Brenda's hospital is one of many hospitals experiencing the "full court press" from formula companies regarding their additives to formula. Delayed or impaired development of the immune system in early life, as happens when an infant is not fed breastmilk, can result in immune dysfunction later in life as seen with the increased rates of allergy, atopy, autoimmunity, and inflammatory bowel disorders in formula-fed individuals. Prebiotics function indirectly on the immune system by modifying the resident microflora in the gut, i.e., causing the growth of non-pathologic bacteria such as bifidobacteria as a mechanism to keep pathologic bacteria from growing. Oligosaccharides also function as decoys to keep pathogens from binding to receptor sites on the infant's intestine and gaining a foothold for penetration into systemic circulation. Formula companies add a few non-human derived?oliogsaccharides (plant sources)?to their formula which are?marketed to function as disease inhibitors. There are more than 200 types of oligosaccharides in human milk that are different from mother to mother depending on her Lewis blood type. Her defensive?milk components are unique to her and her infant. One mother's milk can contain anywhere from a few dozen to more than a hundred different oligosaccharides.

Defense factors in mother's milk inhibit specific pathogens, function directly by killing bacteria and viruses or inhibiting binding of a pathogen to its receptor, and act synergistically with other milk components. Throwing a couple of plant oligosaccharides in the infant formula matrix can in no way act in the same manner as the complex immune system of human milk. Clinicians are being dazzled by expensive food provided by companies hyping a product that cannot behave as human milk?does. Delivering formula to the immunonaive infant gut "educates" it or programs it in a vastly different manner than when it receives breastmilk. This is why we see so many autoimmune diseases, overweight and obesity, and metabolic problems later in life. Industry cannot fool mother nature. Only clinicians susceptible to slick marketing tactics, food, and gifts are so easily duped into thinking that formula is equivalent to breastmilk.

Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA



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