Mamels life animal

In the first hours and days after a human baby is born, mothers aren’t producing the white biofluid that typically comes to mind when we think about milk. They synthesize a yellowish milk known as colostrum or “pre-milk.” Colostrum is the first substance human infants are adapted to consume, and despite being low in fat, colostrum plays many roles in the developing neonate (1). Historically and cross-culturally, colostrum was viewed very differently than it is amongst industrialized populations today. Colossus Colostrum A colossus is not just something large, it can be “something of great power, influence, or importance.” Colostrum, the smallest drops for the tiniest tummies, effectively fits this definition because of its substantial effects on organizing the infant’s health, metabolism, and microbiome. At birth, babies are first appreciably exposed to maternal and environmental microbes while they have relatively naïve and immature immune systems.  During this neonatal per

Greetings from Namibia! Prof. Brooke Scelza , Department of Anthropology, UCLA and I just spent the last few weeks conducting research among the Himba people of Northwestern Namibia.  This has been a long-planned collaboration between Brooke and myself and it was fantastic to finally get the project well and truly launched. Integrating methods from human behavioral ecology, ethnography, and lactation biology we were able to investigate numerous aspects of breastfeeding and breastmilk among traditionally living pastoralists.  Although bold claims and righteous results await lab assays and data analysis, here is a photo essay that captures some of what we were doing. Himba Woman & Infant photo by me! Driving from Windhoek to Kaokoland took a couple of days during which we saw baboons, giraffes, warthogs, and duikers just  chillin' roadside . Driving on the right side on the left side  (of the car, of the road) W e worked in the shadow of Omuhonga,  near the town of Okongwa