Non-nutritive feeding. Some aspects.

Dear colleagues, good day to all!

Allow me to share with you some thoughts on non-nutritive feeding. We all know the important role of non-nutritive sucking, its significance in the formation of a healthy infant gut microbiota and psychological comfort for mother and child. But we rarely consider the differences in the structure of the nipple skin from the rest of the skin. The nipple skin is extremely resistant to mechanical and chemical stress, and the breastfeeding period is a case in point. Any other area of skin becomes malignant as a result of chronic mechanical and chemical trauma associated with breastfeeding. Any area, but not the nipple skin. And I thought about the epidermis that the infant receives during feeding, which enters the bloodstream and serves as an important factor in training the immune system to recognize cells susceptible to mutagenic activity. The initial learning period occurred in utero, and the baby's immune system, already well-acquainted with the cell membrane proteins of various maternal cells (primarily blood cells), continues this training after birth through numerous nutritional and non-nutritive factors in feeding. What is so special about the nipple skin that it is responsible for training the infant's immune system, even if my description is rather primitive? What are the significant differences between the skin of the mother's nipple? Quite recently, a very simple idea occurred to me while examining the baby while the mother was breastfeeding. Unlike the rest of the skin, the nipple skin is pigmented. Why this particular area of skin, and what is its evolutionary significance? Could melanin not be the cause not only of these external differences, but also be the main factor in the nipple skin's increased stress resistance to external influences and a factor in the fine-tuning of the infant's immune system, ensuring effective antimutagenic activity throughout childhood, despite rapid growth and high proliferative cellular activity?

Sincerely, Alex Nouzdin