There is no doubt that breastfeeding is for babies the best nutrition, the best immune defense and the best emotional bond between the mother and the baby.
We know that it is a protective barrier against all types of diseases and we believed that it protected girls without distinction, but a new study carried out in Argentina states that breastfeeding protects women more than boys from all childhood respiratory viruses.
It does not mean that it does not protect children, at all. What they have discovered is that “women who do not drink breast milk are still much more sensitive than men to respiratory diseases,” explained Dr. María Inés Klein, a physician at the High Risk Premature Monitoring Program of Maternity Sardá and lead author of the study published in the journal Pediatrics.
The theory of the researchers would destroy what we assumed so far, that the mother transfers the defenses to her baby through her milk. If so, both boys and girls should have received the same defenses and it has not been. They believe that babies are born with a defense mechanism against viruses which is activated with breastfeeding, and that is activated more strongly in girls than in boys.
Let's look at the study figures to clarify a bit, in addition to comparing the large difference in defenses between formula and artificial milk.
The study has been carried out with very low weight premature babies (less than 1,500 grams), the most affected by respiratory tract infections due to their lung immaturity.
Half (50%) of girls who had been fed formula milk had to be hospitalized for respiratory infections versus only 6.5% of girls who had received breast milk.
Remember that in addition to being a protector against respiratory infections, breastfeeding also protects against other infections such as ear, stomach or intestine, in addition to preventing allergies, skin diseases, obesity and cardiovascular diseases, among others stuff.
In conclusion, boys definitely need their mother's milk to protect themselves against diseases, and girls, more. So, it is best to follow the WHO recommendations for exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life and then supplemented with the gradual introduction of food, ideally until two years.
