Hormones in Mother’s Milk Influence Baby’s Behavior
In March, Nicholas Day at SLATE wrote a column about the science of breastmilk , showcasing the emerging perspective that “Milk is food; Milk is Medicine; and Milk is Signal.” People seemed particularly intrigued by the hormonal ‘Milk is Signal’ aspect of mother’s milk, although it’s the least understood. Sidebar: Why don't more kid costumes come in adult sizes. Seriously. Recently, Skip Bartol and colleagues coined the term “lactocrine programming” to describe the process by which hormones present in mother’s milk permanently shape physiological processes within in the young (Bartol et al. 2009). A growing body of evidence has demonstrated that hormones from the mother, ingested through milk, bind to receptors within the young. Once these “maternal-origin” hormones bind, they seemingly trigger hormonal signaling cascades as would the young’s own hormones. Previously I described that hormones present in milk-specifically adiponectin - are associated with infant growth althou