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

Mother’s milk is more than a food full of essential nutrients and more than a medicine packed with protective immunofactors. Mother’s milk contains signals- hormones of maternal origin- that influence infant metabolism, neurobiology, and behavior. Profs  Frank “Skip” Bartol and Carol Bagnell coined the term “lactocrine programming” to describe the effects of these hormones in the baby. Wonderfully covered  by Carl Zimmer for the NYT , is  the sequel to our 2011 monkey milk cortisol paper .  And like all self-respecting sequels, we had to pack in more special effects (new predictors & outcomes!), an expanded cast of characters (N>100!), and an extended run-time (longitudinal data!). Monkey Milk Cortisol Reloaded original photo by Alex Georgiev In other words, we collected milk at multiple time-points across lactation, measured FOOD & SIGNAL in milk (available milk energy AND cortisol) and correlated these milk features with infant growth AND temperament. And th