An AMAZING Benefit of Breastfeeding You May Not Have Heard About

Breastmilk is a living, changing fluid. 

When you are sick, your body makes antibodies to help you fight off the illness and those antibodies show up in your breastmilk to help protect your baby, too. 

The composition of your milk (proteins, vitamins, minerals, fats, trace elements, hormones, good bacteria, and other components) also changes throughout a feeding, throughout the day, based on if your baby is preterm or full term, and based on your baby’s age and frequency of nursing.

Up until your baby is about 2-3 months of age, his or her neuroendocrine and metabolic systems are not quite mature. He or she is unable to convert the amino acid, tryptophan, into serotonin and then melatonin which helps induce sleepiness. Also, your baby’s body does not have a rhythm of cortisol yet. Cortisol is a hormone that helps your baby know when it is time to be awake and alert. (1)

Breastmilk to the rescue!

Your milk actually has a circadian rhythm to it! Studies have shown that breastmilk has increasingly higher levels of melatonin starting at 7 PM which peak around 2 AM and much lower levels of melatonin during the day. Your baby uses the variation of melatonin in your breastmilk to help develop the correct circadian rhythm of sleeping during the night. Similarly, your milk has the highest levels of cortisol in the morning (330% higher than at other times of the day). In addition, there are several amino acids that promote activity that are present in higher amounts in breastmilk during the day. Cortisol and these amino acids help your baby develop the rhythm of being awake during the day. (1)

When you are nursing your baby at 2 AM tonight, try to remember how special you are to your baby and how wonderful a gift your milk is!

For more information, here are some interesting articles on the topic:

From the journal Nature Pediatric Research: Breast Milk as Chrononutrition

How Breastfeeding Can Help Tune Infant Sleep Cycles

Reference:

(1) Marsha Walker’s presentation entitled “Chrononutrition….or can breastmilk tell time” at the iLactation  conference 2023

Written by Gina M. Peterson, BS, IBCLC