Expert opinion

Infant growth changes a lot during the first year. It is very rapid in the beginning and it decreases with time. Therefore the composition of the milk has most likely developed to fit those needs.

When is it time to introduce complementary feeding? What are the recommendations? Starting complementary feeding too early increases the risks of allergy. On the other hand, introducing solid food too late also contains risks. All those questions and even more are being explained in this interview with Professor R. Shamir.

In this blog Rob Knight explains that it is now possible to identify whether a person is lean or obese just by looking at the bacteria in the gut. However it is not the easiest way to see this, what is more interesting is that the human genome is also capable to tell if a person might become lean or obese in the future.

During an interview, Prof. Ekhard Ziegler discusses the latest research on interventional strategies to promote growth in low-birth weight infants.

I am Hania Szajewska, the head of the department of pediatrics at the Medical University of Warsaw and one of the research interests of our group are early strategies to prevent allergic diseases in children.

Large nutrition surveys in the US (Butte et al, 2008, FITs) and China Ming Study indicate that children from infancy to preschool age consume more than double the amount of protein which is recommended by WHO.

Across the world, more and more people are developing food allergies. By 2011, it was estimated that 1 in 20 children in the United States had at least one food allergy [CDC 2013], with peanut and milk being the most common culprits.

Our sense of taste develops and changes throughout our lives, but did you know that our earliest flavour preferences are determined in our mother’s womb? Both taste and smell are well developed by the third trimester of pregnancy, and by 35 weeks a fetus can already perceive basic tastes like sweetness.