07/02/2025
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Breastmilk changes constantly in relation to your child’s needs.
When your body becomes aware of a virus or bug that your baby has picked up, either through contact with your baby’s saliva, or their skin, or from sharing the environment and picking up the bug yourself too for instance, your body immediately starts to make the antibodies tailored to that infection, and delivers it through your milk.
The more milk your child drinks, the more antibodies and protection they receive.
Levels of prolactin, the hormone that supports milk production, are highest at night, making night feeds an important part of establishing your milk supply.
Levels of melatonin, the hormone that regulates sleep, also increase at night. When we’re born, it takes several months for our body to start making its own melatonin, so your milk helps your baby to start establishing their own sleep rhythms.
Though disclaimer, it can take years for children to sleep through the night. That is natural - if exhausting - too.
The concentration of Human Milk Oligosaccharides, sugars that feed good bacteria in our baby’s gut and protect our children against infections, changes in relation to our children’s age, and even to the seasons.
The concentration of fats and proteins increase as a baby grows into a toddler, along with increased levels of antibacterial and antiviral components such as lysozyme, which is an anti-inflammatory, and destroys bacteria.
Lysozyme increases in concentration from about 6 months old, when babies become more mobile and everything (toys, sand, cats biscuits?) goes straight in the mouth, and keeps increasing after the first year.
The concentration of Lactoferrin also increases over time. Lactoferrin inhibits the growth of some cancerous cells. It also binds to the iron in our baby’s body, preventing it from being available to harmful microorganisms that need iron to survive. Lactoferrin also kills the bacteria strep mutans, a cause of tooth decay and cavities.
Our baby’s immune system takes months to start to become able to fight pathogens effectively, and around 6 years to become fully mature, so the support of the protective factors in breastmilk for as long as possible, ideally 2 years at least, is natural.
The longer we mothers breastfeed for, the more our risk of certain diseases, including breast cancer, ovarian cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, is reduced.
All this can be summed up this way: your breastmilk is unique and can’t be replicated.
Breastfeeding is really hard work. But you are doing an incredible thing, and you are BRILLIANT.
More incredible science, references and support at https://human-milk.com
