CHARACTERISTICS OF BREAST MILK

Other characteristics of breast milk

Woman's milk, compared to cow's milk, has another important difference: it contains a very low quantity of mineral salts, which is significantly lower than that of cow's milk. This aspect is very important because the kidney of the small child still has to Therefore, if the cow's milk were not diluted, in addition to the aforementioned protein clot in the stomach, there would also be damage to the kidney.

Other characteristics of breast milk

In addition to the nutritional components mentioned, breast milk also contains important ones bioactive components, that is, which do not have a nutritional effect but a regulator, and are represented by regulatory and defense proteins. These are suitable to act in a specific way in the digestive system of the newborn, present in the mother's milk in quantities inversely proportional to the productive capacities of the child and are able to gradually decrease over time as the defenses of the child increase, that is around about 6 months of life. From this it can be deduced that mother's milk takes care of some of the newborn's shortcomings, especially of the immunological type, offering that "supply of immune defenses that it is not yet able to produce on its own."

Among the numerous defense factors contained in breast milk, the most important are represented by immunoglobulins, lactoferrin and lysozyme. Other important non-protein factors are represented by natural antioxidants and nucleotides, which are the "building blocks" of DNA, and which seem to have considerable efficacy in repairing the small lesions of the cells that line the intestinal canal (enterocytes), allowing for a wall more intact. In this way, it is less likely that foreign molecules pass through the intestinal barrier and are thus carriers of allergenic phenomena.

Conclusions

In women's milk the content of individual nutrients is minimal compared to the needs of the infant, but such as to allow for optimal absorption; therefore, the baby does not lack nutrients, but it is a mechanism put in place by evolution that determines an "efficiency at cost." The woman's milk, therefore, contains all the substances that the baby needs, but not more than those that can be used by the child himself. There is therefore a minimum of energy expenditure with a considerable advantage for the nursing woman.
Therefore, breast milk is a food that never overloads the baby's organism, and offers in the right quantity the necessary contributions for growth and the maintenance of a perfect balance in the infant.