See:
http://www.thelancet.com/journal/vol357/iss9262/full/llan.357.9262.editorial_and_r
eview.15762.1
I think some of the comments in this, may give an explanation for the confusing
outcomes of studies regarding breastfeeding and allergy lately:
"Probably the most striking alteration in the early immune exposures of infants
since Neolithic times was the wholesale change in initial gut colonisation during
the past century, and here there are real differences between the privileged (and
more allergy-prone) infants of the developed world, and neonates in
underprivileged countries.3 The dominance of Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus in
the initial flora of the developing-world infant3 (and the 19th Century European
infant4) has been increasingly replaced by that of a variety of hospital-acquired
organisms, which has led to evolutionarily novel discordance between maternal and
infant flora, exacerbated by procedures such as caesarean section or admission to
special-care units.5 Since colostral and breast-milk lymphocytes are dominated by
gut-derived populations such as T cells expressing and ß7 integrin,6 it is quite
possible that the nascent mucosal immune system is exposed to mismatched input
during initial priming in these circumstances, ...."
The research that is commented here is:
http://www.thelancet.com/journal/vol357/iss9262/full/llan.357.9262.original_resear
ch.15746.1
regards, Annelies Bon
Lay counsellor of the Dutch bf organization "Borstvoeding Natuurlijk"