LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center is recruiting babies who are not breastfed to be part of the CONNECT research study. Director of biomedical imaging Owen Carmichael says while breastfeeding is the way to provide a baby with the best possible nutrition.
“There is still a variety of women who don’t breastfeed either for medical, personal, or cultural reasons. So the point of this study is study is to try to do what we can to enhance nutrition for babies that are fed formula,” said Carmichael.
The study tests a conventional baby formula against an enhanced formula that has a greater number of certain nutrients.
Carmichael says the research that led to the study suggests if a formula is fortified with the nutrient building blocks for the development of myelin, it promotes better brain development.
“Myelin helps different parts of the brain communicate with each other. It’s a little bit like the insulation that’s on the outside of electrical wires,” said Carmichael.
The study doesn’t restrict a baby’s diet solely to the fortified formula. Carmichael says the study involves taking pictures via MRI of the child’s brain while asleep.
“We’re enrolling babies in the study and we give them their first evaluation from about two weeks to five weeks of life, as soon as we can. Then we follow them up all the way from there until two years of age,” said Carmichael.
