Perspective: Human Milk Composition and Related Data for National Health and Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research

Statement of Significance: Our understanding of exposures through human milk (HM) in the United States and Canada remains out of reach due to lack of current and representative data on the composition and intake volume of HM. This article provides an overview of the current national monitoring activities for HM-fed children, including HM composition (HMC) data. In this Perspective, the authors advocate for a framework for collection and reporting of HM composition data for national monitoring and programmatic needs, including a shared vision for a publicly available Human Milk Composition Data Repository (HMCD-R) to include essential metadata associated with HMC. National health and nutrition monitoring is an important federal effort in the United States and Canada, and the basis for many of their nutrition and health policies. Understanding of child exposures through human milk (HM) remains out of reach due to lack of current and representative data on HM's composition and intake volume. This article provides an overview of the current national health and nutrition monitoring activities for HM-fed children, HM composition (HMC) and volume data used for exposure assessment, categories of potential measures in HM, and associated variability factors. In this Perspective, we advocate for a framework for collection and reporting of HMC data for national health and nutrition monitoring and programmatic needs, including a shared vision for a publicly available Human Milk Composition Data Repository (HMCD-R) to include essential metadata associated with HMC. HMCD-R can provide a central, integrated platform for researchers and public health officials for compiling, evaluating, and sharing HMC data. The compiled compositional and metadata in HMCD-R would provide pertinent measures of central tendency and variability and allow use of modeling techniques to approximate compositional profiles for subgroups, providing more accurate exposure assessments for purposes of monitoring and surveillance. HMC and related metadata could facilitate understanding the complexity and variability of HM composition, provide crucial data for assessment of infant and maternal nutritional needs, and inform public health policies, food and nutrition programs, and clinical practice guidelines.

Automated summary

This article advocates for the establishment and reporting of a framework for human milk composition data, and the creation of a publicly available repository for human milk composition data. It emphasizes the importance of accurate data for assessing exposure to human milk, evaluating nutritional needs of infants and mothers, and informing public health policies and clinical practice.