Essential Nutrients in Mother's Milk and Their Impact on Infant Health - Case Study

HUG4050 Assessment Guidance Case Study

Introduction: HUG4050 Assessment Guidance

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Nutritional requirements for infants are crucial because of the physical and cognitive development of the newborn baby with enhanced immunity and adequate growth. It helps to reduce the rate of morbidity as well as assist in lowering the risks of chronic diseases throughout their lifespan. Hence, nutritional guidance for the parents would help to grow their children healthy with adequate nutrients.

Sarah, Bethany's mother, is a very busy working lady who needs to keep office and health requirements relating to punctual feeding, nursing, cleaning, and well-maintained sanitary circumstances of her freshly born baby.

Methods

The nutrition in the infant's body

Good food is crucial for a newborn's growth and maturation within the initial year of childhood. When growing babies are given the right meals in the right quantities, overall well-being improves. Baby formulas include milk that has been carefully made for newborns and younger kids. This is a vital nutritious commodity that offers a variety of varieties, including easy-to-feed liquid items, enhanced liquid goods, and granules that have been reassembled for use. The development, as well as stabilization of such an "oil-in-water" (o/w) emulsifier is the primary stage in the production of something like the aforementioned commodities (Hoshyargar and Ashrafizadeh, 2013). For long-term conservation, the colloid would have to be extremely stable. This event discusses the function of proteins as well as other dispersion features. Dairy enzymes and lower molecule content meal standard emulsifiers combine to produce a barrier that prevents oil particles from coalescing. The major non-dispersants utilized to improve the durability of such goods, especially "ready-to-feed" or intense solvent formulations are "lecithin" and "mono-di-glycerides". When spraying drying granules are reconstituted, lecithin might well be included to enhance hydrophilicity. 

Guidelines were used to derive nutritional requirements

Infancy is a good period for the rapid growth of a baby. It is very important to follow proper guidelines in nutrition requirements. In this portion of the article, we cover and define proper nutrition requirements.

Required Nutrient profiles for an infant

Macronutrient

Macronutrient compositions are large protein units that serve as even the primary supply of calories and feedstock while also playing a significant physiological role in tissue formation and development.

Carbohydrates (Energy)

Carbohydrates, together with lipids and peptides, constitute one of the three basic nutrients present in meals and beverages. Our bodies convert "carbohydrates" into "glucose". Glucose, often referred to as plasma glucose, is indeed the primary fuel supply for human organisms' enzymes, structures, and glands. Carbohydrates' primary job inside the baby's development would be to supply fuel to the entire body, especially to the brain, which requires glycogen functioning.

Proteins

The peptide is indeed a necessary macronutrient that performs an important anabolic function in the development of muscles and tissues. Protein consists of around twenty fundamental structural units known as “amino acids” (Giovannini et al. 2014). Since humans cannot retain amino acids, human systems produce proteins in 2 directions: by scratching or by altering others. It has an impact on just about any child's nutrition, muscle mass, neurogenesis, hunger, and endocrine management.

Vitamins

Because of decreased storage, greater needs, and underdeveloped metabolism mechanisms, preterm newborns are susceptible to vitamin shortages.

Lipids

Lipoproteins are biological molecules that are permeable in an organic solvent including ethanol and chloroform but are immiscible in water. Fats, as well as lipids ("triglycerides" or "triacylglycerols"), fatty acid oxidation, "phospholipids", and cholesterol levels, are all relevant lipids within this topic.

Other Trace Elements

Iron: Iron (Fe) is a necessary element since it represents a fundamental constituent of hemoglobin and myoglobin. Iron insufficiency causes "microcytic anemia" and “FTT” (Segura et al. 2016).

Zinc: Zinc (Zn) is indeed an important component of human proteins and therefore is required for development.

Copper: Copper (Cu) represents an essential element for over 20 key enzymatic components in basic physiological activities such as physiological respiratory, and iron metabolism, including red blood cell formation, to mention a very few.

Manganese: Manganese (Mn) seems to be an essential nutrient that plays a position for enzymatic stimulation and functioning inside a wide range of enzymes, particularly “metalloenzymes” containing manganese integrated into the enzymatic chemical composition, more prominently the “superoxide dismutase enzyme” (Boudry et al. 2010).

The care for infant growth

Infancy seems to be a time of fast development. It's indeed critical to monitor baby development.

Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding has now become far beyond a health concern; it crosses societal, economic, ethnic, and geographical boundaries. According to medical norms breastfeeding up to six months of age is essential for the baby's growth and the mother's good health. This event encourages the mother-child connection. As babies get younger, the frequency of exclusive breastfeeding continues to decline. By 3 months, over "41%" of women continue solely nursing, and therefore by 6 months, just "19%" are solely breastfed (Victora et al. 2016). Distracting or discontinuing breastfeeding for something like a wide range of reasons including insufficient milk production, a challenging adaptation to the residential setting, and maternal returning to work during various periods, like Sarah, as per professional opinion. As a result, it's indeed critical to assist the parents throughout these critical times to resist discontinuing breastfeeding.

Donor Milk

In the developed world, however, donor milk is now a new way to feed an infant. It continues to be used in several impoverished nations whenever availability to the mom's mammary milk isn't accessible. But it is used in the wrong way. Sometimes it is a better way of income for poor families' mothers. The donation of breast milk has now become accessible in civilized economies through donated milk depots. The actual quality of contributed breastfeeding varies across individuals. After testing the contributors and lactation specimens for infectious illnesses, this donated breastfeeding is often administered by "centralized breast milk banks" (Labbok et al. 2004).  In addition, the milk is usually sterilized by pasteurization. According to an infant's health, it is not the best choice for the good health and growth of any infant.

Formula Supplementation

Infant formulas are milk that has been carefully made for newborns and younger kids. These vital nutritious items are accessible throughout a wide range of formats, comprising handy "ready-to-feed" liquids, fortified liquids, and powders that must be dissolved for use (Patel et al. 2015). The main distinctions in baby formulae are the kinds and quantities of “proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids”. Proteins in infant formulae are commonly made from cow's milk, with protein being more over water. This product rarely causes serious side effects. But sometimes it may have a greater risk of respiratory infection, allergies, obesity, cognitive development issues, and other health risks.

Results

This section will describe the findings from the descriptions of Bethany's daily nutrition and supplementation and how it impacts her growth. First, a snip has been taken from a reputed website about the standard height and weight of female babies aged from 0 to 6 months. Then, we would compare Bethany's physical health and well-being with the standard databases.

Figure: Standard height and weight of the infants

Bethany’s Height to weight ratio

Table: Basic health information of Bethany

The percentage of deviation states that Bethany's growth is quite effective and maintains proper weight per height. However, she lacks proper nutrition mainly because of not getting breast milk daily. However daily intake of proper nutrition or supplementation and breastfeeding would improve her health condition as well as cognitive performance in the future.

Figure: Comparison between standard height-to-weight ratio with Bethany's height-to-weight ratio

The nutrient value of Aptamil 1

Bethany takes 210 ml of Aptamil 1 per feed and she gets 4 feeds in a day. Therefore she gets 840 ml of Aptamil milk a day. The information has been collected from the aptashop.co.uk website where the nutritional value of Aptamil 1 has been provided in 100 ml of the product contents. 

Discussion

Sarah, the mother of Bethany, is quite a busy working woman who has to maintain both office and health conditions related to timely feeding a day, timely breastfeeding, cleaning, and well-maintained hygienic conditions of her newborn baby. A newborn baby requires a minimum of 6 to 8 times a day where each feeding should last for 20 to 30 minutes a day; 15 minutes for each breast. Each feed must ensure 4 to 5 ounces of mild which would be equal to approximately 140 ml.

Notwithstanding the underlying premise that perhaps the mother's wellness and dietary state is indeed a key driver of pregnancy output (e.g., childbirth weights and gestational time) and baby wellbeing (e.g., newborn and infant mortalities), current scientific work failed to stress the mother's nutritious condition. The mom's fitness and dietary state have a substantial impact on female productivity in both labor and non-labor industries. A reduced nutrient condition and poor hygiene frequently lead to a reduction of physiological and cognitive power and, therefore, as a consequence, recurrent sickness. It is plausible to suppose that even a mother's insufficient nutritional consumption causes a decrease in effectiveness in the creation of their child's well-being.

Conclusion

The present study reveals a scarcity of dietary knowledge on newborn and mother well-being. With the terrible economic circumstances of several parents today, the globe severely damaged newborn development. Mother's jobs have also been discovered to have a key influence in underdeveloped nations. The current research demonstrates that the same holds accurate for dietary knowledge. Sarah, Bethany's mom, is indeed a highly busy working woman who must maintain workplace and health regulations about the timely feeding, breastfeeding, bathing, and hygienic conditions of her newborn baby. Therefore she did not receive proper nutrients for overall growth; physical and cognitive development. Due to lack of breastfeeding, Bethany did not receive proper nutritional value and supplementation which are lacking in the synthetic milk although her weight-to-height ratio has been maintained properly due to taking Aptamil 1. But it lacks essential nutritious value-added and enzymatic supplies which are present in mother’s milk including “bisphenol A”, “polybrominated diphenyl ethers” (PBDEs), “hexachlorobenzene”, and the “cyclodiene pesticides”, which further consists “dieldrin”, “heptachlor”, and “chlordane”.

Reference list

Journals

Patel, D.V., Bansal, S.C., Nimbalkar, A.S., Phatak, A.G., Nimbalkar, S.M. and Desai, R.G., 2015. Breastfeeding practices, demographic variables, and their association with morbidities in children. Advances in preventive medicine, 2015.

Labbok, M.H., Clark, D. and Goldman, A.S., 2004. Breastfeeding: maintaining an irreplaceable immunological resource. Nature Reviews Immunology, 4(7), pp.565-572.

Wolynn, T., 2012. Using social media to promote and support breastfeeding. Breastfeeding Medicine, 7(5), p.364.

Ford, J.E., Knaggs, G.S., Salter, D.N. and Scott, K.J., 1972. Folate nutrition in the kid. British Journal of Nutrition, 27(3), pp.571-583.

Boudry, G., David, E.S., Douard, V., Monteiro, I.M., Le Huërou-Luron, I. and Ferraris, R.P., 2010. Role of intestinal transporters in neonatal nutrition: carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, minerals, and vitamins. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, 51(4), pp.380-401.

Crawford, M.A., 1993. The role of essential fatty acids in neural development: implications for perinatal nutrition. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 57(5), pp.703S-710S.

Giovannini, M., D'Auria, E., Caffarelli, C., Verduci, E., Barberi, S., Indinnimeo, L., Iacono, I.D., Martelli, A., Riva, E. and Bernardini, R., 2014. Nutritional management and follow-up of infants and children with food allergy: Italian Society of Pediatric Nutrition/Italian Society of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology Task Force Position Statement. Italian Journal of Pediatrics, 40(1), pp.1-9.

Segura, S.A., Ansótegui, J.A. and Díaz-Gómez, N.M., 2016. The importance of maternal nutrition during breastfeeding: do breastfeeding mothers need nutritional supplements? Anales de Pediatría (English Edition), 84(6), pp.347-e1.

Rees, L. and Shaw, V., 2007. Nutrition in children with CRF and on dialysis. Pediatric Nephrology, 22(10), pp.1689-1702.

Michaelsen, K.F., 2000. Feeding and nutrition of infants and young children: guidelines for the WHO European region, with emphasis on the former Soviet countries (No. 87). WHO Regional Office Europe.

Victora, C.G., Bahl, R., Barros, A.J., França, G.V., Horton, S., Krasevec, J., Murch, S., Sankar, M.J., Walker, N., Rollins, N.C. and Group, T.L.B.S., 2016. Breastfeeding in the 21st century: epidemiology, mechanisms, and lifelong effect. The Lancet, 387(10017), pp.475-490.

Hoshyargar, V. and Ashrafizadeh, S.N., 2013. Optimization of flow parameters of heavy crude oil-in-water emulsions through pipelines. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 52(4), pp.1600-1611.