Donors nutritional guidelines Final Study (VITAMIN)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
InVestigating the effectIveness of nuTritionAl information resources for MIlk doNors (VITAMIN)
IRAS ID
344156
Contact name
Simon Dyall
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Roehampton
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 30 days
Research summary
Best source of nutrition for preterm infants is breastmilk. However, when not available, donor milk is provided. This study is part of a larger project aiming to optimise the nutritional quality of donor milk.
This research has three research questions:
1. Do milk donors change their diet following provision of the nutritional resources and does this result in increases in the donor’s own omega-3 fatty acid status?
2. Does the provision of the nutritional resources lead to increases in donor
s milk omega-3 fatty acids?
3. Does informing mothers of the omega-3 fatty acid content of their milk lead to greater increases in milk omega-3 fatty acids?This study will be conducted in collaboration with the Milk Bank of Chester. All new donors from the Countess of Chester Hospital milk bank will be eligible for inclusion. We will restrict recruitment to those between six and eight weeks of the birth. Donors with a Body Mass Index (BMI) ≥30 kg/m2 will be excluded. Also, donors will also be excluded if they are currently taking omega-3 PUFA dietary supplements providing greater than 200 mg DHA per day.
The study will last eight weeks, but we will operate a rolling recruitment approach, and aim to recruit on average eight participants per month over eight months, to meet our target of 60 participants. Participants will be asked to provide a 3 days diet diary, one blood sample and four milk drop samples during the study.
REC name
London - Hampstead Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/PR/1184
Date of REC Opinion
21 Oct 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion