Hi Emily,
When people have an infection (eg a virus) and recover, they are
usually immune, ie they have 'active' immunity and their body rapidly
produces antibodies and cellular immunity to that virus next time
they 'meet' it, so they don't get sick again.

When the baby gets antibodies through the mother's milk, they are
*temporarily* protected by these, ie it is 'passive' immunity. Now
the baby may have also been exposed to the virus just because it is
near the mother a lot and may have had the infection as well, but
perhaps only got a milder form of it because of the mother's
antibodies via the milk. In this case, the baby may develop his own
'active' immunity as well from actually being infected himself.

Regarding giving someone else the milk to drink, this would provide
some 'passive' protection, but not permanent immunity. This is
similar to giving a person an injection of immunoglobulin (a fancy
name for antibodies), eg like the tetanus shot you might get if you
cut yourself badly. This is a different substance to the tetanus
vaccine that people are given to make them immune long-term.
Immunoglobulin is just a solution of antibodies that have been made
by other people who have active immunity (usually extracted from
large volumes of blood plasma from blood donors).

So when you ask about immunity being passed on, you need to
distinguish between passive and active immunity.
******************************************************************
Joy Anderson B.Sc. Dip.Ed. Grad.Dip.Med.Tech. IBCLC
Nursing Mothers' Association of Australia Breastfeeding Counsellor
Perth, Western Australia.   mailto:[log in to unmask]
******************************************************************

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