Breast milk creamatocrit and fat content of lactating Bangladeshi women recruited for dietary‐based interventions to improve vitamin A status

We are evaluating the effects of orange fleshed sweet potatoes and mandarin oranges on carotenoids and vitamin A (VA) of lactating Bangladeshi women with low VA status. The study is a randomized blind comparison of the interventions to positive and negative controls (retinyl palmitate and white‐fleshed sweet potatoes). Initially, women were recruited 2 – 3 mo postpartum. However, Bangladeshi women are given a 200,000 IU VA supplement postpartum, which temporarily improves their VA status. This improvement disappears after 4 mo. Therefore, we now recruit women 5 – 7 mo postpartum. Blood and breast milk were collected before and after the 3‐wk interventions. Breast milk was collected by two methods: a full sample from one breast and a smaller ‘casual’ sample for the other. Women (n = 50) were 23.7 y (range 18 – 38y), and ate a monotonous rice and lentil diet. Baseline creamatocrit and fat were 6.76±2.92% and 43.9±17.2 g/L (casual) and 6.85±2.58% and 44.5±15.3 g/L (full), suggesting that results from casual and full samples did not differ. Creamatocrit and fat are somewhat lower than results reported from the US. Supported by AFRI/NIFA Grant 2008‐01889.