His and hers milk, breast knows best

By 24. February 2014Blog, Health, Nutrition

Sensible if you think about it, but still surprising, breast milk will differ in its contents depending on whether the child is a boy or a girl.

This is not new though, an article on the website “I … love science” says that this nugget of knowledge was published back in 2012. Apparently human mothers produce on average milk containing 2.8% fat for boys and 1.7% for girls. This is, according to the article, because males need more fat and protein as they tend me be more muscular.

The new information, published in the journal PLOS is that this difference in the milk content begins during fetal development.  The paper is based on cows but the results are expected to be the same in any mammal.

Just one question, what do the breasts do when a twin boy and girl come along?

Click here to go to the story on the “I … love science” website. Profanity sensitive people beware, the full name of the website could cause offence.