Breast Milk Composition and Feeding Strategies for Healthy Infant Growth

Dear Colleagues,

Breastfeeding plays a crucial role in shaping infant nutrition, influencing both prompt health outcomes and long-term developmental trajectories. Breastfeeding is not merely a biological process but a dynamic interplay between mother and child, where each dyad uniquely contributes to the nutritional landscape of infancy. Responsive feeding—recognizing and responding to infant hunger and satiety signals—promotes healthy growth patterns and strengthens the mother-infant bond. Ensuring adequate maternal nutrition and hydration further supports optimal breast milk quality. Understanding these patterns may enhance support for effective and secure feeding practices. Diverse elements shape human lactation; stressors faced by mothers or socioeconomic disparities can significantly alter lactation processes, thereby impacting the quality of nutrition provided to the infant. The existence of adequate policies and protocols is recognized as the foundational step for promoting, protecting, and supporting optimal breastfeeding practices. Despite the evidence-based recommendations and guidelines, a considerable proportion of infants are fed in a way that impairs the maintenance of exclusive breastfeeding during postnatal adaptation. Overall, tailored feeding strategies and understanding breast milk’s composition are essential for promoting lifelong health in infants.

As research continues to unfold, in this Special Issue of Nutrients, works aim to emphasize the most recent results of breast milk research that considers both individual circumstances and systemic factors affecting current infant nutrition trends.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Vass Reka Anna
Prof. Dr. Didier Vieau
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2900 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.