Breastfeeding is not a 100% guarantee that the baby/child will not get
an infection.  Indeed, we want babies to get infections, so that they
develop their own immunities.  What we do *not* want is for them to get
sick.  However, even the extremely efficient human immune system (and I
include breastfeeding as part of this immune system in children under 4
or 5 years of age) is not a guarantee, and sometimes infections become
clinical illness.  However, the breastfed baby is likely to be less sick
and for less time.  One could describe the artificially fed infant as
being immune deficient, since he is not getting breastmilk.  But even
immune deficient people (viz. people with congenital immune
deficiencies, AIDS) do not have infections all the time.

Au plaisir de vous rencontrer le 20 juin.

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC