Protected thanks to breastfeeding

MIAMI (EFE).— A team of scientists from the University of Florida (UF) found that nursing mothers who receive the booster vaccine against Covid-19 transmit the antibodies through breast milk to their babies and, potentially, They protect them from the virus.

This is the third study from the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) that analyzed protection through antibodies transferred through the breast milk of women who received the booster vaccine.

“We believe that breast milk may play an important role in protecting” against Covid-19 during “the first six months of infants’ lives,” said Vivian Valcarce of the UF School of Medicine, who worked on this study. .

The assistant professor at the University of Alabama in Birmingham stressed in a statement that infants hospitalized for Covid-19 infections continue to be observed.

For this work, published last February in the magazine “Frontiers in Nutrition”, the UF/IFAS had 14 mothers, of which two were Hispanic. Researchers looked at antibody response and functionality in breast milk and tested for the presence of antibodies after infants consumed breast milk with antibodies against Covid-19.

The results suggest that breastfeeding “may provide antibodies against Covid-19 to infants who are considered too young to receive a vaccine.”

In this study, 14 nursing mothers and their babies were followed from before receiving the Covid-19 booster vaccine until after receiving it.

Researchers analyzed the mothers’ blood to confirm that their bodies produced antibodies against Covid-19 after a booster injection and detected the presence of antibodies in breast milk.

Finally, they analyzed the babies’ stool to confirm that antibodies were present in the infants’ bodies.

“This study shows how important breast milk and breastfeeding are for children’s health during a pandemic,” said Valcarce.

Although the levels of antibodies against Covid-19 “decrease” over time in vaccinated individuals, “they are still higher than pre-vaccine levels,” so the research “supports the idea that they may be vaccine reinforcements are necessary,” Larkin said.

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Immature immune system

“When babies are born they have an immature immune system, so they are highly dependent on the mother’s immune system,” said Joseph Larkin, UF/IFAS professor of Microbiology and Cell Science.

Breastfeeding helps

Therefore, breastfeeding “can serve during the interim period while babies develop their own immune systems,” Larkin added.