american baby magazine

[boobs4milk]

interesting article in a.b. magazine about immunizations. i tried to find it online, but it's the feb 2010 issue and i just got it yesterday. i'll watch for a link and post that when avaiable.

anyway, the bit about breastfeeding is as follows:

"Also, you may have heard that breastfeeding your child passes immunity to him. But he gets antibodies only for diseases that you're immune to, and these antibodies last just until your baby is 3 to 6 months old. In fact, this is why doctors recommend several vaccine's during your baby's first few months: so he's well protected by the time he outgrows this natural immunity."- American Baby, February 2010

doesn't this seem to imply that breastmilk only imparts immunity for 3 to 6 mos and after that there are no immune factors in breastmilk?

from what i've researched, babies get some natural immunity from the mother during pg, but that only some of the factors (IgG) are able to cross the placenta in any significant amount. an infant is able to make other factors, but not fully until age 2 or so, and the factors imparted through the placenta help protect the baby for about the first 6 mos. breastmilk always contains the immune factors and i've read that they become concentrated after baby is taking more table foods.

i was wondering if any of you had any research supporting this. i've found a few studies online but wanted to see if anyone had anything else. i plan to write a letter but i want to make sure i have current research available to back up my refutation.

[mambera]

The IgG content in milk remains substantially the same for as long as it's been studied.
Ogra and Ogra, J Pediatrics 1978, 92(4)546

Kellymom and many other sites incorrectly cite these papers
Goldman AS et al. Acta Paediatr Scand. 1983 Jan;72(1):133-4.
Goldman AS, Goldblum RM, Garza C. Acta Paediatr Scand. 1983 May;72(3):461-2.

as having found an increase in IgG after the first year, but if you actually read the full text you will see that this is non-significant bump in the data; Goldman et al. find essentially the same thing as Ogra and Ogra.


Personally I'm not convinced that the IgG in breastmilk is still relevant after the gut closes; but there are many studies showing better health in breastfed children, so whether this is due to IgG specifically or not isn't a very important point IMHO.

Sabirov et al Pediatr Res. 2009 Nov;66(5):565-70

find that the (well-established) lower incidence of otitis media in breastfed babies is associated with higher levels of IgG to common OM-related antigens; however this is kind of what you would expect in babies who have successfully fought off exposures to OM-related bugs, whether the babies are getting the IgG from the breast milk or not.

[annekh23]

What utter rubbish, the reason to get vaccines at this time (assuming a mainstream approach) is that babies get antibodies via the placenta, to illnesses that the mother has had, but they don't get the exposure that the mother has got which allows her to make the antibodies, just the antibodies, so as those go, the baby loses immunity to diseases that early on it had immunity to. I'd have to check details, but I think colostrum may do this too, or if I've screwed up completely be the only time it happens, but it's not the same mechanism as ongoing breastfeeding.

With ongoing breastfeeding it's not about passing on antibodies for stuff the mum has been exposed to in the past and could be happening right now, it's about the body responding to what is going on at that moment in time, both by what is happening in the mother's body and by response to saliva at the breast, which is why direct bfing is better, but mothers own milk in a bottle is better than donor milk. If we get exposed to, say, chicken pox, I'll not get sick because I've had it before, but I'll still be producing the antibodies to fight it, they'll get passed to the baby, who may or may not get sick dependent on many factors, if she does, I'll be helping her get better, but unless she actually gets sick herself her body doesn't learn to make the antibodies for future exposure, so if I want to avoid that, then she needs to be vaccinated.

[boobs4milk]

thank you, mambera!

anyone else? i'd like to be sure that i show that bmilk has immune properties for as long as it is given.

[LaffNowCryLater]

My dd got Chicken Pox at 7 months and it was very very mild and I am sure my milk helped her. Her older brother (only 14 months older than her) was FF and had a much worse case. Usually when sibs get the pox together, the second one has the worst case since they are repeatedly exposed in the house to it and for us it was the opposite.

BTW, when does the gut close? 6 months?