Lawrence M. Noble

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY 10029, USA
Interests: breastfeeding; human milk; milk banks

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Human milk is the optimal form of nutrition for all infants, with significant short- and long-term benefits for both the mother and infant. Although there has been a modest increase in breastfeeding rates over the past few years, we remain short of our target goals, as described by the WHO and Healthy People 2020 goals. Breastfeeding rates have also not increased uniformly in all communities due to socioeconomic and cultural differences. This Special Issue is dedicated to studies regarding the impact of human milk and breastfeeding in achieving desirable health outcomes in our population of infants and their mothers. Research demonstrating the effects of human milk feeding on both short- and long-term mother–infant outcomes will contribute to the general knowledge base related to this topic and promote one of the major public health initiatives of our time.

Dr. Ivan Hand
Dr. Lawrence M. Noble
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Children is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • human milk
  • breastfeeding
  • preterm infant
  • fortification
  • donor breast milk

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 2084 KiB  
Article
Sharing Milk and Knowledge in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Improves Care for Neonates in a Low- and Middle-Income Population—A North–South Collaboration
by Kirsti Haaland, Srishti Goel, Gunjana Kumar, Ingvild Andresen Hurv, Isha Thapar, Jitesh Jalthuria and Sushma Nangia
Children 2025, 12(3), 326; https://doi.org/10.3390/children12030326 - 4 Mar 2025
Viewed by 813
Abstract
Background: Basic healthcare may significantly decrease neonatal morbidity and mortality. Attention to this, particularly in populations where rates of potentially preventable illness and death within the first weeks of life are extremely high, will have a positive impact on global health. Objective: This [...] Read more.
Background: Basic healthcare may significantly decrease neonatal morbidity and mortality. Attention to this, particularly in populations where rates of potentially preventable illness and death within the first weeks of life are extremely high, will have a positive impact on global health. Objective: This manuscript presents the development and impact of a quality improvement programme to reduce the evidence–practice gap in care for neonates admitted to the NICU in a public hospital in India. The programme was locally customised for optimal and sustainable results. Method: The backbone of the project was educational exchange of neonatal nurses and physicians between Norway and India. Areas of potential improvement in the care for the neonates were mainly identified by the clinicians and focus areas were subject to dynamic changes over time. In addition, a service centre for lactation counselling and milk banking was established. Progress over the timeframe 2017–2019 was compared with baseline data. Results: The project has shown that after a collaborative effort, there is a significant reduction in mortality from 11% in the year 2016 to 5.5% in the year 2019. The morbidity was reduced, as illustrated by the decrease in the proportion of neonates with culture-proven sepsis. Nutrition improved with consumption of human milk by the NICU-admitted neonates remarkably increasing from one third to more than three forth of their total intake, and weight gain in a subgroup was shown to increase. With the introduction of family participatory care, hours of skin-to-skin contact for the neonates significantly increased. Additional indicators of improved care were also observed. Conclusions: It is feasible to reduce neonatal mortality and morbidity in a low- and middle-income hospitalised population by improving basic care including nutrition relatively inexpensively when utilising human resources. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of Newborn Breast Milk Feeding)
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12 pages, 411 KiB  
Article
Investigating Leptin Gene Variants and Methylation Status in Relation to Breastfeeding and Preventing Obesity
by Ayse Kilic, Sacide Pehlivan, Muhammet Ali Varkal, Fatima Ceren Tuncel, Ibrahim Kandemir, Mustafa Ozcetin, Sükran Poyrazoglu, Asli Derya Kardelen, Irem Ozdemir and Ismail Yildiz
Children 2024, 11(11), 1293; https://doi.org/10.3390/children11111293 - 25 Oct 2024
Viewed by 972
Abstract
Objective: We investigated whether the results of leptin gene (LEP) 2548G/A (rs7799039) and leptin receptor gene (LEPR) 668 A/G (rs1137101) variants, as well as the methylation analysis of CpG regions at nucleotides −31 and −51 of the LEP gene, showed any differences between [...] Read more.
Objective: We investigated whether the results of leptin gene (LEP) 2548G/A (rs7799039) and leptin receptor gene (LEPR) 668 A/G (rs1137101) variants, as well as the methylation analysis of CpG regions at nucleotides −31 and −51 of the LEP gene, showed any differences between breastfed and non-breastfed children in this study. Materials and Methods: The cross-sectional study included 100 children aged 2–5 years who were attending nursery and kindergarten and had been accepted to the Department of General Paediatrics. Infants who were exclusively breastfed for the first six months after birth constituted the study group, and those who were not only breastfeed constituted the control group. Methylation percentages at CpG islands of the LEP gene were compared between exclusively breastfed and non-exclusively breastfed infants, and the statistical significance was analyzed by looking for changes in LEP −31 and −51 nt methylation and LEP 2548G/A ve LEPR 668 A/G variants. Results: Both groups were compared by feeding, and the association of LEPR and LEP gene polymorphisms and −51 nt and −31 nt methylations were analyzed. There were no significant differences between the groups regarding genotype and allele frequency for the LEPR 668 A/G, LEP 2548 G/A gene variant, −31 nt methylation, and −51 nt methylation status. Similarly, there was no significant difference in genotype and allele frequency for the LEPR 668 A/G gene variant in terms of duration of exclusive breastfeeding, total breastfeeding, body mass index, family obesity, and satiety status. However, maternal support from family elders and physical activity increased the 51 nt methylation, but this methylation was not significantly affected by BMI, age, or satiety status. Conclusions: Maternal support from family elders and physical activity were associated with increased 51 nt methylation, but this methylation was not significantly affected by BMI, age, or satiety status. However, there are not enough studies in this area to reach a definitive conclusion, and further research is needed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of Newborn Breast Milk Feeding)
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