Human milk cortisol is associated with infant temperament
Section snippets
Study overview
The relation between milk GCs and infant temperament was examined among breastfed infants. At 3-months postpartum cortisol levels were determined in milk collected from breastfeeding mothers. Each mother completed the Revised Infant Behavior Questionnaire, a widely used and well-validated measure of infant temperament (Gartstein and Rothbart, 2003), and measures of maternal perceived stress and depression.
Participants
Fifty-two mother and infant pairs who were enrolled in a larger longitudinal study of
Milk cortisol and infant temperament
Initial analyses of the association between milk cortisol and infant temperament revealed a positive correlation between cortisol and the negative affectivity dimension of the IBQ after adjusting for time of sample collection (partial r = .37, p < .01; see Fig. 1). The association between milk cortisol and the orienting/regulation dimension approached significance (partial r = −.25, p = .07). No association was found between milk cortisol and the surgency/extraversion dimension (partial r = .14, p = .32).
Discussion
These data are among the first to suggest that one avenue through which the human mother may influence offspring phenotype is by the transmission of biologically active hormones in her milk. Specifically, the data demonstrate that infant consumption of maternal milk with higher levels of cortisol is associated with more negative infant temperament. Confidence is increased in these findings because the association persisted even after taking into account maternal demographic characteristics and
Contributors
Laura Glynn designed and funded the study and oversaw the statistical analyses. Katherine Grey assisted with the statistical analyses and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Elysia Davis consulted on study design and infant data collection. Curt Sandman provided partial funding for the study. All authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.
Role of funding sources
This research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (HD-40967 to LMG and NS-41298) and by a grant from the University of California, Irvine (CORCLR to LMG). The breast pumps were donated by Medela.
Conflict of interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the families who participated in this project and the staff at the UCI Women and Children's Health and Well-Being project for their excellent work.
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