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Nutrition

Breast milk—a gateway to iodine-dependent brain development

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 10, pages 134–135 (2014)Cite this article

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Iodine from the diet is fundamental for brain development. Via milk, infants receive 40–45% of the iodine in their mother's diet during breastfeeding; however, it is unclear to what extent depot iodine supplements (that is, iodized oil) given to iodine-deficient breastfeeding mothers compares with direct supplementation of the infants.

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Figure 1: A model illustrating the estimated iodine balance in a breastfeeding mother with recommended iodine intake and her child, based on data from several studies.1,4,5

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Endocrinology, Mølleparkvej 4, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, 9000, Denmark

    Peter Laurberg & Stine Linding Andersen

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  1. Peter Laurberg
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  2. Stine Linding Andersen
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Correspondence to Peter Laurberg.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Laurberg, P., Andersen, S. Breast milk—a gateway to iodine-dependent brain development. Nat Rev Endocrinol 10, 134–135 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2014.3

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