<< and her saliva sends a message through the nipple Mother makes
antibodies even if she wasn't exposed herself >>

Almost. As far as we know today, it's probably not the saliva on the nipple
that triggers mom's system to start making antibodies. The more plausible
mechanism is that the mom breathes the germ from baby's exhaled air, or the
germ gets into mom's mouth. Both the Enteromammary and Bronchomammary
pathways are well documented. I know of no mechanism to get that kind of
feedback directly from the nipple to the mom's immune system.

Linda J. Smith, BSE, FACCE, IBCLC
Bright Future Lactation Resource Centre www.bflrc.com
6540 Cedarview Ct., Dayton, OH 45459-1214 USA
(937) 438-9458 email [log in to unmask]

 -----Original Message-----
From:   gima [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Wednesday, November 22, 2000 8:35 PM
Subject:        Re: babies' colds and fenugreek

>I am wondering why it is that babies don't supposedly
>get "colds" for 3 months.  I know that babies are
>supposed to get antibodies from Mom before
>delivery...but what if Mom hasn't had that particular
>cold?  She wouldn't be immune to that virus, then.

When a breastfeeding baby (or child) is exposed to a cold she comes to the
breast and her saliva sends a message through the nipple Mother makes
antibodies even if she wasn't exposed herself. So Mother wouldn't have had
to have that particular "bug."

Also an exclusively breastfed baby has gut protection from a virus' or
bacteria's penetrating the mucous membrane. This is a major reason to not
supplement or give foods other than breastmilk for the first 6 months. Dr.
Gartner wrote that even a teaspoon of other foods changes the GI tract
lessening the protection from infection.

Pat Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Mailto:[log in to unmask]

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