Environews | Focus

When it comes to feeding the newborn, human milk is, from an evolutionary perspective, the biological norm, the time-tested standard of care. The health benefits to the infant of breast-feeding have been amply documented; numerous studies strongly indicate significantly decreased risks of infection, allergy, asthma, arthritis, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and various cancers in both childhood and adulthood. Among the more fundamental disadvantages of not being breastfed is a loss of immunologic protection afforded by maternal colostrum, a “pre-milk” fluid secreted only during the first days after delivery, as well as numerous other bioactive factors that help protect the infant through the first two years of life, when the immune and nervous systems are incompletely developed. Nevertheless, given the tendency for persistent organic pollutants (POPs), pesticides, heavy metals, and other contaminants to accumulate in human milk, researchers and parents alike are asking whether the nursling’s exposure to these pollutants might reduce or even override the health benefits.