Breast Milk Promotes a Different Gut Flora Growth Than Infant Formulas
Date: 29.8.2012
Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have described a unique property that makes mother's milk better than infant formula in protecting infants from infections and illnesses.
The finding, published in the August issue of the journal Current Nutrition & Food Science, explains how breast milk, but not infant formula, fosters colonies of microbiotic flora in a newborn's intestinal tract that aid nutrient absorption and immune system development.
The infant formulas and the milk products were incubated with two strains of E. coli bacteria -- necessary early inhabitants of the gut that are helpful cousins to the dangerous organisms associated with food poisoning.
Within minutes, the bacteria began multiplying in all of the specimens, but there was an immediate difference in the way the bacteria grew. In the breast milk, bacteria stuck together to form biofilms -- thin, adherent layers of bacteria that serve as a shield against pathogens and infections. Bacteria in the infant formula and cow's milk proliferated wildly, but it grew as individual organisms that did not aggregate to form a protective barrier.
