>Any Israelis out there members of the Maccabi Health Fund?  On page 21 of
>the winter 1998 edition of the Maccabiton, there is an article on calcium
>supplements during breastfeeding under the "New studies" section.  The
>source was listed as the New England Journal of Medicine, with no date of
>publication, no author.  When I looked it up in Medline, I came up with
>nothing on calcium in that journal in the past year.
>
>They present this study in a way that may have women going out and taking
>many calcium supps,

This sounds like it might be referring to the article by Ann Prentice
(editorial referring to a study by Kalkwarf in Cincinnati, reported in the
same issue) in New England Journal of Medicine, Aug 1997. I am amazed at
the conclusions they have made, if it was this article and study referred
to. The summaries I have read are the exact opposite! They stress that Ca
supplements made no difference, and milk levels and bone densities, etc
were all *fine* without any supplements. Rather is stresses that there is
an alteration in calcium metabolism in a b/f mother so her body does fine
on a normal diet.

I've just read Nofia's next post about finding the article titles, etc, so
it is the same ones. Obviously the Israeli article is totally off the mark,
if they talk about weaning at 5 months - this is garbled compared to the
original article. You would be best to read it yourself and see what I
mean. I wonder if this was got from the following bit in Prentice's
article. She mentions that the bone losses are greatest between 3 to 6
months of lactation, then they 'are reversed during subsequent lactation,
and after the end of breastfeeding, possibly in conjunction with return of
menses. The recovery is apparent even in women who become pregnany during
lactation. These postpartum changes in bone are associated specifically
with lactation and do not occur in women who do not breastfeed.' There is
nothing about weaning at 5 months.


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Joy Anderson B.Sc. Dip.Ed. Grad.Dip.Med.Tech. IBCLC
Nursing Mothers' Association of Australia Breastfeeding Counsellor
Perth, Western Australia.   mailto:[log in to unmask]
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