On Sat, 30 Dec 2006 Joy Anderson wrote, in her thougthful report of the Sydney conference on nutrition:

"Interestingly, one speaker began by talking about how infants obtain 
their microbiota (ie microorganism mix in the gut) from their mother 
- from her skin and prebiotics (oligosaccharides) in her breastmilk. 
Then later from food and other influences such as antibiotics, 
stress, gastro disease, etc. He said that breastfeeding sets up the 
microbiota for years. Presumably, the most profound effect would be 
seen in mothers who birth their babies at home and have skin-to-skin 
contact automatically and breastfeed exclusively. The bacteria from 
hospitals and staff, effects of antibiotics given to mothers and 
artificial feeding would all interrupt this process."

Joy,  do you know if these speakers at the Sydney conference you reported plan to publish?

Virginia
in Brisbane, Queensland

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