Facebookers awed by science experiment proving breast milk fights bacteria

By on March 9, 2017

A facebook posting by Vicky Greene, a microbiology student at South Devon College in Paignton, England has evoked immediate reaction among facebookers.  The posting got over 4,300 comments, 30,000 likes and was shared 27,000 times in just a matter of 2 days.

Greene shared a photo of nine petri dishes containing the bacteria M. Luteus. Then she added a disk soaked in breast milk to the center of each dish.  The sample breast milk came from two different nursing mothers. The sample from a mom nursing a 15-month-old was labeled BmA.  The BmB samples came from a mom  nursing a three-year-old.

The result of the experiment shows a physical proof that mother’s breast milk indeed protects baby from bacteria.

“The white spots in the middle are discs soaked in two samples of breast milk,” Green explains in her post. “See the clear bit around the discs — that’s where the proteins in the milk have inhibited the bacteria!” Greene says,”I’m so excited!!! It also worked with E. coli and had a fairly good go at MRSA too….the future is bright, the future is breastmilk.”

The takeaway from the experiment is that breast milk equally protects older babies, not just infants, from antibodies. For anyone who rolls her eyes at other moms who breastfeed toddlers, resist – because Science proves it’s good for the child.

About Mathilda Robbin