"A nurse said to her that foremilk has more antibodies than hindmilk.  I
told her perhaps the nurse is thinking of colostrum but just thought I'd run
it by you.  Any evidence of this being true?"

No.  In fact, Ruth Lawrence states in her book that antibody levels remain
relatively stable throughout a feed, as well as from day to day except in
the case of maternal infection.  Antibodies are proteins and concentrations
do not change during the feed the way that fats sometimes do.

Colostrum has a much higher concentration of immunoglobulins than does
mature milk, but babies ingest much smaller quantities of colostrum, so it
kind of evens out as far as total amount ingested.  The high concentration
insures that the newborn gets the necessary amount of antibodies even if
intake is relatively low.  Concentration of antibodies falls rapidly as the
transition is made to mature milk, and then remains fairly stable
thereafter.

Warmly,
Sharon Knorr, BS, IBCLC
Newark, New York (upstate, near Rochester)


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