I need help with a technical/rhetorical question, regarding breastfeeding
practices in places where mothers wait "until the milk comes in" to put the
baby to the breast.  People often talk as though the colostrum mysteriously
disappears and is replaced by mature milk.  If this true?  Where does it go?
Is it reabsorbed?  Is there any actual research out there about this?

It seems to me that the colostrum would still be there, and it would be the
first milk the baby gets when he does get on the breast, perhaps diluted
because of the "real" milk being mixed in too.  But surely the baby doesn't
lose out on "all" the benefits of colostrum.

Any physiologists or chemists out there know the answer?


Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Texas A&M University
e-mail to [log in to unmask]
(409) 845-5256
(409) 778-4513