From the Journals

—The Bellagio Child Survival Study Group. Child Survival. The Lancet 362:1-38, 2003. Table 2 page 13

Here's Why

Newburg D S. Innate immunity and human milk. J of Nutr. 135: 1308-1312, 2005

     Although babies are born with what is often referred to as an "immature" mucosal gut and immune system, the unique components of breast milk provide a perfect complement to the developing gut. A breastfeeding mother provides her infant many protective substances through her breast milk, only some of which have been identified. Hence the full importance of breast milk’s protective capacity is likely far greater than our present understanding.

     An interesting example of the complexity of human milk is that some of the many protective agents such as fatty acids and peptides are not found in milk until digestion releases these antimicrobial agents; an alternate conformer of a-lactalbumin which forms from human milk in the stomach and is capable  of inhibiting cancer cells.

     Many of human milk’s protective substances "inhibit different aspects of  a pathogenic process, creating a synergy, where much lower concentrations of each component become protective." Some constituents may have a con- gurational specificity. These may go undetected and still other constituents  may not be fully recognized because technology, as yet, as not been able to determine their importance.

Guise J M, Austin D, Morris C D. Review of case-controlled studies related to breastfeeding and reduced risk of childhood leukemia Pediatrics 116: 724-731, 2005

A systematic review of the current scientific evidence to determine the effect  of breastfeeding on the risk of childhood leukemia identified 10 articles to examine the association. Four of these articles were considered sufficient to provide quality evidence of the association between breastfeeding and childhood leukemias. The authors found that the studies frequently failed to report on important factors such as exclusivity of breastfeeding and duration. Instead many reported as "ever breastfed." They found that none of the studies reviewed were without .aw and strongly recommend conducting high-quality research on the impact of breastfeeding as a high priority.

     Despite these limitations, the two largest and best quality studies demonstrated that breastfeeding has significant protective effect on the development of childhood leukemia.

     The authors also note that there are about 2400 children diagnosed with childhood leukemia in the US every year at a cost of $1.4 billion annually. The reduction by 10 to 20 per cent through breastfeeding would "constitute obvious health and economic benefits."

Nelson A, Sethi S. The breastfeeding experiences of Canadian teenage mothers. J Obstet Gynecol Nurs. 34: 615-624, 2005

Using informal interviews and demographic questionnaires, eight Calgary teenaged mothers between the ages of 15 and 19 years were used to study their first time breastfeeding experiences. Teenaged mothers’ experiences in breastfeeding their babies are similar to those experienced by adult breastfeeding mothers; however, teen mothers may require additional  breastfeeding support.

Groer M W. Differences between exclusive breastfeeders, formula-feeders, and controls: a study of stress, mood and endocrine variables. Biol. Res Nurs. 7: 106-117, 2005

The purpose of this study was to study the relationship between feeding practices, stress, mood and levels of serum cortisol, and prolactin and ACTH (adrenocorticotrophic hormone) in mothers.

      The author studied the responses of 84 exclusively breastfeeding, 99 exclusively formula-feeding and 33 non post-partum healthy control women. The mothers were studies at four to six weeks post-partum.

     Overall the breastfeeding mothers had more positive moods, reported more positive events, and perceived less stress than formula-feeders. Breastfeeders had less depression and anger than  formula feeders and serum prolactin levels were inversely related to stress and mood in formula-feeders.

Daniels M C, Adair L S. Breast-feeding influences cognitive development of Filipino children. J Nutr. 135: 2589-2595, 2005

Children of socioeconomically disadvantaged Filipino mothers were followed from birth through to middle childhood and assessed for cognitive ability at 8.5 and 11.5 years of age. After controlling for confounding variables, children who had been breastfed for 12 to 18 months of age had higher scores on the Philippines Nonverbal Intelligence  Test. The effects were even greater for low-birth weight infants (1.6 and 9.8 points respectively). The authors conclude that long-term breastfeeding is important after the introduction of complementary  foods, and even more so for low-birth weight infants.

Mandel D. et al. Fat and energy contents of expressed human breast milk in prolonged lactation. Pediatrics 116: e432-e435, 2005

To determine the fat and energy content of human breast milk with longer breastfeeding duration, the researchers sampled the breast milk of 34 mothers who had been breast-feeding for 12 to 39 months, and compared that with the milk of 27 mothers who had been breast-feeding for only two to six months.

     They found that the fat content in the breastmilk of mothers who had breast-fed for longer periods of time was 17.5 percent, versus only 5 percent in the short-term group. The energy content was consequently also higher in milk of mothers who breastfed for the longer duration — with mean levels of 3683.2 kJ/L as compared to 3103.7 kJ/L.

     The authors note that compared to infant formulas, breastmilk is rich in cholesterol and saturated fats and that the "effects of high intake of saturated fats and cholesterol on infant cholesterol metabolism are consequential."

     Dr. Ruth Lawrence, medical advisor to LLLI, noted in a media report that,

"There are many people who think that probably one of the problems with cholesterol today occurs because infants have not had any cholesterol in the .rst few months of life; perhaps the body doesn’t learn to deal with it,"  she says. "There are studies that show that young adults have much lower cholesterol levels if they were breast-fed than if they were bottle-fed."

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