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.