BABIES: First Food — a reflection.
by Georges Laguerre
The Netflix original series Babies debuted right around the same time as my daughter, Zazie, who was born on March 20 of this now quite infamous year. Soon after we brought Zazie home, my partner’s mom recommended we check out Babies for some insight into how babies develop and discover the world. Well, almost seven months later and I finally had some time (and motivation) to take her up on that recommendation.
For the purpose of my You Pick Assignment, I chose an episode titled “First Food” that I thought would intersect with some what we’re covering this term in General Biology. The episode description read: “Proving babies truly are what they eat, researchers discuss how breast milk, iron and microbes can enrich, nourish and protect offspring.”
From watching my partner breastfeed Zazie these past seven months, I’ve learned that breastfeeding can be both deeply challenging and deeply rewarding experience for mom and baby alike. I’ve also learned that the workforce, and American society too if I’m honest, can be really hostile to breastfeeding moms. When we were discharged from the hospital, a pediatrician asked my partner to commit to breastfeeding for Zazie’s first year of life. She has honored this commitment with poise, patience, and strength every single day since. After watching this episode, I feel such immense gratitude to Zazie and her mom for going on that journey.
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The science in the episode centers around a few significant revelations about breastfeeding and other first foods. To open, a researcher who studied the breast milk of monkeys shares two key findings: monkeys who give birth to a male offspring tend to have richer and more nutrient dense milk, whereas monkeys who give birth to a female offspring have a higher calcium to phosphorus ratio. This latter finding she says aids bone development, because female monkeys reach maturity before male monkeys. The researcher went on to study dairy from cows, where she observed that cows who give birth to female cows produce more milk. She also saw that cows whose first offspring is a daughter tend to produce more in their first and second lactation.
These findings, which she calls the “daughter effect,” are a big revelation. It shows that even from the earliest moments of breastfeeding, the human body is already working to meet the needs of the child. Turns out, this really is just the beginning. As baby reaches new stages of development, breastmilk changes. If baby is sick, breastmilk rises to meet the challenge, developing more antibodies to help baby fend off illness. Breastmilk also passes on hormones that allow mom to communicate with baby in a sense, meeting their needs as they continue to grow.
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As the episode moves into first foods, we learn that babies are (typically) born with enough iron for their first four months of life. In a study of iron deficient babies led by a physician featured in the episode, it is revealed that such babies can experience memory issues related to the hippocampus, such as the inability to discern their mother’s voice from the voice of a different adult. Other vitamin deficiencies, such as zinc and iodine, are also significant when it comes to brain development. At this point as I was watching the show, the important of prenatal vitamins dawned on me. My partner took what I’d call the world’s largest pink pill once every morning while pregnant (and switched to a less heinous prenatal vitamin postnatal). While I know if was far from pleasant, it was really incredible to learn just how important all these vitamins are to fetal brain development.
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The episode concludes with a section on microbes. Zazie like many babies, and perhaps moreso than many babies, loves to put everything in her path directly into her mouth. Our pediatrician says this is how babies discover things, and well, Zazie is really into discovery. The episode reveals that this practice is also working wonders for Zazie’s gut microbiome. Babies need to ingest microbes, which can be found on everything, in order to develop this gut ecosystem. Guess we’ll let her continue nibbling away at her books, in that case!
Now unfortunately for Zazie, the research discussed in the episode also revealed that babies raised in households with dogs (and to a lesser degree cats) are less likely to develop asthma and childhood illness than households without, specifically because the babies are exposed to more bacteria. I’m not bringing a dog into our one bedroom apartment anytime soon, but maybe we don’t need to be tidying up as much as we thought? Who would have known!
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As I reached the end of the episode, I was eager to continue watching Babies to learn the science behind all the leaps and bounds I see my daughter make day after day. I watched this episode beside Zazie and her mother, the three of us cuddled together — Zazie napping, her mother finishing up (remote) work for the evening. I thought to myself, breastfeeding is so biologically miraculous, it makes you marvel at all the human body can do. But I can’t say that surprises me, because Zazie and her mom are miraculous in every way.
