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Avocado Consumption, Nutrients in Human Milk, and Infant Cognitive Development
An Avocado Intervention to Increase the Nutrients in Human Milk in Support of Infant Cognitive Development
Who can join
Ages 18 to 40 · All sexes · Healthy volunteers welcome
Full eligibility criteria
Inclusion Criteria * Healthy lactating women at 13 weeks postpartum * Planning to exclusively breastfeed to 6 months of age * Gave birth at 38 weeks or greater gestation without remarkable incident * Pre-pregnancy BMI \<30 Exclusion Criteria * Gestational diabetes * Infant with diagnosis or documented suspicion of developmental delay * Any documented seizure activity in infant * Family history of avocado, latex, or banana allergies
About the study
The goal of this interventional study is to establish a whole food, avocado, as a viable study material to supplement mothers and infants with nutrients that support optimal brain development. Eighty-eight breastfeeding dyads, 3m postnatal, will participate in this study designed to:
1. To document whether lactating mothers will comply in the consumption of 5 avocados a week for 12 weeks. 2. To ascertain the choline, lutein, and fatty acids present in human milk in women who eat avocado. 3. To measure the cognitive advantage conferred to infants whose mothers consume avocados while breastfeeding compared to a non-avocado-eating reference group.
To this end, healthy, lactating women who are 13 weeks postpartum and their infants will be enrolled. Mothers will be provided avocados on a bi-weekly basis and will be asked to consume an avocado a day. Infant cognition will be tested when the infants are 4.5 and 6 months of age. Milk samples and diet data will be collected and assayed on a bi-weekly basis.
What is being tested
- Avocado (dietary supplement)
Sponsor: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Participants: 88 · Started: Feb 8, 2024
Contact the study team
- Carol L Cheatham, Ph.D. · Phone: 704-250-5010
- Study Coordinator · Phone: 704-250-5018
Official record on ClinicalTrials.gov — NCT06208085
Locations in the U.S.
| North Carolina | Nutrition Research Institute, Kannapolis |
Conditions
From ClinicalTrials.gov, data retrieved Sep 30, 2026. Each study sets its own eligibility; the study team decides who can join.