ArticleThe American journal of clinical nutrition2021
The need to study human milk as a biological system.
Article in The American journal of clinical nutrition, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 114 papers, 10 of them syntheses 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.
The Effect of Two Different Breastfeeding Positions on Breastfeeding Self-efficacy, Breastfeeding Success and Postpartum Comfort in Primiparous Mothers.
DEUX OEUFs:Cracking the Potential of Eggs to Improve Child Growth and Development
Who cites it
114 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 190 citations in OpenAlex.
- Breastfeeding association with DNA methylation in the pregnancy and childhood epigenetics (PACE) consortium.Clinical epigenetics · 2026Pooled it
- Effective Interventions to Prevent Breastfeeding-Related Nipple-Areolar Lesions: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Pooled it
- Breastfeeding infants with CHD: an evidence summary and recommendations from the Cardiac Newborn Neuroprotective Network, a special interest group of the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Outcome Collaborative.Cardiology in the young · 2025Guideline
- Human Milk Micronutrients and Child Growth and Body Composition in the First 2 years: A Systematic Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2024Pooled it
- Human Milk Bioactive Components and Child Growth and Body Composition in the First 2 Years: A Systematic Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2024Pooled 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
- Clinical Studies on the Supplementation of Manufactured Human Milk Oligosaccharides: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Relationships between the Intakes of Human Milk Components and Body Composition of Breastfed Infants: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Breast Milk Constituents and the Development of Breast Milk Jaundice in Neonates: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Century Wide Changes in Macronutrient Levels in Indian Mothers' Milk: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2022Pooled it
- Trial
- The relationships between optimal infant feeding practices and child development and attained height at age 2 years and 6-7 years.Maternal & child nutrition · 2024Trial
- Effects of a Novel Infant Formula on Weight Gain, Body Composition, Safety and Tolerability to Infants: The INNOVA 2020 Study.Nutrients · 2022Trial
- Human Milk Biology: Illuminating the Path toward the Next Generation of Infant Formula.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Article
- Human Milk as a Model for Next-Generation Infant Formula: Opportunities and Challenges.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Review
- A Proteomic Atlas of Human Milk: Uncovering Milk Functional Components.Research square · 2026Article
- Feeding Type at 6-12 Months and Early-Life Iron-Related Hematologic Changes in Infants: A Longitudinal Birth Cohort Study.Nutrients · 2026Article
- MICRO RNA vesicles: a new key to maternal and infant health.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Potential of Breast Milk Exosomes in Modulating Infant Developmental Programming: A Multi-Omics Study Based on a Birth Cohort.Nutrients · 2026Article
- A comprehensive safety evaluation of approved 2'-fucosyllactose for human nutritional applications in China.Frontiers in toxicology · 2026Article
54 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Critical advancement is needed in the study of human milk as a biological system that intersects and interacts with myriad internal (maternal biology) and external (diet, environment, infections) factors and its plethora of influences on the developing infant. Human-milk composition and its resulting biological function is more than the sum of its parts. Our failure to fully understand this biology in a large part contributes to why the duration of exclusive breastfeeding remains an unsettled science (if not policy). Our current understanding of human-milk composition and its individual components and their functions fails to fully recognize the importance of the chronobiology and systems biology of human milk in the context of milk synthesis, optimal timing and duration of feeding, and period of lactation. The overly simplistic, but common, approach to analyzing single, mostly nutritive components of human milk is insufficient to understand the contribution of either individual components or the matrix within which they exist to both maternal and child health. There is a need for a shift in the conceptual approach to studying human milk to improve strategies and interventions to support better lactation, breastfeeding, and the full range of infant feeding practices, particularly for women and infants living in undernourished and infectious environments. Recent technological advances have led to a rising movement towards advancing the science of human-milk biology. Herein, we describe the rationale and critical need for unveiling the multifunctionality of the various nutritional, nonnutritional, immune, and biological signaling pathways of the components in human milk that drive system development and maturation, growth, and development in the very early postnatal period of life. We provide a vision and conceptual framework for a research strategy and agenda to change the field of human-milk biology with implications for global policy, innovation, and interventions.
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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.