Breast milk is produced by the mammary glands to feed the children early in life. It is basically made up of proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins and minerals that make it a complete meal.
Features
Breast milk is the ideal food for infants because it contains the amounts and types of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals suitable for development, some of which are specific to the human species, such as taurine, so that are properly digested and assimilated by the digestive system, immature newborn.
60% of the milk proteins are soluble and easily digested. Their fat is more digestible because it contains lipases, enzymes that the baby still can not produce. Minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc and fluoride are well absorbed by children when they are purchased from breast milk.
It is called natural food, because it is the nature offers to the child, his mother’s milk.
The woman’s milk is suited to the physiology of the infant. From a nutritional standpoint and digestive systems is changing in composition and is consistent with the physiological characteristics of the baby, even varies in the same blow job, which at first is richer in carbohydrates (sugars) and end-fat what regulates the digestive function of the child.
The low sodium concentration is a favorable factor in the future to prevent the occurrence of hypertension and kidney disease. It consists of 80% water, ensuring the application of fluid required during the period of breastfeeding, even in hot dry climates.
One of its most precious qualities is the large number of immune components, both humoral and cellular make up their protective function against viruses, bacteria and parasites: immune value.
Composition at different stages
The milk the mother gives her son is a sugar solution, salt and protein that contains an emulsion of fat globules. Its composition varies from the period before birth through different stages after birth.
During the last trimester of pregnancy, mammary glands secrete a highly saline fluid rich in proteins, and after the birth are known three different stages.
- In the first three days after birth, breast secretes up to 100 ml of a yellow liquid (which is high in vitamin A and other fat-soluble vitamins), viscous, very abundant in proteins of high biological value, called colostrum . Colostrum is nearly three times more protein than milk Ultimately, many of which come from living cells and antibodies from the mother. These high concentrations of antibodies or immunoglobulins such as type A and lactoferrin, with special cells such as lymphocytes and macrophages, protects the infant from the aggressions to which they must deal until you are able to develop their own defenses. Colostrum is relatively low in fat and lactose, which is the milk sugar, for in these first days the baby does not need much energy. Moreover, at this early stage, milk contains higher amount of salts that serve as a laxative to facilitate cleaning of the intestines of the newborn. The quantity produced in this first phase, although less than in the other, is the necessary and sufficient for the baby, so this phenomenon should not be misinterpreted or lead to an unjustified weaning.
- Between the fourth and tenth day after delivery occurs transitional milk in amounts that can reach half a liter a day. This milk has less protein (immunoglobulin) and fat soluble vitamins, so it takes a more whitish increase water-soluble vitamins, fat and lactose, and the baby needs for new forces.
- By month old milk is short, white and sweet taste, because it is rich in lactose. This mature milk has the proper ratio of water and all the nutrients it needs to feed the infant without adding anything else. Although the amount varies from one woman to another, without affecting the normal growth of their children, can reach 800 ml in the day, almost a quart.
The amount of milk a mother produces healthy, properly stimulated, is sufficient for the baby, this test assesses the child’s weight gain, especially their growth, periodic inspections to be performed by the doctor and nurse.
The milk quality is stable, as the body of the mother is assured even at the expense of its own reserves, if necessary. Currently in the food-deficient populations, infants are protected from malnutrition, at least during the first months of life, at the expense of mothers.
