This is really interesting! What is the recommended length of breastfeeding time? I asked my mom and she breast-fed me for about a year.

Interesting!

I was never breastfed and I always say that's why I'm not as intelligent as I could have been and maybe why I have so many body ailments. I am a firm believer that breast feeding is imperative to a child's health. You don't see pigs making up a formula to give their piglets!

We as humans can be pretty selfish.

I was breastfed for a long period of time and have hormonal acne. My husband was not breastfed and he has never had acne. Like anything, it's different for everyone.

A year is the normal period of time.

Like I've said, there are many different causes, but I had acne caused by this and another reason is that my immune system was also weaker than that of a healthy human. I'd get a flu only by going outside in the winter, not matter how overdressed I was.

Hormones are an entirely different issue. My acne was not hormonal because I never had oily skin, it's always been normal to dry (mostly on the lower part of face). Well, it did get oily but only if I rubbed it too hard with harsh soaps lol.

For that there are other methods of treatment and I think Praventin would not do anything to you...

This is an interesting idea. Maybe you know if this is similar to the immune issues experienced by babies that are delivered by Caesarean instead of vaginally? Do you know of any scientific studies backing this up?

Interesting..

I have no idea about Caesarean - related immune problems, but there have to be some studies done on the internet...

My opinion on this matter:

Since babies born that way have weaker immune systems it's highly possible! But in their case I don't think it's a milk protein they're missing, but rather something else... if they're not born naturally they have not absorbed enough nutrients through the umbilical cord (in the case of those born before their time) and need something else like globulin gamma - which is has similar compounds to the plaque that protect the baby inside the mother (I can't remember its scientific name now lol).

There was a study on the internet regarding praventin effects on acne and it was something like the control group had cleared approximately 50% of their acne after 2 months of use and 95% after 3 months, but the study was conducted by a company that produces supplements with it, so don't trust it entirely. It won't work for everyone!

I was breastfed for over a year. My parents were major hippies and I was born vaginally, at home in my parents bed...zero medications. My mom only ate organic, homemade and homegrown everything. Milk from the cow down the street, vegetables and fruit from the backyard garden. Honey from the apiary neighbor. I was raised on a diet of the same. I had severe acne (even after 2 rounds of accutane) for 25+ years, up until a few months ago.

I hope you guys find the right treatments...

I was breast-fed until I was about 2. My parents were kinda hippy lol We lived out in the country, I was born at home, we ate organic and pretty much from our own stuff we grew ... Even though breastfeeding is good for developing your immune system and fighting infection, acne is different. It becomes an infection over time but is not started that way. I would think it wouldn't make a huge difference

I was breastfed for about 6 months. My acne is diet related, though. Of this I am sure.

Has anyone ever tried echinacea to help boost the immune system?

I honestly think the whole debate on breast feeding and formula is ridiculous.. you get all of your essential vitamins either way. Formula is designed to replicate the vitamins from breast milk. It just costs money and breast milk doesn't, which to me is a bigger reason to breast feed than anything else.

I do agree however with immune deficiencies. You are on the right track.

Part of the benefit of being breastfed is that you receive flora (good bacteria) directly from breastmilk, and they set up shop in your body in a small, important window of time. That window of time as a young infant is the ONLY time when you can permanently "colonize" your gut with good bacteria. This is why people who need probiotics must take them for...forever, basically. We have no real evidence that adult bodies are capable of re-colonizing a gut that has been stripped of good bacteria by antibiotics. Probiotics will survive for a while in an adult body, but they won't make permanent microbiomes.

The point being, that if your mother did not have the right balance of good bacteria (either because HER mother didn't, or because she had a few rounds of antibiotics), then one of the main benefits of being breastfed won't apply to you.

This makes sense, and it definitely won't apply to everyone. I was always wondering why my acupuncturist asked me if I was breastfed as a child. And this question also came up when I saw an integrative doctor - she asked me the same question but didn't go into detail about why it was important.

Part of the benefit of being breastfed is that you receive flora (good bacteria) directly from breastmilk, and they set up shop in your body in a small, important window of time. That window of time as a young infant is the ONLY time when you can permanently "colonize" your gut with good bacteria. This is why people who need probiotics must take them for...forever, basically. We have no real evidence that adult bodies are capable of re-colonizing a gut that has been stripped of good bacteria by antibiotics. Probiotics will survive for a while in an adult body, but they won't make permanent microbiomes.

The point being, that if your mother did not have the right balance of good bacteria (either because HER mother didn't, or because she had a few rounds of antibiotics), then one of the main benefits of being breastfed won't apply to you.

This isn't entirely true. Your good bacteria di and will grow back after a near wipeout from antibiotics, but what grows back and in what quantities are hard to predict. And probiotics can't survive as they are being place from one environment into a totally foreign one. And to add to this, most of them are dairy or soil organisms that your body / bacteria treat as intruders. So on top of a dramtic enviroment changed, they are also subjegated to attack from your immune system. Not to say they are usless, but yeah, you have to take them forever.

More research into human probiotic infusion is being done, this hold the single greatest chance of repairing a severly damaged / out of whack microbiotia.

Has anyone ever tried echinacea to help boost the immune system?

 

I honestly think the whole debate on breast feeding and formula is ridiculous.. you get all of your essential vitamins either way. Formula is designed to replicate the vitamins from breast milk. It just costs money and breast milk doesn't, which to me is a bigger reason to breast feed than anything else.

I do agree however with immune deficiencies. You are on the right track.

Has anyone ever tried echinacea to help boost the immune system? <- Wouldn't do this long term or in high doses.

I honestly think the whole debate on breast feeding and formula is ridiculous.. you get all of your essential vitamins either way. Formula is designed to replicate the vitamins from breast milk. It just costs money and breast milk doesn't, which to me is a bigger reason to breast feed than anything else. <---LOL (Sorry..)

I do agree however with immune deficiencies. You are on the right track. <-- Very likely

Bacteria play a major role in what is absorbed for use, and they eat what isnt and the "good" bacteria, are good because the by products they produce are benfital to you in some way (creates B vitamins, removes excess gasses, break up undigested debris ect.)

The "Bad" bacteria produce harmful toxins which your body now has to focus on removing, and are often pathogenetic, meaning they will spread and attempt to take over at any given oppurtunity, making them hard to remove. Breat milk, the colostrum in particular, are loaded with human probiotics meant to help digest many thing (mainly milk) and crowd all available space that bacteria can grow, before harmful, pathenogentic bacteria get to you. This is the single greatest reason for immune defeciency in cesearean delivery. SO i'd highly recommend if you want to give your kid the best shot, don't have any untill yo uhave been at least 3 years free of antibiotics or longer, and make sure you are in top health during throughout and after pregnancy to avoid antibiotics at all costs. And being healthy in general is always nothing but good.

Formula is a waste of time and money, by the time you are dont breast feeding, your kid is ready to strat learning how to eat and digest real food. And you can start with homemade blended fruits / vegetables / meat or what have you. For what reason can you logically think a man made contraption can be better than what we were initially designed to eat, which is real food / breat milk.... *confused*

And in my experience mothers dont breat feed for selfish reasons alone. (unless maybe you are too unhealthy too breast feed? In which case why are you having a baby anyway?

Or is there any milk corruption diseases of some kind? Never heard of any ... but it's possible, I guess)

Not breastfeeding is not really an issue of selfishness, it's simply an issue of ignorance because it's not an important part of our culture. I don't have kids, but most of the women I know with kids, simply don't know that breastfeeding is that much different from bottle feeding. If you try to explain it to them, it's not that they're stupid necessarily, but when you haven't spent hours researching health issues, all this talk about probiotics starts to sound like some New Age cult. They think you're crazy. They might get a What to Expect When You're Expecting book or two, but mostly follow mainstream social cues about what is "healthy" for their child or not.

And it's not like most doctors today, or the main medical community, really accepts the probiotic idea yet. I have only had one doctor recommend probiotics after years and years of antibiotics, and actually all he did was tell me to eat some yogurt...which if you've done ANY research at all, you know is not enough to fix what antibiotics wipe out.

The sad fact is that many of the most educated people on health are also "too" educated to do the boring/tedious work of raising a family. So the people that are having children are not the people who have spent hours and hours researching health.

If more highly educated people were a little less selfish with their time and decided to take care of children, we might have healthier kids

I asked my mom if I was breastfed, and she said only very briefly because her milk had blood in it and the doctor told her to give me formula instead. My sister got breastfed, and has fewer health issues than me. Hmmm. Breastfeeding could be a factor, maybe even stronger than genetics. Now I understand why there's a black market for breastmilk.

I actually bought some colostrum / breast milk off said "black market". It's the only thing that has calmed my bowels after being given enough antibiotics to cure an elephant of menengitis...

Unfortunatley It's much too expensive (I paid $80 per ounce colostrum $2 / ounce breast milk) too continue. Athough I'm sure if I made that my diet for some time starting with the colostrum for a few days first, followed by a week or so of just breast milk, then slowly reintroduce food, blended fruits...Baby food, lol, that I'd make a signifigant recovery.

And yes unless you can convince me otherwise (blood in breast milk is a good reason) Yes, it is selfish reasons. They don't want to spend the time, or sorry for being blunt, but yeah, I'm a blunt kind of person, they don't want to "ruin" their tits.

Also, I don't really like the fact that I had to lie to these mothers and send them pictures of my newphew (who very creepily has all MY features...??) because most of these mothers (understandably) are only willing to sell to children in need, sick kids in particular. So I feel as though i'm kind of robbing a child of there health...potentially.

^^ Lol, I can't believe you had to send a baby picture to get the breast milk, but yea it makes sense that they want to make sure it goes to someone in need.

This thread doesn't belong in the over-the-counter section....it belongs in the UNDER the counter section haha

Kind of appalled at the suggestion that some women dont breastfeed because they are selfish. Some women cannot due to health reasons - not vanity or laziness. My mom was one of them.

It's true...some may do it for selfish reasons, but my mom had to stop breastfeeding me because there was blood in her milk. So we can't really generalize. My mom feels guilty though, because basically I inherited acne from both parents, and possibly a weaker immune system from not being breastfed. My younger sister was breastfed and has less health issues than me. Could be coincidental, but who knows.

I have 2 kids . The older one I did not breastfeed for more than 2 weeks. The nurses had fed him formula via bottle in the hospital due to his weight loss after birth, and he never accepted the breast back.

My second one I did breastfeed up to almost 2 years. He has more health issues despite his history of brestfeeding compared to my forrmula- fed baby, including allergies and neurodermitis. See, I am all into breastfeeding and I really am convinced that mothers milk an especially colostrum are very healthy for babies, but I think that many people really over- interpret mothers milk as an cure- all. For me, breastfeeding is the most natural and healthiest way to feed a baby, and the only reaon that speak against it by todays knowledge are maternal infections like HIV and very few meds or a lactosis intolerance. But it cannot perform miracles.

Btw the very most benefits for the babies immune system derive from the fact, that their gut is still very permeable and many things can be passed into the blood stream. But an adults gut is mature and this cannot happen.

If the only women you know won't breastfeed because it will "ruin their tits," sounds like you primarily socialize with L.A. housewives or strippers That is the last thing on most mothers' minds when it comes to their children. If they didn't want to ruin their body, they wouldn't have had kids in the first place...just the birthing process does more irreversible damage to a woman's body than any amount of breastfeeding will do.

So it must be strippers...cause the L.A. housewives could afford a surrogate anyway.

Let's stop making stupid generalizations shall we?