Study: Breast Feeding No Better Than Bottle Feeding For Kids’ Health

[pnwmom]

34. Yes, it does. The breastmilk continues to contain antibodies, although, yes, it is less dense

with antibodies. On the other hand, the baby consumes a larger volume of milk, so continues to receive protection from the antibodies. It is a misconception that these antibodies are destroyed in the baby's digestive system.



http://blogs.plos.org/publichealth/2013/01/08/how-does-breastfeeding-protect-against-hiv/

Without human milk, infants are effectively missing a piece of their immune system; secretory IgA antibodies, for example, are abundant in milk and act in the infant’s gut. Proteins like lactoferrin have antimicrobial activity. The component that has been highlighted recently as preventing HIV transmission is a family of molecules made of strings of sugars. They’re called Human Milk Oligosaccharides.

Although they are made of sugar, HMOs aren’t digested by the infant.We used to think they must be “prebiotics” consumed by the bacteria that live in the baby’s gut, and that’s often true; one bug, Bifidobacterium infantis, consumes the lion’s share of the short-chain HMOs.

By tailoring the exact mix, moms are selecting particular types of bacteria for their child’s gut, in much the same way you can attract certain birds to your yard by the types of seed you put in your bird feeder. This explains, at least in part, why breastfed babies have dramatically different gut flora than babies that drink formula – even one bottle of formula can change their gut microbiome forever.