Next Generation of Milk’s Benefits: Behavioural Outcomes

Mother’s milk is nature’s extremely complex adaptation.  We know there are variances in mother’s milk associated with behaviour, but we only have a very thin understanding.  During the first 1000 days’ post-pregnancy, the infant’s maintenance, growth and development is shaped, fueled and guided by the complex bio structure that is mother’s milk.  It is food and medicine and it is a signal for behaviour. 

Katie Hinde believes we need to think not just about the physiological development of infants, but also the output of their bodies: their locomotion, their play, their behaviour, their crying, their interactions with others.  In this presentation, she discusses the growing interest in the field of cognitive psychology at the intersection between nutrition and the behavioural phenotype.

She covers in detail clinical research into glucocorticoids and milk cortisol, which help us solve problems, grow and become more behaviourally “savvy”.   Milk nutrients are the building blocks of babies, contributing to how they build their sematic and behavioural development.  She poses the question: are milk hormones the blueprint?