Mother Milk Mysteries

The piles of research reports, that show that differences in infant feeding can cause differences in outcomes of physical, brain and emotional health, keep growing. Kuhn, for instance, discusses the Lunney et al study that shows that mothers who breastfeed exclusively are less likely to transfer HIV to their infant than do mothers who partially breastfeed. Het discussion is more focused on why this can be than the fact that is does per se. How can it be that to breastfeed exclusively is better protection than to breastfeed part-time? Kuhn thinks it is because part-time breastfeeding means skipping feeding sessions, what may lead to milk stasis and mastitis, leading to a change in Na/K ratio what would clear the way for the HIV to start acting. Personally, I think it to be more likely due to the fact that feeding a child a non-human-milk substance to an infant may lead to (micro) damages in the gut which may offer the HIV a way into the infant’s bloodstream. In other research projects, too, especially those investigating the influence of infant feeding on IQ and socio-emotional development, one could ask if the differences in outcomes in children with or without (exclusive) breastfeeding are due to the milk, the feeding method or just because intelligent moms interact more with their children. Because higher educated moms are more likely to breastfeed, so probably their children’s higher IQ’s is just a matter of inheritance and not an added benefit of breastfeeding, as the mainstream reasoning goes. But just a few generations back, higher educated women actually choose the ‘’more scientific’’ infant feeding method of formula feeding; IQ studies that started in that era also showed lower IQ development in children that were not breastfed or received human milk. But does it in fact matter what exactly the reason is that children who are not breastfed or fed human milk have increased risks of performing less at many health and life issues? Couldn’t we just accept the fact that that, what was during millions of years of evolution developed, probed, enhanced and probed again, just is what it is: the way creation and nature meant to nourish and nurture our children. Just accepting the mother-milk mystery, accept that breastfeeding just ís. Not better, great, hip, superior, but just ís. Let the intervention prove it is healthy, safe and effective.
Milk Mysteries: Why Are Women Who Exclusively Breast-Feed Less Likely to Transmit HIV during Breast-Feeding? Clin Infect Dis. (2010) 50(5): 770-772 doi:10.1086/650536
@Tearsong: Borstvoeding: Hot or Not? (blog) http://www.tearsong.com/?p=47

Outcomes of Human Milk-Fed Premature Infants

Today the exact exerpt of a review of literature of the past 25 years on the outcomes for premature infants fed their own mothers’ milk. Needs no further comments. ‘’Significant benefits to infant host defense, sensory-neural development, gastrointestinal maturation, and some aspects of nutritional status are observed when premature infants are fed their mothers' own milk. A reduction in infection-related morbidity in human milk-fed premature infants has been reported in nearly a dozen descriptive, and a few quasi-randomized, studies in the past 25 years. Human milk-fed infants also have decreased rates of rehospitalization for illness after discharge. Studies on neurodevelopmental outcomes have reported significantly positive effects for human milk intake in the neonatal period and long-term mental and motor development, intelligence quotient, and visual acuity through adolescence. Body composition in adolescence also is associated with human milk intake in the neonatal intensive care unit. Finally, human milk intake is less associated with the development of the metabolic syndrome than infant formula feeding.’’
 Richard J. Schanler RJ: Outcomes of Human Milk-Fed Premature Infants. Seminars in perinatology 1 February 2011, 35(1):29-33