Are there any safety concerns with human breast milk?
Just the milk itself in general. I’m doing a breast feeding case study for my human anatomy and physiology class.
Is there anything else I should know about human breast milk?
Random Chick- Not everyone has HIV. What I was asking was if there are any safety concerns with the breast milk itself without taking the mother or her health into consideration.
To my understanding now, there are no safety concerns unless there’s something wrong with the mother. Am I right?
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There are a handful of diseases that can be transmitted through breast milk, most notably HIV and hepatitis. Some drugs can be transferred from mother to baby through breastmilk as well.
Otherwise, breast milk is quite safe. It’s never been recalled!
HIV and AIDS
whoever gave me a thimbs down is an idiot. that IS a safety concern
Not if the mother is healthy.
It would be a little hard to not take the mother’s health into consideration since she’s the one producing the milk, kind of like not taking the cleanliness of a kitchen into consideration for food safety! But seriously-Mother’s milk is pretty much the perfect food. the mother’s body knows exactly what nutrients are needed at each stage of the baby’s growth and will change along with it-such as more fat, less fat, more volume, etc. It also will pass on immunities to the baby, for example-Mama has a cold, her body is fighting it and creating antibodies, those antibodies will be in her milk and will give protection to baby’s immune system. Of course, just as with pregnancy Mother has to be careful what she’s putting into her body, medications, gassy foods and the like, those can/will hurt baby. Breast milk is pretty amazing-it can even help clear up conjunctivitis(weepy/crusty eye), squirt a little in the eye and within hrs or days it will be gone, I’ve heard its good for other ailments too but I can’t remember them off-hand! Good luck in your class!
I’m not sure if this qualifies as a safety concern, but after my son was diagnosed with allergies to cow’s milk, eggs and peanut I eliminated these from my diet so I could continue breastfeeding him.
The only other thing I can think of with very little babies is you need to make sure they can still breathe through their noses while they’re feeding, especially if your breasts are really big or engorged.