On Sat, 30 Dec 2006 Joy Anderson wrote, in her thougthful report of the Sydney conference on nutrition: "Interestingly, one speaker began by talking about how infants obtain their microbiota (ie microorganism mix in the gut) from their mother - from her skin and prebiotics (oligosaccharides) in her breastmilk. Then later from food and other influences such as antibiotics, stress, gastro disease, etc. He said that breastfeeding sets up the microbiota for years. Presumably, the most profound effect would be seen in mothers who birth their babies at home and have skin-to-skin contact automatically and breastfeed exclusively. The bacteria from hospitals and staff, effects of antibiotics given to mothers and artificial feeding would all interrupt this process." Joy, do you know if these speakers at the Sydney conference you reported plan to publish? Virginia in Brisbane, Queensland *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET email list is powered by LISTSERV (R). There is only one LISTSERV. To learn more, visit: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html