# @seed on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh1-d-3Fssf
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/34247944-seed-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/726529474e.jpg
- **Posted:** 2018-04-21T18:57:51.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Seed (@seed) — https://gondola.cc/seed

## Caption

Your #immune #system is fairly #vulnerable at #birth. Over life, it #develops through #exposure to new #foreign #substances. But how does it learn how to distinguish between what’s #safe and what’s not? 🤔⠀
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Turns out, it has a lot to do with #bacteria. A baby’s first #microbial #partners shape its #gastrointestinal tract, and through their #evolved #interactions with the developing body and immune system, begin to instruct and modulate the ‘right’ responses.⠀
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A lot of this happens via #breastfeeding. Breast milk contains a range of sugars called Human Milk Oligosaccharides (#HMOs) that #babies cannot #digest. Instead, this #complex #sugar serves to nourish certain beneficial gut bacteria in the infant called Bifidobacterium infantis. 👶🏼 ⠀
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These bacteria occupy the surface of the baby’s large intestine, and prevent #pathogens from gaining a foothold, protecting the infant from infection. They encourage gut cells to seal the intestinal lining, and produce anti-inflammatory molecules. B. infantis also release the #nutrient sialic acid when it feeds, a chemical that promotes the growth of the #human #brain 🧠 in the first year of life. Additionally, there are a number of #antibodies present in breast milk that fight pathogens specific to the mother’s environment—the baby receives the protection 🙅🏻‍♀️ it needs against the infections she's most likely to encounter.⠀
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Microveda. (2009, Oct 5). Human Breast Milk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXKyLjCAcqU

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 89
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## Tags

brain, interactions, foreign, digest, develops, sugar, partners, evolved, microbial, birth, complex, babies, human, exposure, antibodies, immune, system, substances, pathogens, vulnerable, nutrient, breastfeeding, bacteria, safe, hmos, gastrointestinal

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