Fig. 4

Breastfeeding HEU infants exhibit significantly higher weight-for-age z-scores compared to non-breastfed HEU infants at 6 weeks postpartum. A HEU infants have significantly lower weight-for-age z-scores (WAZ) compared to HUU infants at all time points (FDR; P < 0.001). B At 6 weeks postpartum, non-breastfeeding HEU infants exhibit significantly lower WAZ (− 1.82 ± 0.20) in comparison to breastfed HEU infants (− 0.99 ± 0.11) (FDR; P < 0.001). C Not breastfeeding HEU infants exhibited significantly lower relative abundances of Bifidobacteria at 6 weeks (15.80% ± 3.45% SEM) and 6 months (18.1% ± 1.90% SEM) postpartum when compared to breastfeeding HEU infants at 6 weeks (34.93% ± 1.53% SEM) and 6 months (28.12% ± 2.29% SEM) (P < 0.001 and P = 0.008, respectively)