Dr. Hanson has written a great book exploring this topic.  For anyone
interested in learning more about breastfeeding and immunities, I would encourage
them to read _Immunobiology of Human Milk_ by Lars Hanson, MD, PhD.  It can be
found at www.lalecheleague.org.  (I have no connection to this book.)
Mary Wales

In a message dated 8/14/2004 6:39:31 PM Marsha writes:
The question has been asked about whether breastfeeding improves a
child's active immunities and not just passively through antibodies and
other factors that are present in breastmilk.  Lars Hanson did a plenary
session at ILCA on immunities and he said that the thymus of a child who
was breastfed is twice as large as that of a child who was formula fed.
The thymus is where t-lymphocytes come from (macrophages are in this
category.)  He also said that the incidence of diarrhea, upper and lower
respiratory tract infections, otitis media and UTI's are decreased FOR
YEARS after breastfeeding.  Obviously it makes a difference, not just
for the short term (while breastfeeding) but the long term as well.  It
only stand to reason, in my mind anyway, that the building materials one
uses in building anything are as important as the structure of the thing
one builds.  So, breastmilk would provide better "raw materials" from
which the immune system is built than formula would.

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