Breast-Feed Your Infant To Decrease Their Likelihood For Allergies: Part 1

Natural Allergy Cures

One of the best ways to decrease the likelihood of developing allergies later in life, according to most alternative medicine practitioners, is to feed an infant mother's milk. Breast-feeding builds a strong immune system equipped to deal with infection, environmental toxins, and food allergens. Lendon Smith, M.D., a pediatrician in Portland, Oregon, and author of numerous books on children's health, emphasizes that nursing contributes to the child having fewer allergies. He states, "If babies are given anything other than breast milk in the first few months of life, food sensitivities may develop. Their intestines are not meant to digest anything other than breast milk. The immature cells lining the intestines will allow foreign food particles to pass through undigested. These bits are antigenic [material that causes immune reactions] and may set up an allergenic or antibody response that the child will never outgrow."

A recent Finnish study revealed that breast-feeding in infancy lowered the risk of allergic symptoms by one-third in children by the age 17. In another study, high-risk (atopic) infants were less likely to develop allergic eczema if they were breast-fed for more than four months. In addition, a recent study published in the British Medical Journal reports that babies who are breast-fed during their first six months of life have a significantly lower risk of developing childhood asthma.

Human breast milk contains nutrients that are easily digested contribute to healthy brain development and growth, and provide immunity to infectious agents that the mother (and also the infant) will encounter in their environment. In building an infant's immune system, breast milk acts on many levels. It contains anti-inflammatory substances that infants cannot manufacture on their own; stimulates the production of IgA, which can neutralize a substance foreign to the body before it becomes an allergen; and populates the child's immature intestinal barrier with beneficial microflora, which blocks the growth of disease-causing bacteria. A protein called lactoferrin - which makes up 20% of the total protein in human colostrum (breast milk secreted immediately after delivery) - seems to have an inhibitory effect on "unfriendly" bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia colo, and Helicobacter pylori, all of which are increasingly identified as contributing to numerous health problems, including allergies. According to researchers at the Shanghai Institute for Pediatric Research in Shanghai, China, breast-fed, full-term children had healthier intestinal bacteria than formula-fed infants. Furthermore, their findings supported the claim that factors in breast milk prevent intestinal pathogens from developing.


Natural Allergy Cures



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