Breast Milk Varies for Males, Females
" Nursing monkeys make different milk for male and female offspring, a finding that has direct implications for understanding previously unknown variations in human breast milk, researchers said.
Males and females respond differently to cortisol, a hormone found in mothers milk but not in formula, said Katie Hinde, with Harvard Universitys Department of Human Evolution.
There is this prevailing myth that mothers milk is standard, Hinde told reporters at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago on Friday.
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Theres evidence that mothers are producing different biological recipes of milk for sons and daughters and the magnitude of this effect varies across their reproductive careers, Hinde told Discovery News.
Breast milk calcium content, for example, is higher for females than males.
The handful of studies that have looked at variations in human breast milk based on the babys gender tend to focus on the constituents of the milk and their concentrations -- how much fat, protein, sugar, calcium, etc., but have not accounted for overall milk production, which affects concentrations.
There is no data on how breast milk may vary for nursing mixed-gender twins, she added.
Formulas can copy mothers milk food value, but not its hormonal content, Hinde said.
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Related studies on 1.4 million cows also showed that mothers carrying females produce more milk than those gestating males.
The research may one day lead to better matching between donor breast milk and babies in neo-natal units, much like blood and bone marrow donors are matched with recipients, Hinde said.
"If we can better understand how milk is personalized for specific infants, we can do a better job of finding the closest match for donors, Hinde said. "
http://news.discovery.com/human/breast-milk-varries-for-males-and-females-140214.htm
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Interesting...that hadn't occurred to me that nature would plan a different cocktail for each gender, but it does make sense - we are different and have different physiological needs.
What happens when a woman gives birth to twins, one male and one female?
Buzz, I don't know - good thinking! I did come across an article about twins yesterday in this topic, but didn't read it, so there might be an answer.
One breast per...?
lol, I wonder if nature color codes the breasts or something when the twins are opposite genders.
j/k!!
I wonder if there is something instinctual for the baby - that the baby will reject what isn't right for them, or something. Just guessing
I always thought one was for chocolate milk. LOL
Always sounded like a good idea to me! It would get shared..
Really interesting article Chloe. I wonder what effect the difference in milk contents has on the brains of these developing children.
Hi Perrie, I thought that was an interesting question, so I looked around, but didn't find any articles with any supporting studies. There are some interesting implications, possibly. Just my own thoughts about that, but IQ was stated being affected by breast milk.
Additionally, it stated that BM contains a high proportion of cholesterol. I know that cholesterol is used in hormonal production. I wonder if the composition of the BM for each gender is made to trigger hormone production for stronger bones in females (it did say there was more calcium, but I think hormones are part of the absorption process, in addition to other things), for example; and maybe increased different male hormones to trigger other developmental processes for boys.
As an aside, I thought about animals. The genders often look a bit the same, with a few differences (horns, antlers, larger or smaller size maybe), but I wonder if nature gave them different natural formulas, too. With their better sense of smell, they might be able to tell which teat is the right one...just guessing again.
Hahaha... I don't know, but I've also seen them.