antibodies in breastmilk - how?

[jasper]

I have read in various places that amongst the wonders of breastfeeding is the fact that if your baby has some kind of infection, your breastmilk changes, producing antibodies to fight the infection.

I told this to a colleague today and he did not believe me as he could not fathom how this could happen physiologically, except in the case of the mother having the same infection.

It got me wondering if I had imagined this .

Can any of you confirm this, and explain how it happens? Does it only occur if the mother has the same infection too?
Thanks

No answer but my midwife told me this too and I have often wondered the same questions. I did I bit of immunology for my degree and still have no clue!

So basically I am just repling to say you are not going mad..

(I am however - I am trying to write reports for my class of year 3 - its very dull. Thank god for mumsnet saving me from a fate worse than death!)

I have always taken this to mean that the mother produces antibodies if she is fighting the same infection. So if a child and its mum go everywhere together they will probably encounter the same viruses (viri?) and mum will help out child, if breastfeeding.

I fed DD until she was slightly over 2yo. She did get colds before this but when she went to nursery, shortly after we moved from London to Nottingham, she came down with cold after cold that I didnt' get which I'm certain breastfeeding did nothing for.

Also, she got her first cold sore infection at 18mo. I don't get them, in spite of having both a mother and a husband who do. I tend to believe I have something, somewhere in my make-up which prevents me from succumbing to an attack of these cos it's unlikely that I haven't had osme kind of contact with either one of them during their periods of infection (ditto my dad, my sis and my bro) but it seems I haven't managed to pass certain that something on to DD

Never heard of this before. I understand that BM does contain antibodies from the mother though and also that babies are born with some degree if immunity from things from the mum. My DS had chickenpox when DD was only 10 months old and she never got it. Can only assume it was my antibodies which protected her in some way.

This is how it works: there is a broad sort of all-purpose immune booster in breastmilk (immunoglubulin A) which is there anyway.

More specific antibodies are produced on an ad hoc basis .....you sit with your baby on the bus and a man next to you sneezes over you both. You start producing the antibodies you need to fight that cold, and these start to circulate in your system. The breast is stimulated to produce the exact same antibodies to this particular pathogen, so the next time the baby feeds he gets a dose of medicine!!

Now, does the system work the other way as well? Can the baby 'order' up the right antibodies to protect himself via the milk? I have just spent a few mins trying to find the paper that discussed this, and I can't....but it makes sense. The mother has intimate contact with the body secretions of the baby - sweat, saliva, snot, poo and wee! - any of which may have pathogens in, and any of which can enter her body through her lips and mouth when she kisses the baby, her skin when she touches the baby or changes his nappy, her breast (which has exit holes in it) when she feeds the baby. The paper I can't find either discussed the possibility of infant to mother antibody stimulation, or the actuality of it.

Thanks tiktok - that is really interesting!

I had that paper too Tiktok - I'll see if I can find it. Ot explained the benefits of feeding older babies and described how an ill baby when feeding is able to 'programme' the breast to make the antibodies needed in the milk to fight the specific illness. This happens through the transfer of body fluids that Tiktok mentioned.

Couldn't find the article but found these things instead.

Unlike formulas, the composition of human mother's milk is not static, nor is it dead. It changes from day to day in response to the needs of the baby. It is part of a living process of communication at the deepest biological level between mother and baby. It is an expression of the mother's love and caring, and a reflection of the deep symbiotic cooperation of the mother-child bond. A nursing mother in close contact with her infant can make antibodies on demand to pathogens that challenge the baby and transfer them in milk.

By a process known as diathelic immunity, breastmilk will come to carry antibodies to infectious agents to which the infant is exposed. Some researchers believe that dangerous bacteria that invade the baby's body enter into his or her saliva, and from there (if they are breast feed) are absorbed into the mother's breast where they provoke the production of the needed antibodies, which the baby then receives in the next feeding.

That was taken from here

There is another reference to this protective property of breastmilk here

Won't work. Here's the address to cut and paste.

www.lalecheleague.org/FAQ/prevention.html

Blimey, that's impressive. Didn't stop my b/f boy being a hideous snot monster for months on end though!

But think how snotty he'd have been if you hadn't b/f him DS2 was always snotty too and he was b/f for over a year.

Thanks for this info breastfeeding experts
I will tell my colleague tomorrow.