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>Breast milk is, hands down, the best nutrition a baby can have. Babies in the NICU need it, there's a massive shortage, and we can't match its nutritional valu

by Ntrails 11y ago

>Breast milk is, hands down, the best nutrition a baby can have. Babies in the NICU need it, there's a massive shortage, and we can't match its nutritional value with formula, period. Are there numbers on this? I've seen some debunking things recently on stuff like "Breast feeding = smarter babies", and I don't believe it can be nutrition that we're missing? I thought it was more to do with antibodies and the like? In which case are "non-local" antibodies the thing that is actually needed? I know sod all, just curious

foldor 11y ago
So, one thing that I've been reading is that breast milk helps transfer the good bacteria from mother to child. There's a lot of evidence pointing towards the fact that the bacteria in our bodies have more to do with the health of us than we ever realized before. Which is why fecal implants are such a successful procedure.
- quesera 11y ago
  Which raises huge questions about pumped, pasteurized, and/or non-local human milk.
pmahoney 11y ago
There are a couple references here, 2008 being the most recent (PDF): http://www.brainrules.net/pdf/brain-rules-for-baby-references-smart-baby-soil.pdf http://www.brainrules.net/pdf/brain-rules-for-baby-reference... The author of the book "Brain Rules for Baby" is on the side that breastfeeding leads to smarter babies (~5 IQ points?), and claims that the principles in the book are backed up by peer-reviewed research. As for the mechanism behind it, not sure this is known. I've heard speculation that it is the antibodies, and that breastfed kids have a little extra learning time since they aren't distracted with as many illnesses. But I've also heard that receptors on the mother's breasts react to the babies saliva, resulting in milk nutrient profile slightly customized to the baby's current needs (so, would donated milk not have the same effect?).
- abloodywar 11y ago
  There's a new, large, study[1] (Published September 25th) that concludes there is no correlation between breastfeeding and IQ growth. [1] http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0138676 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....

by Ntrails 11y ago

foldor 11y ago

So, one thing that I've been reading is that breast milk helps transfer the good bacteria from mother to child. There's a lot of evidence pointing towards the fact that the bacteria in our bodies have more to do with the health of us than we ever realized before. Which is why fecal implants are such a successful procedure.

quesera 11y ago
Which raises huge questions about pumped, pasteurized, and/or non-local human milk.

pmahoney 11y ago

There are a couple references here, 2008 being the most recent (PDF): http://www.brainrules.net/pdf/brain-rules-for-baby-references-smart-baby-soil.pdf http://www.brainrules.net/pdf/brain-rules-for-baby-reference... The author of the book "Brain Rules for Baby" is on the side that breastfeeding leads to smarter babies (~5 IQ points?), and claims that the principles in the book are backed up by peer-reviewed research. As for the mechanism behind it, not sure this is known. I've heard speculation that it is the antibodies, and that breastfed kids have a little extra learning time since they aren't distracted with as many illnesses. But I've also heard that receptors on the mother's breasts react to the babies saliva, resulting in milk nutrient profile slightly customized to the baby's current needs (so, would donated milk not have the same effect?).

abloodywar 11y ago
There's a new, large, study[1] (Published September 25th) that concludes there is no correlation between breastfeeding and IQ growth. [1] http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0138676 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....