\n
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n
Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRead more<\/span><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThere are optimal times of day to feed your baby pumped breast milk that correlate with their circadian rhythm, researchers said Friday, with potential benefits for their health and sleeping patterns.<\/p>\n
A mother\u2019s breast milk is unique, due to factors including nutrition, fitness, and genetics. <\/p>\n
But levels of melatonin, for example, the hormone that regulates the body\u2019s sleep cycle, peak at around midnight in breast milk, the researchers found. Cortisol, which manages stress, was at its highest level early in the morning. <\/p>\n
Levels of the love hormone oxytocin, the milk protein lactoferrin, and the antibody protein immunoglobulin A were mostly stable throughout the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all have circadian rhythms in our blood, and in lactating mothers, these are often reflected in breast milk,\u201d Dr. Melissa Woortman, from Rutgers University in New Jersey, explained in a statement. <\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Levels of important hormones and proteins that protect babies\u2019 immune health can change over the course of a day (Getty Images\/iStock)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\u201cHormones like melatonin and cortisol follow these rhythms and enter milk from maternal circulation,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Feeding babies expressed breast milk at a corresponding time to which it was pumped appeared to be incredibly beneficial for the infants\u2019 health. That was particularly the case for the youngest infants, who are still developing a sleep pattern.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe noted differences in the concentrations of bioactive components in breast milk based on time of day, reinforcing that breast milk is a dynamic food,\u201d Woortman said. \u201cConsideration should be given to the time it is fed to the infant when expressed breast milk is used.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study involved 21 participants who were recruited by Rutgers, and the University of Puerto Rico. The mothers had just given birth at New Brunswick\u2019s Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center and were over the age of 21.<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Feeding babies expressed breast milk at a corresponding time to which it was pumped appeared to be incredibly beneficial for the infants\u2019 health (Getty Images\/iStock)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nParticipants gave 10-milliliter breast milk samples over the course of two days, about a month apart. The new moms provided samples of expressed breast milk at 6 a.m., noon, 6 p.m., and midnight. <\/p>\n
Samples were also collected from 17 additional participants at the same times, but only for one day. A total of 236 samples were analyzed.<\/p>\n
Labeling stored milk with the time of day it has been pumped could be a way to ensure babies receive important signals thought to influence their sleep-wake cycles. That may especially be beneficial for busy mothers who don\u2019t have the opportunity to directly breastfeed multiple times during the day and night.<\/p>\n
\u201cLabeling expressed milk as \u2018morning,\u2019 \u2018afternoon,\u2019 or \u2018evening\u2019 and feeding it correspondingly could help align expressing and feeding times and preserve the natural hormonal and microbial composition of the milk, as well as circadian signals,\u201d Professor Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, a researcher at Rutgers University, pointed out. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference. Read more There are optimal times of day to feed your baby pumped breast milk that correlate with their circadian rhythm, researchers said Friday, with potential benefits for their health and sleeping patterns. A mother\u2019s breast milk is unique, due to factors including nutrition, fitness, and genetics. But levels of melatonin, for example, the hormone that regulates the body\u2019s sleep cycle, peak at around midnight in breast milk, the researchers found. Cortisol, which manages stress, was at its highest level early in the morning. Levels of the love hormone oxytocin, the milk protein lactoferrin, and the antibody protein immunoglobulin A were mostly stable throughout the day. \u201cWe all have circadian rhythms in our blood, and in lactating mothers, these are often reflected in breast milk,\u201d Dr. Melissa Woortman, from Rutgers University in New Jersey, explained in a statement. open image in gallery Levels of important hormones and proteins that protect babies\u2019 immune health can change over the course of a day (Getty Images\/iStock) \u201c…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5473"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}