>>>Does anyone have a good article backing the importance of lactose in
normal infant development?<<<
Esther,
Are these quotes the type of thing you're looking for?
Acta Paediatr Taiwan. 2001 Jan-Feb;42(1):11-7.
Sialic acid in human milk: composition and functions.
Nakano T, Sugawara M, Kawakami H.
Nutritional Science Laboratory, Snow Brand Milk Products Co., Ltd., 1-2,
Minamidai l-Chome, Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan. [log in to unmask]
>>>Human milk contains a large amount of sialic acid compared with bovine
milk. Sialic acid contained in oligosaccharides, glycolipids and
glycoproteins in milk is considered to play important roles in physiological
functions in infancy.<<<
>>>Most of the sialic acid contained in human milk is found in the form of
sialyllactose, an oligosaccharide formed from lactose and sialic acid.<<<
J Paediatr Child Health. 1997 Aug;33(4):281-6.
Human milk oligosaccharides: only the breast.
McVeagh P, Miller JB.
New Children's Hospital, Westmead, Australia.
>>>Over 100 years ago it was first deduced that a major component of human
milk must be an unidentified carbohydrate that was not found in cows milk.
At first this was thought to be a form of lactose and was called
gynolactose. We now know that this was not a single carbohydrate but a
complex mixture of approximately 130 different oligosaccharides. Although
small amounts of a few oligosaccharides have been found in the milk of other
mammals, this rich diversity of sugars is unique to human milk.<<<
>>>They may also be important as a source of sialic acid, essential for
brain development.<<<
http://classes.aces.uiuc.edu/AnSci308/HumanLact.html
>>>Carbohydrates. Human milk has a very high lactose content, 7 grams per
deciliter or about 200 mM and lactose provides about 40% of the calories
available to the infant. The adaptive significance of this high lactose
content (the highest of any species currently known) is probably two-fold:
(1) The infant brain is large and requires glucose as a metabolic substrate;
lactose is broken down into glucose and galactose prior to intestinal
absorption. (2) From an osmotic standpoint, the secretion of lactose
obligates the concomitant secretion of a large amount of water. This water
is sufficient to meet the infant's needs for sweating and transpirational
water loss, high in a warm climate, as well as for urine formation. Because
lactose can be synthesized only from glucose, maternal glucose utilization
is increased by about 30% in the fully lactating woman.<<<
http://health.discovery.com/diseasesandcond/encyclopedia/1875.html
>>>Breast milk contains large amounts of lactose, which is a carbohydrate.
Lactose is used in tissues of the brain and spinal cord, and it provides the
infant with energy. Bacteria in the infant's intestines feed on lactose and
produce B vitamins. Lactose may also help the infant absorb essential
nutrients such as calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium.<<<
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/2/T021600.asp
<<<Lactose is considered an important carbohydrate for brain development.
Studies show the level of lactose in the milk of a species correlates with
the size of the brain of that species.<<<
Pat W
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