Breastfeeding: Does baby ‘backwash’ trigger an immune response in the mother’s milk?

Quick summary: New animal study provides evidence to support the “backwash” hypothesis — that if a child is sick, saliva from the baby’s mouth is sucked into the nipple. The idea is this backflow of saliva can then trigger an immune response in the mother’s breast milk to fight the infection.

• Want to know why human milk is so important for human health? We’ve just held our first international conference on the infant microbiome aimed specifically at birth/breastfeeding professionals. The…