Interesting article on chemistry of human milk

[Snacks]

Gosh, that's a lot of big words.

[Fleur]

Wow, that's really interesting KMN, thanks for posting.

One individual's milk can contain anywhere from a few dozen to more than a hundred different oligosaccharides. And although some researchers have reported that the number of oligosaccharides varies over time as the infant grows, recent work by Lebrilla and coworkers shows that that is true only for minor oligosaccharide components of human milk???the quantity of the major components stays relatively constant over a three-month period

I wonder what causes the different levels, if I read this correctly? it means that although the levels of ogliosaccharides change over time, there is still a basic difference in the amount in an individual's milk.
DTMS?

Formula for healthy infants could also be redesigned to include oligosaccharides that promote the growth of bacteria found in breast-fed babies; right now, formula-fed infants tend to develop colonies of more "adultlike" intestinal microbes in their digestive tracts. Researchers hypothesize that the different microbes might be one reason rates of diarrhea are higher in babies fed formula rather than breast milk

Soooo... why not look at more funding for milk banks, better resources for mothers to share their milk ?

[~clover~]

Gosh, that's a lot of big words.

Exactly what I was thinking Hard to keep up with it when you can't make sense of the words, but very interesting still
Thanks for sharing!

[Kmn]

Better funding for milk banks would also be sensible - but it would be unlikely to be advocated by a chemistry journal - they tend to stick to the things their readers can actually do something about. It's a US journal - and they are better at milk banking than Australia is though.

It does seem strange that each Mum has her own level of oligosaccharides (translation - chains of sugar molecules, kind of like starch, that babies can't digest but that may be needed to keep the bugs in their guts growing happily). I would be intrigued to see if it varies from baby to baby for the one Mum too.

[Fleur]

Yep, that would be interesting, also wonder if other elements vary from mum to mum.. immune factors etc. And I wonder if it is affected by metabolism, or environmental factors...