Hi Everyone,

The neonotologist at our hospital recently went to a conference where it was 
mentioned infants have better sleep/ wake cycles when they are breastfed 
because of the fluctuation of melatonin levels in breastmilk.  He feels we need 
to feed only day milk in the day and night milk in the night for our babies in 
NICU.  He did not have any research or references for this information.

In trying to research this myself, I found two studies:
The circadian rhythm of tryptophan in breast milk affects the rhythms of 6-
sulfatoxymelatonin and sleep in newborn.
Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2005 Dec;26(6):657-61

and

Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism
Copyright 0 1993 by The Endocrine Society
Vol. 77, No.3

Are there any of you who have heard of this or are putting this to practice in 
your special care nurseries?  Any opinions?

Thanks,
Billie Frye

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