Re:Prehistoric Babies Drank Animal Milk from Bottles
by pmjordan on Thursday September 26, 2019 @10:27AM
(#21081156)
I thought babies produced more lactase (lactose-digesting enzyme) anyway, even for people (and ethnic groups) with lactose intolerance in adulthood? Human breastmilk contains lactose - so the body expects to have to break it down at that age.
(I'd have thought any preference for goat's milk over cow's would be connected to the protein it contains.)
Re:Prehistoric Babies Drank Animal Milk from Bottles
by chithanh on Thursday September 26, 2019 @11:13AM
(#21081618)
Indeed, lactose tolerance declines between 2 and 5 years of age in most people. Natural age of weaning in humans is 3-4 years.
Re:Prehistoric Babies Drank Animal Milk from Bottles
by ljf on Thursday September 26, 2019 @12:22PM
(#21082542)
Likely as goats are far easier to keep, own, feed and tend to than cows - especially for the poor. Goats can be kept on any land, can get pregnant/give birth multiple times per year (and therefore provide milk) and have a long weening time when they will give milk. I'd imagine the availability of goats was likely the defining factor in your evidence -but again just an assumption.
Re:Prehistoric Babies Drank Animal Milk from Bottles
by logfromblammo on Thursday September 26, 2019 @12:07PM
(#21082354)
It's not the lactose that gets you as a baby, but the casein. If they fed cow's milk to babies, they would have to separate the whey from the curds, and feed the whey. Goat's milk could be fed straight.
From a modern eye, anyway. They might have given bovine milk straight, if it wasn't they baby's only food source.
Re:Prehistoric Babies Drank Animal Milk from Bottles
by valarauko on Friday September 27, 2019 @05:06AM
(#21089874)
What about bovine casein is a problem for babies?
Re:Prehistoric Babies Drank Animal Milk from Bottles
by logfromblammo on Friday September 27, 2019 @10:29AM
(#21092379)
Too much of it to digest while also getting sufficient water and nutrients. Possible allergic sensitivity reactions.
Given that they found these in Bavaria, it's probably moot, as that's squarely in the area you would expect to find lactose-tolerating people, but everything I've read says that goat's milk has lower lactose levels than cow's milk. And, weak evidence, I know, but just about every piece of fiction I've read that featured babies that needed to be kept alive in the absence of their mother or a wet nurse has gone to goat's milk first - off the top of my head, this features in Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth.