Random thought..Breast Milk vrs Breast Milk? 29 November 2013 at 11:51AM in MoneySaving mums 28 replies 6.6K views

Kayalana99

Think my 15 month is coming down with chicken pox but hopefully my 2 month has some immunity for it because I do from my breast milk...this got me thinking..what if I hadn't had it before?

Wouldn't it make sense that difference woman have different immensities so giving a baby milk from loads of woman in theory...should make them healthier?

As I said complety random thought... :eek:

Raksha

I donated milk to the SCBU for the prem babies as it was easier to digest, but not sure breast milk itself contains the antibidies, I thought it was the colostrum. ?

shell_girl

I've just been researching this - currently studying to become a bf peer supporter.

The antibodies are in both the colostrum and the milk, but the bit that made me go wow was the fact that if your baby gets exposed to a disease, and you are breastfeeding, your body will start making antibodies to that disease even if you don't get sick yourself. Apparently when the baby's saliva comes into contact with your breasts your body goes into overdrive making the antibodies to deliver to the baby via the milk.

Re the milk from lots of different women, according to WHO the hierarchy of infant feeding is 1- breastfeeding 2 - mother's own milk expressed and given to her child 3 - milk from another human mother 4 formula milk feed.

Xaniwoop

Breastmilk will contain your antbodies at all stages not just at the colostrum stage. One of the really cool things about breastfeeding is that the breast itself can make antibodies to germs it encounters.

For example if baby is at nursery and comes into contact with chickenpox but mum never had it, the breast can make it's own chicken pox antibodies and give them to the baby in the milk.

So there isn't a need to give babies milk from a range of mums because your body will make antibodies to fight anything your baby meets!:T:T:T

Xaniwoop

cross posted with shell-girl there. I'm a breastfeeding peer supporter too.

TeamLowe

shell_girl wrote: »

The antibodies are in both the colostrum and the milk, but the bit that made me go wow was the fact that if your baby gets exposed to a disease, and you are breastfeeding, your body will start making antibodies to that disease even if you don't get sick yourself. Apparently when the baby's saliva comes into contact with your breasts your body goes into overdrive making the antibodies to deliver to the baby via the milk.
.

That is genuinely amazing!!!

Xaniwoop

That is genuinely amazing!!!

I know the science of breastmilk is fascinating. I think it's why people get so obsessed by it sometimes

Make-it-3

I had chicken pox as a child, so therefore have the antibodies in my system. My nearly 3 yr old still has a daily feed, when she recently got chicken pox herself it was really mild - just a few spots no illness. Would that be because she had a head start fighting the virus via me??

Kayalana99

Make-it-3 wrote: »

I had chicken pox as a child, so therefore have the antibodies in my system. My nearly 3 yr old still has a daily feed, when she recently got chicken pox herself it was really mild - just a few spots no illness. Would that be because she had a head start fighting the virus via me??

It really is impossible to answar these sorts of questions...my OH wasn't breast feed at all and sometimes makes the odd dig at his mum about him probablly having asmatha because he wasn't...but then she has it as well so its so much more likey he's just inhertied it and he would of had it regardless...but who knows?

barbiedoll

I had asthma, eczema, constant chest and ear infections and numerous allergies as a child and the only reason that I wanted to breastfeed was to spare my son from the same.

Of course, it's impossible to quantify how much breastfeeding has benefited him (and me!) but I can say that my son has mild asthma (he rarely needs medication), he has never had eczema and the only allergy he has is to nuts. He can stroke any animal, something which was denied to me as a child as it made me so ill. He has never had an ear infection, he has had a chest infection twice in 15 years. Even when he caught chicken pox at 10 months old, he was not really poorly at the time.

As an added bonus, I was back in my jeans within a couple of weeks!

cheekyweegit

I breast fed all 3 of my children, 2 had quite bad asthma, one grew out of it by time he was 7, the other, now 21 still has the odd episode but not nearly as bad as when a child. All three had a touch of eczema too.

As for chicken pox, I has it really badly as a child and all three of my kids had it, the youngest more than once.

So as for breastfeeding helping, I take that with a pinch of salt, would I breast feed again if I had my time over, yes without a doubt, the closeness with your child is amazing.