Thread by @DrNShenker

New paper! Published today in @Nutrients_MDPI showing human milk composition is broadly stable in a snapshot of mothers feeding infants up 24 months.

The story behind the paper... 🧵

mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/1…

Back in 2017 I'd worked my toes off to set up @heartsmilkbank with @GillyWeaver, aiming to create a milk bank not only large enough to ensure preterm babies always would have access to donor milk, but that could enable research into all aspects of donation and human milk. 2/

One issue as a newbie on the scene that always struck me as odd was when milk donors were told when their babies were a year that they could no longer donate as their milk would no longer be 'suitable'. When I talked to other banks, some stopped donors at 9 months, some at 6. 3/

That year @mtperrin published a great paper looking longitudinally at human milk between 13-24 months, and found antibodies, antimicrobial factors, total fat and calories all increased over time. Perhaps that milk might be more beneficial for preterm babies needing calories? 4/

Enter the Parenting Science Gang (a @wellcometrust funded citizen science project) and @SJS_Cameron (@imperialcollege, now at @Queens_Belfast) and before we knew it we had scores of mums and babies at Charing Cross donating samples of milk for research with babies up to 48 m. 5/

A year or so of analysis and writing, and here are the results (caveats include samples not being longitudinally collected, not totally representative of entire populations, and we didn't ask huge dietary questionnaires, all to be addressed in future studies)... 6/

Drumroll...

Human milk remains stable up to 24 months when considering the fats, metabolites and microbial features.

7/

We'll be collecting samples again next year thanks to the support of @UKRI_News through my #ukriflf - watch this space!