Mothers' Milk Might Be Key To Avoiding Childhood Food Allergies

MONDAY, Dec. 15, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Farm kids tend to have far fewer allergies than urban children, and a new study offers one possible explanation: The milk provided by breastfeeding moms.

Children who grow up in farming communities have immune systems that mature faster, with higher levels of protective antibodies during their first year of life, researchers reported Dec. 10 in Science Translational Medicine.

They’re getting these antibodies — and the immune cells that produce them — from their mothers’ milk, researchers say.

Researchers came to this conclusion studying infants from Old Order Mennonite farming families in New York’s Finger Lakes region.