{"id":102,"date":"2015-01-09T19:44:25","date_gmt":"2015-01-09T19:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cheathamlab.com\/?page_id=102"},"modified":"2024-05-13T16:31:15","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T20:31:15","slug":"completed-projects","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cheathamlab.com\/index.php\/completed-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

Active Research at the UNC – Chapel Hill Nutrition Research Institute’s Cheatham Lab<\/h3>
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INFANT NUTRITION & COGNITION STUDIES<\/h3>\n

Currently recruiting for either avocado (see below) or egg (scroll down) intervention. Contact us for a quick screening to see if you qualify!\u00a0Call 704-250-5018, email\u00a0feedingbrains@unc.edu<\/a>,\u00a0or click\u00a0HERE<\/a>\u00a0to enter your contact information.<\/strong><\/p>\n

AVOCADO Study Purpose<\/strong>:<\/u><\/em>\u00a0The purpose of this research study is to determine if eating avocados during breastfeeding will increase nutrients important for brain development in the milk and subsequently,\u00a0 improve infant cognition.<\/p>\n

What participants will do:<\/u><\/em> \u00a0You and your child will come to the lab for 3 sessions across 3 months. \u00a0Mom will be asked to eat avocados daily (Hass avocados provided), keep a food diary, provide \u00a0milk and saliva samples, and fill out questionnaires about her infant\u2019s development. \u00a0Four times during the study period, the study coordinator will deliver fresh avocados to your house and pick up a milk sample. Baby will play age-appropriate games, participate in a memory activity, and provide a saliva sample.<\/p>\n

Recruiting:<\/u><\/em>\u00a0Healthy lactating women at 12-15 weeks postpartum (infant will be 3 months old at the first session)<\/p>\n

Compensation:<\/u><\/em>\u00a0You will receive $75 at each visit as a token of our appreciation.<\/p>\n

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EGG Study Purpose:<\/u><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>The purpose of this research study is to determine if eating eggs during breastfeeding will increase nutrients important for brain development in the milk and subsequently,\u00a0 improve infant cognition.<\/p>\n

What participants will do:<\/u><\/em> \u00a0You and your child will come to the lab for three sessions across 3 months. \u00a0Mom will be asked to eat eggs (organic egg powder provided), keep a food diary, provide \u00a0blood, milk, and saliva samples, and fill out questionnaires about her infant\u2019s development. \u00a0Baby will play age-appropriate games, participate in a memory activity, and provide blood and saliva samples.<\/p>\n

Recruiting:\u00a0<\/u><\/em>Healthy lactating women at 12-15 weeks postpartum (infant will be 3 months old at the first session)<\/p>\n

Compensation:<\/u><\/em>\u00a0You will receive $75 at each visit as a token of our appreciation.<\/p>\n

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Completed Projects<\/h3>
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Does a mother's diet during pregnancy affect how well her baby sleeps at six months of age?<\/h4>\n

We wanted to find out! Previous research has shown that the quality of babies\u2019 sleep affects their cognitive abilities and behavior across a broad range of ages and outcomes (Bernier, Beauchamp, Bouvette-Turcot, Carlson, & Carrier, 2013; Bernier, Carlson, Bordeleau, & Carrier,2010; \u00a0El-Sheikh, Kelly, Buckhalt, & Benjamin Hinnant, 2010; Mindell, Leichman, DuMond, & Sadeh, 2017; Plancoulaine et al., 2017).<\/p>\n

What predicts the quality of an infant\u2019s sleep?\u00a0 We hypothesized that higher amounts of fatty acids (specifically docosahexaenoic acid, DHA; arachidonic acid ARA; linolenic acid, LNA; and linoleic acid, LA) in maternal blood would predict higher quality sleep in infants at six months. \u00a0Our participants were 33 African-American women between the ages of 20 and 42.<\/p>\n

Each participant completed a blood draw during her third trimester of pregnancy and reported everything she ate on three different days to our team of researchers. After birth, we paid two home visits to each mom and baby, when the infant was three and six months of age. \u00a0During the home visits, our team of researchers video-recorded mother-child interactions, and performed developmental assessments. \u00a0Each mom also completed a demographic questionnaire. At the beginning of each home visit, infants were fitted with a small monitor around his or her ankle that measured their limb movements for the week following the appointment.\u00a0 Those data were used to help determine the quality of the infant\u2019s sleep. In addition to these data, each mother reported her infant\u2019s sleep patterns for those seven nights via phone calls with members of our research team.<\/p>\n

Once all of the data were collected, we assayed the blood samples for levels of DHA, ARA, LNA, and LA, and contrasted those levels with the sleep patterns of each infant.\u00a0 What did we find? Infants whose mothers\u2019 blood had higher levels of LNA and LA during their third trimester slept longer during the night, woke up fewer times, and had a greater amount of their total sleep time occurring at night, three important markers for quality sleep. Notably, DHA and ARA did not prove to have any effects on these infant\u2019s sleep patterns.<\/p>\n

So why does this matter? DHA has gotten a lot of attention in recent years for being an essential nutrient for brain development in infants.\u00a0 However, research on the effectiveness of taking DHA as a supplement has had mixed results, showing it is important to understand how other fatty acids play a complementary role in early life development.\u00a0 Considering how crucial sleep is to developmental outcomes it is imperative that we know more about the various factors affecting quality of sleep in infancy.\u00a0 \u00a0This knowledge can then be used to help create interventions and recommendations that will improve sleep for all babies and lessen the disparities we see in infant development today.\u00a0 Thank you for our collaborators in this project at UNC-Chapel Hill, Marie Camerota, Cathi Propper, and Kristin Tully.<\/p>\n

Bernier, A., Beauchamp, M. H., Bouvette-Turcot, A. A., Carlson, S. M., & Carrier, J. (2013). Sleep and cognition in preschool years: Specific links to executive functioning. Child Development<\/em>, 84<\/em>(5), 1542\u20131553. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/cdev.12063<\/h6>\n
Bernier, A., Carlson, S. M., Bordeleau, S., & Carrier, J. (2010). Relations between physiological and cognitive regulatory systems: Infant sleep regulation and subsequent executive functioning. Child Development<\/em>, 81<\/em>(6), 1739\u20131752. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/j.1467- 8624.2010.01507.x<\/h6>\n
El-Sheikh, M., Kelly, R. J., Buckhalt, J. A., & Benjamin Hinnant, J. (2010). Children\u2019s sleep and adjustment over time: The role of socioeconomic context. Child Development<\/em>, 81<\/em>(3), 870\u2013 883. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/j.1467-8624.2010.01439.x<\/a><\/h6>\n
Mindell, J. A., Leichman, E. S., DuMond, C., & Sadeh, A. (2017). Sleep and Social-Emotional Development in Infants and Toddlers. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology<\/em>, 46<\/em>(2), 236\u2013246. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/15374416.2016.1188701<\/h6>\n
Plancoulaine, S., Stagnara, C., Flori, S., Bat-Pitault, F., Lin, J.-S., Patural, H., & Franco, P. (2017). Early features associated with the neurocognitive development at 36 months of age: the AuBE study. Sleep Medicine<\/em>, 30<\/em>, 222\u2013228. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.sleep.2016.10.015<\/h6>\n
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Memory Game Pilot Study for 12- and 24-month-olds<\/h4>\n

Completed<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The purpose of this research study was to test some newly-designed toys which will be used in future studies to learn about brain development in children. \u00a0We successfully recruited ten 12-month olds and ten 24-month olds who came\u00a0to the lab for one session that lasted about an hour. \u00a0During this time, we played a memory game with the child and asked parents fill out a few questionnaires about her child's language development and temperament. \u00a0For the memory game, each child was asked to watch and imitate short action sequences that the researcher demonstrated. \u00a0We assessed each child's ability to imitate and recall these sequences immediately and after a 10- or 20-minute delay.<\/p>\n

With this pilot study, we wanted to determine the feasibility and durability of the toys when used with young children. \u00a0We discovered that the children were interested and engaged with the toys, and found that some of the designs needed to be tweaked in order to withstand the banging or throwing that comes naturally to kids this age. \u00a0We are in the process of analyzing the data to determine if the toys were successful at assessing short- and long-term memory in 12- and 24-month-olds.<\/p>\n

Thank you to all the children and parents who participated in this pilot study. \u00a0We appreciate each and every one of you!<\/p>\n

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Can eating blueberries prevent, slow down or even reverse memory loss?<\/h4>\n

Part 2:\u00a0Enrollment completed, data analysis in progress<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n