Purpose: To establish a whole food, egg, as a viable study material to supplement mothers and infants with nutrients that support optimal brain development. There will be 84 breastfeeding dyads, 3 months postnatal. Mothers will be randomized to a whole egg or egg white (due to lack of an appropriate control food). Initial diet intake will be screened using the NDSR. Participants will come to the lab 3 times across 3 months (age 3 months, 4.5 months, and 6 months). Milk, saliva, and plasma will be collected from the mother, while saliva and plasma (heel stick) are collected from the infant. Diet data will be collected at each visit. The infant will complete a recognition memory test using electrophysiology at 6 months as well as the Bayley Scales of Infant Development at 4.5 months. The mother will complete a temperament questionnaire at 3 months and 6 months.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
84
Breastfeeding mothers will consume the equivalent of 5 whole eggs per week for 3 months.
Breastfeeding mothers will consume the equivalent of 5 egg whites per week for 3 months.
Nutrition Research Institute
Kannapolis, North Carolina, United States
RECRUITINGRecognition Memory in an Oddball Task
The difference in microvolts between the negative deflection to novel pictures and the negative deflection to familiar pictures at approximately 100-400ms after the pictures come on the screen will be measured in an event-related potentials (ERP) paradigm. The investigators hypothesize that the whole egg group will have better memory for the familiar pictures than the egg white group.
Time frame: 13 weeks (at 6 months of age)
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