Elizabeth A. Holdsworth, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology. She applied for a Spark Award to support her project “Daily Milk Composition and Infant Growth.”
“The overall goal of my project is to understand how day-to-day changes in breast milk composition might correspond to infant mini growth spurts,” says Holdsworth. “This research will provide pilot data to demonstrate recruitment and retention feasibility for a larger study and inform nutritional interventions for infants with growth challenges.”
This pilot study will recruit five exclusively breastfeeding mothers and their infants and collect longitudinal data every day for 30 days. Researchers will analyze intraindividual changes in milk composition, including macronutrients and selected hormones, and compare these changes to infant growth patterns.
The Spark Award will fund the development of participant eligibility screening forms, enrollment surveys, data collection forms and logs in REDCap through the Research Information Technology team. These tools will ensure accurate data capture and support the successful completion of this pilot study.
Congratulations to Elizabeth on receiving a Spark Award and using it to advance research on infant nutrition and growth.
Julie Johnson, PharmD, is the Director and Principal Investigator at The Ohio State University Clinical and Translational Science Institute.