Friendly Flora are Present in Breast Milk

Swiss researchers have discovered that the friendly flora so helpful for a newborn baby’s digestive tract somehow travel from the mother’s digestive tract, into her breast milk, and then to the baby. This is a major new finding that further emphasizes the importance of both a mother’s digestive health as well as nursing her child.

Lead study author Professor Christophe Lacroix said, “We are excited to find out that bacteria can actually travel from the mother’s gut to her breast milk. A healthy community of bacteria in the gut of both mother and baby is really important for baby’s gut health and immune system development.”

While the researchers do not know the path that bacteria follow to go from the mother’s digestive tract into her milk, their genetic analysis of the mother’s digestive bacteria and those in her milk are proven to be the same.

This means that a breast-feeding mother should work diligently to maintain or improve digestive health so as to assist her child to develop a healthy digestive and immune system.