Jan - really interesting question.

I guess the work done on the way immunity is conferred on the baby via
breast milk  easily supports the notion that the *quicker* you get the milk
into the baby after exposure to some sort of pathogen, the better.

The way I understand it, it is a far more dynamic, beautifully-responsive,
tailor-made process than the way Rachel described it - that is, the mother
has the same amount of antibodies to give per day.

I wish I had refs to hand for this, but it is all bound to be in the big
texts on bf.

This is how I understand it, and how I have heard it described on several
occasions when I have heard Professor Howie from Dundee speak on this very
topic:

the mother's system responds to a bug of any sort by making antibodies (in
the lungs, and in the stomach, primarily, which is the first 'stopping off'
place for bugs which are normally breathed in or eaten) , which then travel
through her system and become available to the milk, which then gets into
the baby. I think I am right in saying that this process happens literally
within minutes of exposure.  Prof. Howies answered a question about this at
a recent talk by saying 'instantly'/

So, if the mother sits next to someone on a bus who sneezes all over her
and her baby, for example, then waits three hours (or whatever) to feed the
baby because the baby is on a feeding schedule...well, this cannot be as
good as feeding the baby sooner.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK

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