How important is it for human infants to breast feed for at least the first couple of days in order to receive passive immunity from the mother’s colostrum? Do pediatricians encourage breast feeding for this reason, or is this considered a ‘non-issue’ with human babies?
I’ve been breeding pedigreed cats for several years, and maternal antibodies are a big issue in raising healthy kittens. Some breeders vaccinate their pregnant queens with killed-virus vaccines 3-weeks before their due date so the queen’s antibody levels will be high when she begins producing colostrum, and when a queen cannot immediately nurse her newborn kittens for some reason, I often ask that a blood sample be drawn and the serum extracted so that I can give it to the kittens during that all-important first 18 hours after birth. A lot of discussion also revolves around when to give the first vaccinations and what vaccination schedule to follow after that because of the possibility of interference from maternal antibodies. Colostrum is a kitten’s only protection from disease for the first few weeks
In the few articles I’ve read about breast feeding vs bottle feeding in humans, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this mentioned as an important consideration. Is this not a factor in human infant health, and, if not, why not?
The US medical establishment does not speak with a single voice on the breastfeeding/formula feeding issue - to put it mildly. Some docs are very emphatic about the benefits of breastfeeding and encourage all the pregnant women in their practice to at least give it a try. But if you speak to some others you would come away with the impression that there was no difference at all. Some of these are older doctors who trained back in the “better living through chemistry” days - science was soon going to improve on pretty much everything in nature, mother’s milk included. Others, well… the kind view is that they don’t want to make mothers who formula feed feel guilty; the cynical view is that they like the goodies from the formula companies too well to jeopardize anything. (Remember that several major US formula brands are made by companies that also make pharmaceuticals…) It’s possible the articles you have come across are written from this “mustn’t make mom feel guilty” point of view.
In any case, human infants can certainly survive without colostrum - but it’s also clear that colostrum is extremely valuable. Human babies aren’t born with a functioning immune system any more than kittens are, and a load of maternal antibodies helps either species stay healthy. Plus it gets that yucky meconium (tarry green-black poop from hell) out of the baby’s system and gets things ready for Real Food.