No abstract

Several studies have been made on the relation between the vitamin intake of Iactating women and the vitamin content of breast milk. (CORYELL, et al, 1945 ;LESHER, et al ). The general trend in these studies has been to suggest a positive relation between these two variables. Most of these studies, however, were concerned with the effect of vitamin supplementation to the diet rather than with the relation between the vitamin contents of diet and milk. That the effects of such supplementation may not always be immediately evident is suggested by GUNTHER'S observation (1952) with regard to thiamine, that the content in milk responds slowly to the amount of vitamin taken orally. This may account for the observation made by IWASAKI (1955) that oral administration of thiamine supplements has only a negligible effect on the thiamine content of milk. Further, no attempts have been made in these studies to determine the degree of relationship between dietary vitamin and vitamin content in milk. That this relationship may vary with the level of dietary vitamin is suggested by the findings of PRATT and MACY (1951), who observed that the content of thiamine, riboflavin and nicotinic acid in milk increased with dietary supplementation with these food factors but the increase was neither consistent for all subjects nor proportional to the amount of intake. CALZETTI (1953) made a similar observation that increase in the vitamin A content of milk following the intramuscular administration of this vitamin was more evident in subjects showing lower starting values! More comprehensive investigations are therefore needed to determine the precise relationship between vitamins in the diet and in breast milk.Recent observations made in this laboratory that the socioeconomic status of the Iactating mother (which reflects the nutritional status of the mother) has an effect on the vitamin content of milk (DEODHAR and RAMAKRISHNAN, 1959) prompted the authors to investigate more thoroughly the relation between the diet of the lactating mother and the composition of milk with regard to the content of vitamins. METHODMaterial and methods. The subjects of this investigation were 60 lactating women of normal health living in and around Baroda, who had been lactating from 3 to 4 months.Collection of diet and its analysis for vitamin content. The whole day diet of the subjects was obtained by making collections of equal amounts of all the foodstuffs consumed by the subject including snacks, beverages and dietary supplements, if any, in the form of vitamins, minerals etc.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract