Milk Matters: Infant Feeding & Immune Disorder

Book excerpt: Milk matters: more than you know Maureen Minchin's latest book is a call to all who are interested in the long term health of humanity to take a better educated and research driven view of the effects of early diet. It is an impressive trilogy: - Book 1 advances the milk hypothesis, that immune disorder can be communicated vertically, compounding intergenerationally, through early infant nutrition and pregnancy and birth experiences; Book 2 describes the development of replacements for breastmilk, outlining their past, present and future deficiencies and excesses, and the known or likely consequences; Book 3 links the science and history to everyday infant problems, and gives practical advice about preventing or resolving diet-related distress in young children. With her usual intelligent passion, Maureen provides compelling evidence for the necessity of feeding species-specific milk. What will it take for clinicians who are charged with the health of our most vulnerable citizens - our babies - to finally improve their management of infant nutrition? This book should be an essential text for all health professionals and required reading for all medical and midwifery students. Heather Harris, MMid, IBCLC. Director - Boroondara Breastfeeding Centre Maureen Minchin's Breastfeeding Matters (1985) was a milestone in the history of breastfeeding. We applaud this amazing new trilogy, Milk Matters: infant feeding and immune disorder. It provides a global overview both of the manifold benefits of breastfeeding, and the futile attempts of vested interests to create and promote safe alternatives. Maureen argues that alternative feedings pose unrecognised risks and have trans-generational effects, including the emergence of immune disorders. Factually, breastmilk is ALIVE, with millions of stem cells, while infant formulas are industrially-processed mixtures. Breastmilk provides long-term benefits for the baby's microbiome, immune defences, and brain development. Yet a 2008 survey showed that only 15.8% of urban Chinese mothers exclusively breastfed their one child. (The Chinese State Council hopes to increase this to 50% or more by 2020.) We are not called Mammals for nothing. Our newborn young evolved to be totally dependent on the subtle secretions of its mother's mammary gland. Maureen Minchin's new books could not have appeared at a more important time, and they have much to teach parents, professors and paediatricians the world over. Please read on... Professor Marilyn B. Renfree AO DSc FAA FAIBiol Professor Roger V. Short AM ScD FAA FRS