How important is the virgin gut?

[FeelLikeTweedleDee]

Is it very important to maintain the virgin gut?

Is occassional top-ups of formula bad?

You will get loads of people saying that you mustn't give formula but IMO if you feel that you need to and it helps preserve your sanity then do it.

Important in terms of what context?

It is important in terms of offering reduced risk from certain allergies, gut health, etc. It is especially important if you already have allergies in the family, IIRC.

In terms of the greater picture of parenting then surely that depends on the individual parent(s)?

It helps a child for their entire life. The lining that breastmilk gives the gut is amazing, and cannot be replicated by any formula.

So very.

'and cannot be replicated by any formula.' - just to expand on this, not only can it not be replicated by formula, but it's formula (and other foods) that actually strips it.

how then does it help for life as the child will have other foods after the first 6 months?

I believe it's because at around 6 months the gut is believed to be mature enough for it not to be an issue, hence the recommendations to exclusively BF for 6 months.

I'm no scientist though so may be missing important points :) These links may be of interest:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11417490
www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/science/03milk.html?_r=3&ref=nicholas_wade
drjaygordon.com/pediatricks/startingout/supplement.html

I assume the digestive system is mature enough to cope with food etc by 6 months. Just guessing though as no expert.

It depends why you need to top up.

Risk v benefit. The bigger picture.

If you have to do it then you have to and don't lose sleep over it.

My understanding is that it is not an absolute: even if you have given some formula, there are still benefits from giving breastmilk. SO no reason to give up in despair.

Any breastmilk is better than no breastmilk certainly, but as Jem has said, formula does strip down the protection provided by breastmilk. Because of the way the proteins are formulated in it, IIRC.

these posts distress me - as I have said on this forum before DD and I were admitted on day 3 as she was not feeding from me at all. We were put on a program of expressing and formula top ups and we have been EBF for 7 weeks now - formula was only ever a small part of diet up to week 3, offered after BM. I didn't know about the whole virgin gut thing. It makes me sad that she only benefits partially from being EBF now - if that really is the case. Fortunately there are few allergies in the family.

zimm, sorry haven't read all posts yet only yours

theory behind virgin gut states that the gut will "repair" itself in around 2 weeks if given only breastmilk
so any disruption caused due to being given formula would be totally undone by now if she has been exclusively breastfed since 3 weeks.

Zimm - please don't be sad about it. That's what I mean't about risk v benefit; the benefits of formula for your baby outweighed the 'risk'. My dd also had to be formula fed. Well done to get back to EBF.

zimm - i'm in the same boat, ds readmitted on day 3 for jaundice/low blood sugar/dehydration and he had to have formula top ups until my milk came in on day 6. i still feel sad that he hasn't only ever had bm, though that's all he's had since then (now 3 months). but as the others say the gut does apparently repair itself, plus he was quite ill and there really wasn't an option. let's not beat ourselves up!

If you type "virgin gut" into Pubmed, none of the results relates to breastfeeding (mostly they don't relate to humans). It is not something that concerns the scientific community. In the past when going through my own feeding agonies, I have spent a while looking for papers showing any evidence of harm to the gut from introducing non breastmilk substances before six months and I cannot find them. In fact I found several papers which showed no evidence of harm.

I tend to the opinion that "virgin gut" is Internet bollocks.

Plenty of quotes of studies in my last link, mrsgboring.

Even assuming all of those studies are 'bollocks' (as I said, I'm no scientist) 'no evidence of harm' is a different thing entirely to 'evidence of no harm'.

Mrsgboring, afraid you're sadly mistaken there.

Zimm - don't feel bad. Needs must. You should feel really proud of managing to establish breastfeeding, and like thisisyesterday has said, because you are now EBF the gut will benefit entirely from it. I was replying more in reference to the question about occasional FF from the OP, not a few weeks were it was necessary.

i was wondering if things like infacol or calpol destroy the virgin gut? obviously you might need to give them anyway

marzipananimal - I think they do. FWIW Infacol has been shown to be no more effective than a placebo in trials so I wouldn't personally give that anyway.

Infacol isnt actually absorbed by the body - it stays in the gut rather than passing into the bloodstream.

apparently not, it's proteins/enzymes (or somethuing like that) in other food/drinks that can damage and pass through the gut

medicines don't contain these

^ ahh there we go, always someone who knows more than me

he gut is mature enopugh from at the latest 4 months, not 6 months and it actually the introduction of food that helps to mature it

Just a WoW.

Jay Gordon is the American Andrew Wakefield. His website should be taken with a pinch of salt, or at least, if you want to take what he says to heart and use it as the basis for your whole child feeding philosophy, you should follow the links and read the whole papers which he references, not just read the bits he cites and assume they're contextual. It's very easy to cherry pick scientific data.

He may be right, but certainly he has some convincing still to do. His opinions are not widely accepted by the medical community.

Ooh, ta for the heads up!