Listmates,
I connect my reply to the thread below because it
deals entirely on what Valerie wrote.

Just to add to this discussion, I was born in 1959
(before polio vaccine)  I was the youngest of 3
children and the first to breastfeed.  I was born in
February and my mom wanted to quit breastfeeding me at
three months because that was a long time,(May1959).
Her pediatrician specifically asked her that she not
quit before the summer months because the polio virus
would be at its peak during the summer months, that if
she wanted to quit it would be better after the
summer.  She continued to nurse until end of September
1959 when I was 7 months. She told me this story as I
was growing up and we would see a few of my friends
that had the long lasting effects of having had the
disease.  As I graduated from high school 1977 and saw
a couple of my classmates with leftover wastage from
the polio virus I could only thank my mom over and
over for her being open to her doctors wishes and I
REALLY could hug that doctor for being such a
knowledgable health provider.  It could have ended up
so much differently!

Theresa Johnson RNC IBCLC
Heidelberg Germany
Having fond memories of someone who has gone who
influenced my life so much! :)


--- "Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC" <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Albert Sabine developed a polio vaccine in 1961.  He
> is also known for his
> research on breastmilk and polio.  His study was
> written up in the Journal of
> Pediatrics in 1962 that showed that human colostrum
> and mature breastmilk
> have very strong antiviral activity against the
> polio virus.  One might ask
> why breastfeeding was not promoted and instead the
> emphasis was placed on a
> vaccine.  But this discovery was in the
> early 50's and the practice of breastfeeding was at
> its lowest point.
> Breastmilk is still considered by microbiologists to
> inactivate certain
> strains of polio in vitro and in vivo.  I found this
> discussion of his work
> in the American Academy of Family Physicians (1950):
> http://www.aafp.org/afp/20001115/afp.html
>
> "Recently Dr. Albert B. Sabin of the Children's
> Hospital Research Foundation
> of Cincinnati reported a most interesting discovery
> which may perhaps be the
> key to the solution of a terrible problem. What
> Doctor Sabin has found is a
> substance in the milk of about 75 percent of mothers
> and in the milk of an
> occasional cow, which will protect a baby from polio
> anywhere from one month
> to 340 days after birth.
> This discovery can explain why in those parts of the
> world in which the
> mothers nurse their babies for three or four years,
> small children do not get
> paralyzed.
> When the substance from the milk is mixed with the
> virus of polio and
> injected into the brains of mice, none of the
> animals get paralyzed. Everyone
> will watch with great interest for further reports
> on this substance in milk.
> (September 1950)"
>
>
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