Human Milk from Tandem Feeding Dyads Does Not Differ in Metabolite and Metataxonomic Features When Compared to Single Nursling Dyads under Six Months of Age

Abstract

Given the long-term advantages of exclusive breastfeeding to infants and their mothers, there is both an individual and public health benefit to its promotion and support. Data on the composition of human milk over the course of a full period of lactation for a single nursling is sparse, but data on human milk composition during tandem feeding (feeding children of different ages from different pregnancies) is almost entirely absent. This leaves an important knowledge gap that potentially endangers the ability of parents to make a fully informed choice on infant feeding. We compared the metataxonomic and metabolite fingerprints of human milk samples from 15 tandem feeding dyads to that collected from ten exclusively breastfeeding single nursling dyads where the nursling is under six months of age. Uniquely, our cohort also included three tandem feeding nursling dyads where each child showed a preferential side for feeding—allowing a direct comparison between human milk compositions for different aged nurslings. Across our analysis of volume, total fat, estimation of total microbial load, metabolite fingerprinting, and metataxonomics, we showed no statistically significant differences between tandem feeding and single nursling dyads. This included comparisons of preferential side nurslings of different ages. Together, our findings support the practice of tandem feeding of nurslings, even when feeding an infant under six months.

Keywords

• human milk
• lactation
• metabolome
• breastfeeding
• infant feeding
• microbiome