Optimizing Early Nutrition for Long-Term Benefits

This education is about:

• Sensitive periods of development during the first 1,000 days
• The role of early nutrition in neurocognitive development
• Human milk as a complex biological system 
• The long-term effects of early nutrient deficiencies
• Strategies for optimizing early nutrition to support later health and well-being

Why it matters:
Early nutrition plays a fundamental role in ongoing growth and cognitive development, and nutrient requirements change according to sensitive periods of development. The dynamic nature of early nutritional needs is not fully understood. Research in this area is rapidly evolving, and clinicians require ongoing educational updates to remain current and proactively support optimal infant feeding practices.

• Profile

  Sharon M. Donovan, PhD, RD

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  Sharon M. Donovan, PhD, RD, is the Professor and Melissa M. Noel Endowed Chair in Nutrition and Health, director of the Personalized Nutrition Initiative, and professor of biomedical and translational sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Donovan received her doctorate from the University of California at Davis and completed a fellowship in pediatric endocrinology at Stanford University School of Medicine.

  Dr. Donovan conducts basic and translational research in pediatric nutrition, a critical phase of life in which nutrition plays a key role in growth, development and long-term outcomes such as cognition and immune response, and is the key determinant of microbiome composition and function at a time when infants may be receiving human milk or infant formula as sole-source nutrition. Her research involves studying the influence of nutrition on the gut microbiome and its relationship with diseases associated with dietary intake. Dr. Donovan’s research has contributed to improvements in infant formula composition, with the goal of narrowing the gap between the derived nutritional benefits for breast- and formula-fed infants. An additional area of Dr. Donovan’s research interest is the prevention of childhood obesity.

  Dr. Donovan was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, which honors individuals who have demonstrated outstanding and continuing achievements as well as their commitment to service in their area of specialization. Her work has also been recognized by the International Life Sciences Institute North America and the American Society for Nutrition.

  Dr. Donovan has served as president of the American Society for Nutrition and the International Society for Research on Human Milk and Lactation. She has authored 225 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and is a member of the editorial board of Gut, associate editor of Breastfeeding Medicine and serves on the Scientific Advisory Committee of Nutrition Reviews.

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  Sharon M. Donovan, PhD, RD

  Professor and Melissa M. Noel Endowed Chair
  Director, Personalized Nutrition Initiative
  Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Urbana, Illinois

   

• Profile

  Michael K. Georgieff, MD

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  Michael K. Georgieff, MD, is the Martin Lenz Harrison Land Grant Chair in Pediatrics and a Professor of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Developmental psychology at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis. He is Director of the Center for Neurobehavioral Development at the University of Minnesota.

  Dr. Georgieff received his medical degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and completed his internship and residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He was awarded fellowships in neonatology by Children’s Hospital and the University of Minnesota Medical School.

  The focus of Dr. Georgieff’s research is on fetal-neonatal nutrition and brain development, specifically the effect of early life iron nutrition and neurocognitive function. For the past 25 years, his research has been continuously funded in this field by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Georgieff’s clinical interests include iron and infant development, and maternal-fetal medicine.

  Dr. Georgieff is the recipient of numerous honors and awards for research, teaching, and public service including the Samuel J. Fomon Nutrition Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics. He is an advisor on nutrition and early childhood development to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Institutes of Health, and UNICEF, and he is a frequently invited speaker at national and international conferences. Dr. Georgieff has published more than 250 scientific articles, and he is a reviewer for a number of prestigious medical journals including Pediatrics, the Journal of Pediatrics, and the New England Journal of Medicine.

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  Michael K. Georgieff, MD

  Martin Lenz Harrison Land Grant Chair
  Professor of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Developmental Psychology
  Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Pediatrics
  Director of the Center for Neurobehavioral Development
  University of Minnesota
  Minneapolis, Minnesota