[Sca-cooks] raw milk

Kate Wood malkin at gmail.com
Fri Jun 11 01:09:12 PDT 2010


> My understanding is that among other things, such as building a bond between mother and child, breast feeding was supposed to boost the immune system of the baby by passing on immunities.
>
> Is this the case? How long do you have to breast feed for a significant amount of immunities to be passed on? Do we know what immunities can be passed on this way? And will the immunities carry through to the next generation?

This effect is largely to compensate for the total lack of immune
system in newborns and is not persistent. Immunities do not carry
through indefinitely - for example, breast-fed children will still get
chicken pox, even if their mothers are exposed, after they stop breast
feeding. Breast-fed children still get diseases like Fifth disease, to
which their mothers are presumably immune, as well.  There is no
protective effect for people that already have their own immune
systems, which means I don't have to address the rather more
problematic aspects of your suggestion. Thankfully.

Kate


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