A baby’s first form of food is milk, whether its milk from its mother or a specialized formula based on the science of human milk. But how important is milk to the baby’s growth and development? Using samples of monkey milk, as it’s the most similar to human milk, researchers measured the amount of fat, proteins, and carbohydrates present in the milk along with the volume of milk produced at different time points of lactation. Among many other things, it found that the female monkeys were making a different biological recipe for each infant. When human milk was investigated, it was discovered that human mothers also produced individualized milk for each child she had as well.
It was also noted that the milk the mother produced changed across time. As a mother goes about her day, the milk she produces, including all the minerals in it, also changes. When the mother’s body detects an illness in her baby’s body, her own immune system increases the production of antibodies in her milk, which gets passed through to the baby during feeding time, which ultimately allows the baby to fight off any bacteria or viruses. Additionally, hormones from the mother’s body also transfer into her milk. In this way, breastfeeding is a physiological “conversation”, a connection that takes place between a mother and her infant.
