Home »  Mother's Milk Protects the Intestine of the Newborn Mother's milk happens to be the very first food that a baby derives from its mother. Mother's milk in true sense imparts all the necessary nutrients required by the baby, gives it strength to cope up with the world, with which it gets acquainted with each passing day.

A newborn literally sustains on mother's milk as after birth till 6 months no other food is allowed to be given to the baby. Mother's milk can very well referred as the "manna" showered by God at different times to people for survival through the most crucial phases.

In other word, mother's milk provides life to the baby and it spells wonders to the health of the baby. Therefore a baby who is deprived of mother's milk becomes weak for his entire life. Scientists have attributed this known fact with a yet new dimension. Researches have inferred a valuable piece of info that Mother's milk protects the intestine of the newborn to a great extent. A wondrous molecule, known as, pancreatic secretory trypsin inhibitor or PSTI has been discovered in mother's milk. The best part played by it is protecting and repairing the delicate components of the intestine of a newborn.

It has been seen that the element is found in abundance in colostrums, which happens to be the milk, produced during the first few days of child birth. PSTI is generally found in the pancreas and it helps in providing protection to the pancreas of the new born from the different digestive enzymes and also guards its guts as the lining of an infant's guts is very much prone to damages as they have never come in exposure to any kind of food and drink before.

There is no possibility of finding PSTI in any kind of formulated milk substitutes. A research has been conducted by the Queen Mary researchers belonging to London University and it has revealed that though PSTI is found in small quantity in breast milk in all stages but the highest amount of it has been discovered in the colostrums samples. After examining the effect of PSTI, the researchers have concluded that, it can prevent possibilities of damages to the cells in the intestine. It also stops the intestine from self destruction.

There have been further researches, which have proved that PSTI in mother's milk have ability to reduce about 75% of the intestinal damages. The researchers have found out that PSTI is formed in the mother's breast but could not yet find out the true reason behind its formation. Still the finding is indeed important one and every new mother should know it and be aware about the benefits of breast feeding. They should always keep it in mind that mother's milk protects the intestine of the newborn and hence, should gift their young one with the wealth of health for lifetime.