LEARN research project at the University of Zurich

LEARN research project at the University of Zurich: Infant nutrition in the family context

If parents know what they should pay special attention to when feeding their children in the first years of life, they will be better able to support their children’s early development.

The LRF Center for Neurodevelopment, Growth and Nutrition of the Newborn (LRF NGN) at the University of Zurich (UZH) specializes in this topic.

Together with the University Hospital and other hospitals in Canton Zurich, the LRF NGN will investigate in the multi-year LEARN study how early childhood nutrition, especially mother milk, affects child development. Nutrition is being examined in close connection to the family environment, including the role of fathers.

Would you like to join?

To support the study as broadly as possible, the team at UZH is seeking parents with infants up to 6 weeks old.

If you are interested and live in Canton Zurich, please find details here: Long-term effects of early nutrition on child development (LEARN) – USZ

More about LEARN

At the LEARN project kick-off event at UZH, Professor B. med. Beck Schimmer, Director of University Medicine Zurich, welcomed the initiative to gain detailed insights into the nutrition of young children in a family context through a research project that will run over several years.

Professor Giancarlo Natalucci, MD, and Tilman Reinelt, PhD, who are conducting the study, explained the methodology of LEARN and the expected results.

“The research project will help us as researchers, but also future parents and their children, to better understand the influencing factors for healthy development of young children.” Said Professor Natalucci.

In the panel discussion that followed, chaired by Dr. Katharina Lichtner, Managing Director,  Family Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation, Professor Natalucci (LRF NGN), Professor Dr. Sonja Perren, Bridge Professor of Development and Education in Early Childhood at the Thurgau University of Teacher Education, and Karin Bernheim, Board Member of the Swiss Association for Maternal and Paternal Counselling and Head of the Children’s and Youth Crisis Center (kjz) Horgen, addressed current issues related to early childhood nutrition and development.

They emphasized the importance of good foundational conditions for mothers – within the family and society – and specifically, when returning to work.