**  **

PEDIATRICS Vol. 74 No. 4 October 1984, pp. 563-564
PubMed

PubMed Citation
Articles by YOSHIOKA, H.
Articles by ISEKI, K.

Bacterial Flora of Breast-Fed Infants
H. YOSHIOKA MD1, K. FUJITA MD1, and K. ISEKI MD1

1 Department of Pediatrics, Asahikawa Medical College, Nishikagura
4-5-3-11, 078-11 Asahikawa, Japan

In Reply.--

We read Rose's comments with much interest. As he mentioned, some
English researchers reported that the predominant fecal organisms in
infants were coliforms and Bacteroides but not bifidobacteria even if
the infants were exclusively breast-fed.

**It is a mystery why the breast milk of English women does not
stimulate growth of bifidobacteria in the intestine of their babies,
but a possible explanation is, as Simhon et al1 have pointed out, that
the chance of a baby's acquiring bifidobacterial flora from the mother
has diminished because of recent changes in obstetric techniques,
which are continually becoming more aseptic.**