Translations:Vitamin B12/24/en
Low vitamin concentrations in human milk occur in families with low socioeconomic status or low consumption of animal products. Only a few countries, primarily in Africa, have mandatory food fortification programs for either wheat flour or maize flour; India has a voluntary fortification program. What the nursing mother consumes is more important than her liver tissue content, as it is recently absorbed vitamin that more effectively reaches breast milk. Breast milk B12 decreases over months of nursing in both well-nourished and vitamin-deficient mothers. Exclusive or near-exclusive breastfeeding beyond six months is a strong indicator of low serum vitamin status in nursing infants. This is especially true when the vitamin status was poor during the pregnancy and if the early-introduced foods fed to the still breastfeeding infant are vegan.