ArticleInternational breastfeeding journal2009
Is increased fat content of hindmilk due to the size or the number of milk fat globules?
Article in International breastfeeding journal, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Human Milk Macronutrients and Child Growth and Body Composition in the First Two Years: A Systematic Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2024Pooled it
- Formula for the progressive reintroduction of fat into breast milk in infants with chylothorax.JPGN reports · 2026Article
- Tafenoquine lactation pharmacokinetics: a pilot study.Malaria journal · 2025Article
- Little women: the relevance and reliance on mouse models for mammary gland research and next steps for translation.Journal of mammary gland biology and neoplasia · 2025Review
- Paired versus alternate breastfeeding: Does hindmilk become foremilk?Pregnancy (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2025Article
- The Refractive Index of Human Milk Serum: Natural Variations and Dependency on Macronutrient Concentrations.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Composition of Breast Milk in Women with Obesity.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- High-Fat, High-Calorie Breast Milk in Women with Overweight or Obesity and Its Association with Maternal Serum Insulin Concentration and Triglycerides Levels.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Evaluation of mathematical models for predicting medicine distribution into breastmilk - considering biological heterogeneity.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Article
- The relationship between creamatocrit and cumulative percentage of total milk volume: a cross-sectional study in mothers of very preterm infants in Bangkok, Thailand.International breastfeeding journal · 2023Article
- Defining the lipid profiles of human milk, infant formula, and animal milk: implications for infant feeding.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Article
- The role of human milk fats in shaping neonatal development and the early life gut microbiota.Microbiome research reports · 2023Review
- Changes in Human Milk Fat Globule Composition Throughout Lactation: A Review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Review
- Correlations of Fat Content in Human Milk with Fat Droplet Size and Phospholipid Species.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Human milk-based fortifier is associated with less alteration of milk fat globule size than cow milk-based fortifier.PloS one · 2021Article
- Impact of Infant and Maternal Factors on Energy and Macronutrient Composition of Human Milk.Nutrients · 2020Article
- Sexually Dimorphic Associations between Maternal Factors and Human Milk Hormonal Concentrations.Nutrients · 2020Article
- Variation and Interdependencies of Human Milk Macronutrients, Fatty Acids, Adiponectin, Insulin, and IGF-II in the European PreventCD Cohort.Nutrients · 2019Article
- Sex-Specific Human Milk Composition: The Role of Infant Sex in Determining Early Life Nutrition.Nutrients · 2018Review
- Tryptophan metabolic profile in term and preterm breast milk: implications for health.Journal of nutritional science · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIt is known that the fat content of breast milk is higher in hindmilk than in foremilk. However, it has not been determined if this increased fat content results from an increase in the number of milk fat globules (MFGs), an increase in the size of MFGs, or both. This study aims to determine which factor plays the most important role.
methodsThirteen breastfeeding mothers were enrolled in the study and we obtained 52 samples from 26 breasts before (foremilk) and after (hindmilk) a breastfeeding session. The fat content was evaluated by creamatocrit (CrCt) values. MFG size was measured with the laser light scattering method. We compared CrCt values and MFG size between foremilk and hindmilk.
resultsAlthough the CrCt values were higher in the hindmilk (8.6 +/- 3.6%) than in the foremilk (3.7 +/- 1.7%), the MFG size did not change (4.2 +/- 1.0 mum and 4.6 +/- 2.1 mum, foremilk and hindmilk, respectively). There was no relationship between the changes in CrCt versus MFG size from foremilk to hindmilk.
conclusionThe results indicate that the increase in fat content results mainly from the increased number of MFGs, which may be released into the milk flow as the mammary lobe becomes progressively emptied.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.