Early life nutrition
Visit our Human Nutrition & Health website for detailed information about early life nutrition and to find out how to get in touch.
Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs) are a collection of complex carbohydrates based on lactose and other sugars and are the third most abundant solid component of human milk after lactose and lipids. A breastfeeding mother provides her baby with HMOs, which support the development of the desired microbiota by serving as a food source for the good bacteria in the intestine.?
An infant’s intestines, intestinal microbiota, and immune system are still developing at birth, and their proper development is important for health, including in the long term.
The HMOs in mother’s milk play key roles in the development of effective intestinal barrier function and the immune system, and certain HMOs may also play a role in the development of the baby’s brain.?
Only a very minor fraction of HMOs are absorbed by the infant. HMOs are selectively used to support the growth of certain beneficial bacterial species in the infant’s gut. Overall, the community of good bacteria aid in digestion to produce vitamins, influence bowel movements, help regulate the immune system, and help keep pathogens under control. Establishing beneficial microbiota early in life is important for both for the infant’s health and later in life.
HMOs are one of nature’s ways of giving us a healthy start in life. They have been heavily researched and documented extensively in the scientific literature since late 20th century, but until recently they could only be found in mother’s milk. They were just too complex to make at industrial scale. DSM has made the scientific breakthroughs necessary to produce HMOs and make them commercially available for the first time. Our oligosaccharides are identical in structure to those in mother’s milk, they are highly purified and safe for their intended use in infant nutrition.
Visit our Human Nutrition & Health website for detailed information about early life nutrition and to find out how to get in touch.
The beneficial impact of high-dose vitamin intake.
As a purpose-led partner engaged in keeping the world’s growing population healthy, DSM offers unique insights into the role of micronutrients in supporting the immune system.