[Sca-cooks] Nursing and drugs was-Re: Blood donors

[Tara Sersen Boroson]

>
>
>I knew that drugs, etc. passed through breastfeeding, and I knew that
>antibodies were passed during breastfeeding. I should have worded my
>question better. From Soffya's comments, I interpreted that the child would
>*continue* to have the immunities after breastfeeding, but I don't see that
>there is evidence to back that up. On rereading her post, she doesn't say
>that explicitly, but that is still my impression.
>

If that were the case, we as a whole wouldn't be susceptible to much 
because we'd have generations of immunities built in.  The reason why 
the immunities don't stick with the child is the same reason why they 
need to get the antibodies from Mom in the first place - immature immune 
system.  That's why kids recieve multiple vaccinations for the same 
things.  It's also the argument used by the middle-of-the-road vaccine 
people who argue for delayed and/or selective vaccinations.  They feel 
that, while there is value in vaccination ultimately, baby's immune 
systems aren't mature enough for some of the live virus innoculations, 
if you immunize them later you can get by with fewer shots, and they 
recieve antibodies from Mom to tide them over meanwhile.

In reference to the point about colostrum, there is always some 
colostrum in breastmilk.  It changes from pure colostrum to milk with a 
little bit of colostrum around three or four days after birth.  Babies 
get antibodies from Mom throughout nursing, but they get a huge boost of 
them right at the beginning.  All the nursing babies I know get far 
fewer colds and other illnesses than bottle-fed, even though their Moms 
get just as many as each other.  Mom gets sick, makes some antibodies, 
passes them to baby before she can get it, and baby's fine.  Our doctor 
pointed that out to us before Talia was born, and she was right.  The 
only single cold Talia has had in her 17 months was the week after I 
started going to the gym and leaving her in the child care there for an 
hour a day - it was the only time she was exposed before me.

-Magdalena vander Brugghe