Here's another article:

http://www.bact.wisc.edu:81/ScienceEd/stories/storyReader$54

"Scientists have found that during the early months of life, infants are
particularly susceptible to infection and disease. This is due to a drastic
decrease (during the second to fourth months of an infant's life) in the
level of maternal immunoglobulins (Siarakas et al., 1999) which were passed
to the infant via its mother's placenta during pregnancy (Anderson, 1998).
This leaves the infant vulnerable to diseases until it builds up its own
immune system and the ability to combat harmful antigens such as bacterial
toxins.

Nature has equipped infants with a valuable resource to protect them during
this formative time of their lives: breast milk. Ford et al. concluded in a
comprehensive study of eighteen hundred infants, that if a baby is breast
fed for at least four weeks, it has a significantly reduced risk of SIDS. It
has been found that human milk contains immunoglobulin antibodies that can
bind to several of the toxins that are implicated in SIDS, namely V. cholera
toxin, E. coli enterotoxin, and C. botulinum toxin (Siarakas et al., 1999).
It also produces aggregates of bacteria which could be more easily destroyed
by the immune system or expelled from the body (Blackwell et al., 1999)."

Pat W
LC in training

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