• Question: What vitamins are in natural breast milk and why is it better than anything else a growing baby can have? Is all breast milk different?

    Asked by dizzyg12 to Simon, Lou on 18 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Simon Langley-Evans

      Simon Langley-Evans answered on 18 Nov 2013:

      Wow dizzyg- the best question yet! This could take some time to answer…

      First of all breast milk does contain all of the vitamins that the baby will need. These are either excreted into milk from what is in the mother’s diet, or will be released from her body stores if the diet is not good enough. Vitamins are either water-soluble or fat soluble. Water soluble such as vitamin C usually are not stored and have to come straight from mum’s diet, but fat soluble vitamins (like vitamin E) are stored in body fat, so the mother can always provide some even if her diet isn’t too good. For about 6 months, the supply of vitamins in human milk is enough to meet the needs of the baby for growth. After that solid foods are needed to meet those needs.

      You asked if breast milk is different and the answer is yes, in many ways. Women produce very different milks and the content of the milk will depend on how old the baby is (the milk changes as the baby gets older, and milk made by mums who had a premature baby is different to milk if the baby is born at the right time). The milk will also change through the day (it is more concentrated at the end of the day than in the morning), during a feed (the first milk of the feed is more watery to meet baby’s thirst) and some studies show that there can be differences between milk from each breast in the same woman.

      Breast milk is much better for the baby than formula milk because it doesn’t only contain nutrients like vitamins, protein, sugars, fats and minerals. Milk also contains hormones that act on the baby’s tissues to stimulate growth and development. It contains antibodies that provide some immunity to the infections that the mother has had. It even contains white blood cells from the mother that protect the baby’s gut against infection. Breast milk is also sterile, whilst formula milk made with dirty water or fed from a bottle that has not been properly sterilised can carry bugs.

      Human milk is the end-product of hundreds of thousands of evolution to be ideally suited for human infants to grow on. Formula milk is the product of 50 years work by the food industry to try and make a profit out of some of the waste products of cheese production. I wonder if you can guess how all of my children have been fed as babies?

    • Photo: Louise Brown

      Louise Brown answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      I can’t add anything to Simons answer, I learnt a lot there! It sounds so good for us, maybe they should bottle it and sell it (ergh!).

Comments

  • Photo: dizzyg12

    dizzyg12 commented on :

    Wow! It really makes a difference. Thanks for that simon 🙂

  • Photo: Simon

    Simon commented on :

    Lou- in some areas of the country they do bottle it… but not for sale. Many premature babies are fed using human milk that very kind women have taken the trouble to collect whilst feeding their own children. This is then used to give the premature babies the best start in life. This goes on a lot less now than it used to do, because of worries that HIV infection could be passed on in this way.

  • Photo: dizzyg12

    dizzyg12 commented on :

    Last year I saw human planet and it showed how some African women fed orphan monkeys, YES MONKEYS their own breast milk. Interesting huh?