Hi Gonneke

> It has been my understanding that the absolute level of immune factors,
> protective factors in human milk is relatively stable and that the relative
> levels change due to the total amount of milk (low total milk-high immune
> factor level vs high total milk-low immune factor level).
> Now someone asked me if it is therefor wise or not to tandem breastfeed,
> because both children would get only half the protective factors they would
> get if bf alone.


This question could apply to multiple births as well. Technically if the
reduction in protective factors is only dilutional (no actual decrease in
the amount, but as you add more volume the concentration decreases) then the
amount of protective factors received (over 24 hours) will always remain the
same as the baby is taking greater volumes - for singleton births.

Of course, if we have twins with say - twice the volume being produced (but
still the same amount of protective factors) but one baby taking half the
volume being produced then they conceivably only get half the antibodies
(same as you suggest for tandem feeding).
Or because the body knows it has multiples to feed does it produce a higher
total amount of antibodies (wonder if there is a study on that somewhere?)

But then we have to ask how many protective factors are enough? What is the
the minimum amount that is effective? The body appears to be pretty good at
this stuff, I suspect we produce much higher amounts than are probably
required to provide protection.( But the real answer is I don¹t actually
KNOW!)

Regards
Cathy Fetherston
Perth Western Australia

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