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Breastfeeding stress changes the behavior of the offspring
Influences during pregnancy and lactation can have lifelong effects on children's health. Stress in particular has far-reaching consequences here. For example, a recent study by researchers at the University of Notre Dame has shown that stress in pregnancy can cause child coordination problems. Now Dr. Amanda Dettmer of the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development at the Chicago Society of Neuroscience's Annual Meeting that stress hormones in breast milk affect children's social behavior long after weaning, according to PA news agency PA.
Using 26 female rhesus monkeys and their offspring, the scientists investigated the effect of the stress hormone cortisol on social behavior. It has been shown that a higher concentration of stress hormone in mother's milk in the monkey babies at the age of six months, a reduced impulsivity brought, reported Dr. Dettmer. Higher cortisol concentrations were also associated with reduced social behaviors such as care and play, but only in male offspring.
Stress hormones in the mother's milk have long-term effects on the behavior of the child. (Image: cicisbeo / fotolia.com) Hormone concentration in breast milk with far-reaching effects
A high cortisol level in breast milk has, according to the researchers in previous studies, among others, associated with a nervous temperament in monkeys and humans. However, according to the current study results, the impulsivity seems to decrease with the increased cortisol concentrations. Basically, however, the results confirm the importance of hormones in breast milk on the neurological and social development of the offspring, Dettmer is quoted by the "PA". Which effect the different hormones develop exactly, further studies would have to clarify. If a more precise limitation is possible here, could be counteracted if necessary during pregnancy, according to Dettmer and colleagues. (Fp)