*Very* interesting....my oldest sister had polio.  She was 7 yrs old
at the time and had 4 younger siblings, none of whom became ill.
Guess who was the only bottle fed baby of the bunch?  You got it-
my mother was convinced she "didn't have good enough milk" with
baby #1.  She breastfed the rest of us well into toddlerhood.

Chris, RNC
Alaska

>>> Kathleen G. Auerbach <[log in to unmask]> 10/ 7  9:45am >>>

#3: the researchers came to realize that "the babies no longer received
antibody protections from their mothers as infants.  Thus, they contracted
the disease as young children and young adults because they had no protections
early and thus no antibody protection from such exposure."
This statement made me sit up and take notice!  Do you interpret this as
I did?  That fewer women were breastfeeding and thus not passing on their
own antibodies to the babies, triggering immune response in the babies?

Statements about failure to pass antibodies from mother to infant were
mentioned SEVERAL times!

What particularly struck me about this was that the epidemics in the USA
began to increase at the same time that breastfeeding incidence and duration
was declining rapidly, particulalry in the middle-class and upper class
populations and in the cities.  Was this simply coincidental?  I don't
think so....