12 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
This study will explore the effects of skin-to-skin contact (SSC) between mothers and their babies on the infant intestinal microbiome, the maternal skin microbiome and the breast milk microbiome. This will be accomplished by administering an intervention education session to one group and a placebo education session to the second group in order to influence the magnitude of total SSC defined by the frequency and duration of contact time between the two groups.
Lacto-N-tetraose (LNT) is a human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) present in human colostrum and milk. HMOs are largely undigestable and have no direct nutritive benefit to the infant, but act as a prebiotic substrate for beneficial bacteria (bifidobacteria, in particular) in the infant gut. Exclusively formula-fed infants lack HMOs in their diet in the absence of naturally occurring HMOs from breast milk. The proposed clinical study will evaluate the ability of a prebiotic supplement (LNT) to initiate intestinal colonization of a probiotic strain (B. infantis EVC001) in exclusively formula-fed infants. B. infantis EVC001 has been shown to be well-tolerated and safely consumed in breastfed infants. This study also aims to evaluate the safety and tolerability of LNT in different doses when consumed daily with B. infantis EVC001.
Current research shows that dairy protein accelerates infant weight gain, which is a risk factor for later on obesity and metabolic syndrome. However, dietary protein from other sources haven't been studied yet. This longitudinal study will compare two complementary feeding regimens with dietary protein mainly from 1) meat; 2) dairy on infant growth, body composition and gut microbiome from 5 to 12 months of age in formula fed infants. Healthy infants at approximately 5 months of age will be randomized to either a meat protein, or a dairy protein group with complementary protein mainly from meat or dairy. Infants will consume one of these diets for 7 months (6-12 months of age) and infant growth, body composition, growth biomarkers and gut microbiome will be measured to compare between groups and over time.
A prospective observational study in infants with biliary atresia and controls to determine whether the composition of the intestinal microbiome is specific for biliary atresia will be conducted. The hypothesis of the study is "infants with biliary atresia have a unique microbiome signature at the time of diagnosis and changes in population dynamics occur during disease progression". The microbiome will be determined at diagnosis and at well-defined time points during the natural history of the disease.
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if a microbiome analysis, education, and recommendation program can improve gut health, reduce future health risks, and empower parents in their children's health in infants aged 0-3 months delivered via Cesarean section. The main questions it aims to answer are: Will the intervention increase bacteria considered beneficial, decrease the C- section microbiome signatures, promote a reduction in opportunistic pathogens, and improved functional potential for HMO digestion and SCFA production Will the intervention decrease microbiome signatures associated with atopic march conditions. Researchers will compare participants in the intervention arm, who will receive microbiome reports, personalized action plans, and educational materials, to participants in the control arm, who will receive microbiome results and educational materials after the study's completion, to see if the intervention leads to improved gut health and reduced risk of health conditions. Participants will: * Provide two microbiome stool samples three months apart. * Receive detailed infant gut health reports via the Tiny Health app. * Receive personalized action plans tailored to their infant's gut health needs. * Engage in gut health coaching sessions with a microbiome expert. * Receive an educational email series on infant gut health. * Complete a series of surveys/questionnaires on health history, symptoms, and diet. This study seeks to demonstrate that targeted microbiome interventions can significantly improve early infant gut health, leading to potential long-term health benefits. These benefits may include reduced healthcare costs by lowering the incidence of related chronic conditions. By establishing a foundation for mitigating these conditions, the intervention could consequently result in fewer doctor visits, reduced need for medications, and a lower incidence of hospitalizations over the first 3-4 years of the infant's life.
More than 60,000 infants are born between 22 to 32 weeks gestation age annually in the US. Approximately 11% of them develop comorbidities. During NICU hospitalization, preterm infants inevitably endure early life toxic stress without adequate protective buffers. Early life toxic stress results in adverse epigenetic modifications of glucocorticoid-related genes and dysbiosis, impairing neurodevelopment. These adversities further exacerbate the risk of comorbidities and inappropriate brain development during sensitive periods of neuroplasticity. Adverse epigenetic modifications and dysbiosis may set a life-long trajectory of risk for chronic health conditions. It is a clinical and scientific priority to test an early NICU intervention to attenuate stress-related adverse epigenetic modifications and dysbiosis. Human milk influences the structure and relative abundance of healthy gut bacteria and neurodevelopment. Maternal nurturing, e.g., licking and grooming (in rodents), and breastfeeding and touch (in humans), promotes neurodevelopment, reduces stress, and reverses stress-related epigenetic modifications. The multisensory early oral administration of human milk (M-MILK) intervention is designed to provide an enjoyable and nurturing experience for infants, through a safe and consistent infant-guided provision of human milk droplets, given orally as early as 22 weeks postmenstrual age. M-MILK is implemented from day 3 of life, after every hands-on care, and during the beginning of a full gavage feeding. We propose the M-MILK pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT): a 2-group (N = 12, 6 per group), parallel, and longitudinal design in preterm infants who are born between 22 to 28 weeks gestational age. The aims of this pilot are to determine the feasibility and acceptability of the M-MILK intervention, recruitment, retention, and obtain data for sample size estimation. This study will advance nursing science and practice because it will inform our R01 RCT to examine the efficacy of M-MILK to attenuate adverse effects of early life toxic stress in preterm infants.
Single-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trail evaluating INF108F in breastfed infants with FPIAP
The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that maternal probiotic supplementation is associated with infant gut microbiome variation and improved neurodevelopmental outcomes as measured by ERP performance in infants of diabetic mothers (IDMs), a cohort that is at-risk for recognition memory abnormalities.
This study plans to learn more about how consuming different foods during the time of early complementary feeding (\~5 to 12 months) affects growth and the development of bacteria living inside your baby's gut through school-age. The results from this study will potentially help to support future recommendations and dietary guidance for infant feeding practices. The three primary aims include: Aim 1. Identify the impact of dietary patterns with different protein-rich foods on infant growth. Aim 2. Identify the impact of dietary patterns with different protein-rich foods on infant gut microbiota development. Aim 3. Identify gut microbial taxa and genes that affect infant growth.
The REMEDI Study is a single-center, prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of multiple doses of B. infantis EVC001 supplementation in healthy term breastfed infants.
The goal of this observational study is to characterize and evaluate micro- and nano-plastic (MNP) exposures among mothers and infants in mother-infant dyads 1 or 3 months postpartum living in Baltimore, Maryland. The main questions it aims to answer are: * What MNPs are present in breastmilk and maternal blood samples and in their infants stool sample? * Are there associations between amount of maternal MNPs in breast milk and mass of MNP particles in infant stool? * Which environmental and lifestyle factors are most predictive of maternal MNP burden? * Is infant exposure to MNPs associated with birth weight and postnatal growth trajectories? Participants will: * Complete several questionnaires assessing medical histories, lifestyle factors, environmental exposures, eating behaviors, etc. * Provide biological specimens including: maternal blood, stool, and breastmilk; infant stool * Clinical visit to have anthropometric measures documented including maternal height and weight, infant weight, length, and skin-fold thickness
Childhood obesity is increasing with more than one-third of adolescents currently overweight and one in five with obesity. The lifelong incidence of obesity-related morbidities is also increasing with childhood obesity. It is not yet known how obesity develops in an individual, specifically in early childhood. Further, it is unclear what mechanistic role a child's earliest nutrition or changing intestinal flora has in the etiology of obesity. Very young children are developing appetite and satiety patterns early in life. Nutrition and gut microbial flora have impact on how these processes unfold, but specific mechanisms are not yet well understood. The investigators hypothesize that formula-fed infants with changes in their microbial flora are more likely to have altered carbohydrate metabolism, evidenced by greater imbalances of fatty acid production, and are more likely to have accelerated growth trajectory due to satiety disruption. The investigators further hypothesize that altered carbohydrate metabolism, e.g. imbalances of short- and long-chain fatty acid levels in the gut, stimulate cellular stress and affect specific gut hormones. This study will compare the microbiome of the intestinal microbial flora in two groups of infants, one breast fed and the other formula fed, using longitudinally collected fecal samples from both groups. Samples will be subjected to shotgun metagenomic analysis and simultaneous metabolomic analysis. A bioinformatics approach will elucidate key differences among and between sample groups, and will further analyze bacterial gene expression levels related to carbohydrate metabolism. This study will compare the expression of human proteins involved in cellular stress response and gut peptide signaling by applying quantitative Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction to human messenger RNA isolated from the longitudinally collected samples from both groups. Finally, this study will monitor the trajectory of growth and feeding over the first 2 years of life. The project's focus on the influence of different early feeding types, microbial flora changes, and altered carbohydrate metabolism leading to disruption of gut-brain signaling will provide critical data for host:microbiome interactions and translational therapeutic targets.