Newborn stage

Newborn stage In the first three to five months after birth, parents are especially concerned with protecting their newborn baby s skin and making the transition from the mother s womb into the world as smooth and comfortable as possible. Babies in this phase experience the world mainly throngh feeling and hstening, while the visnal sense is not yet well developed. Thus, in the diaper context, the tactile properties are particularly important. Diapers for newborns are nsuaUy made from especially soft... 

Fig. 10.1. Localization of Acanthocheilonema viteae chitinase in intrauterine and newborn mf by IFAT with mAb 24-4 (left panels) and corresponding light microscope photographs (right panels). (A), (B) Uterine contents of female A. viteae with nearly mature mf inside the eggshell, younger embryonic stages and a mature, hatched mf. (C), (D) Newborn mf. Note that fluorescent mf are swollen and stumpy. Bars represent 50 pm es, embryonic stages nmf, nearly mature mf hmf, hatched mf.

Both the ELISA and Western blot suffer from the problem that antibodies may not appear in an aposed individual s blood until months after the initial exposure. Methods for using PCR to screen blood samples for HIV are being developed, PCR amplification of the HIV provirai DNA 7-ovides the ability to detect HIV at earlier stages of infection, because the viral nucleic acid is r resent immediately upon exposure. It is used to detect HIV infection in newborns whose mothers are HIV positive. 

The hydrolysis of triacylglycerol is catalysed by lipases, two of which are present in the stomach. These are lingual lipase, which is secreted by the soft palate, and gastric lipase, which is secreted by the gastric glands of the stomach. Gastric lipase is particnlarly important in the newborn since, at this stage of life, pancreatic secretions contain relatively little lipase. 

Km of 19 mM is found in most other mammals (Figure 6). In the calf all three forms of the enzyme are found at different stages of development with a 5 mM type predominating in the embryo, and the 12 mM form being found in the newborn animal up to the age of about 6 months (87). Recently the situation in humans has been found to be unusual since the purified human kidney enzyme is the 12 mM type, whereas the liver enzyme has a Km of 19 mM (76). 

Elemental speciation studies show that human milk, especially colostrum and transitional milk, is very rich in HMW species associated with metals. Of course, many more studies are needed for a reliable speciation of such HMW compounds. In this sense, validation approaches, both for the reliable identification and exact determination of such species, should be urgently developed. In the same way as the elemental composition and/or distribution of human milk can be considered ideal for feeding the newborn, the composition of formula milks for newborns should ideally be as similar as possible to maternal milk at every lactating stage. However, essential element speciation in formula milks is far from that of human milk (the ideal composition). This could explain why the bioavailability of essential elements (including Cu, Fe, I, Mn, Se, and Zn) from formula milk is much lower than from human milk. Hence, artificial formulas are usually supplemented with such essential elements. More scientific knowledge is definitely necessary on the composition (speciation) of such elements and more attention must be paid to the chemical form in which they are added to formula milks. 

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