>I was talking to a dietician who said that she had read somewhere that
>babies do not have the necessary enzymes to digest milk straight off hence
>one of the functions of colostrum.   That colostrum stimulates the
>production of these enzymes.   She said that as a baby her Mum used to give
>her "licks" (as advocated by LLL) of food and they have found that these
>"licks" stimulate the necessary enzymes to digest any new food being
>introduced to the baby.   Can anyone comment on this?<

I know this is a complicated issue, but at least one piece of it was covered
by James Akre in his "Infant feeding:  the physiological basis",  Supplement
to Vol 67, 1989, of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

"There is... some evidence that infants can digests starches before three
months of age.  This is probably due to the activity of glucoamylase, which
is not normally active at this time, but which is activated by the presence
and nature of the substance or substrate on which the enzyme acts.  It is
also possible that pancreatic amylase could be produced as a reaction to the
presence of starches in the small intestine, although this has not been
proved.  In any case, a process of adaptation is required for the young
infant to be able to digest starches.  This can take days or weeks and might
explain the frequency with which gastrointestinal disturbances, particularly
diarrhoea, are observed in small infants fed starch-containing foods.  It
has also been suggested that undigested starches may interfere with the
absorption of other nutrients and result in failure to thrive in infants fed
diets containing a large proportion of starches...

"Of course, the mere fact that the physiologically immature organism can
adapt to a feeding mode that is nutritionally unnecessary hardly justifies
its use...."

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY

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