Breast milk composition of trace elements in Egyptian lactating mothers

ABSTRACT

In the present study breast milk samples of 147 lactating mothers at different stages of lactation [colostrums, transitional and mature] were analyzed to determine tradesmen's which are considered essential for man namely zinc, copper, manganese iron, selenium, iodine and chromium. Our results revealed that generally almost all the trace elements studied were higher during colostrums stage. In the other two stages [transitional and mature milk], the levels of the trace elements were lower except for iodine and chromium, there was slight increase with the progress of lactation. A positive correlation was found between iron, with manganese, iron with selenium, manganese with selenium and iodine with chromium, whereas a negative correlation was shown between iron with iodine, iron with chromium, manganese with iodine, manganese with chromium and also selenium with chromium. The social class of the mother was found to have no effect on the level of the trace elements except for copper level which was found to be higher in the breast milk of mothers from high and middle socio-economic levels. There was no significant correlation between any of the trace elements and the parity of the mother