The amount of Immune components received by the infant, such as sIgA,
lactoferrin and lysosyme, remains pretty much the same throughout lactation
however the CONCENTRATION will vary according to the volume of milk
production.

When the volume of milk produced is low ie in colostrum and weaning
secretions, the concentration is high,
however when the volume increases in established lactation then the immune
factors are diluted out and the concentration is much lower.
15 ml of colostrum will not equate to 15 ml of mature milk obtained from an
exclusively breastfeeding mother (whose average production will be  800ml
compared to 37ml of colostrum on Day I - the change in dilution factor is
huge). So perhaps you could ask your colleague is she talking about 15ml of
colostrum, transitional milk, mature milk, weaning milk and at what volume
of production?.

Unfortunately this is another case of "someone" interpreting an aspect in an
existing study and applying it incorrectly and inappropriately to
"everything". This is then propagated as some sort of truth and the initial
value of the original findings is lost - the authors would be appalled!!
Although de Carvalho's study showed benefits from 15 mls of colostrum there
is no reference claiming "this is all the baby needs" - what it does do is
further add to the body of evidence showing the importance and positive
effects of breastmilk - which is of course is optimised by exclusive
breastfeeding.

Also of note is the environment in which the immune components function. It
is unlikely that  their bioactivity will function optimally in an
environment exposed to mixed feeding.

Regards
Cathy Fetherston
Perth Western Australia

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html