>A study done by Pisacane in 1995 concluded that babies who were >exclusively breastfed for 7 months (and were not give iron supplements >or iron-fortified cereals) had significantly higher hemoglobin levels at >one year than breastfed babies who received solid foods earler than >seven months. OK, I'll accept this. But I also want to know -- where were these infants from? What part of the world? What sorts of diseases? What is the sample size? How much earlier than 7 months are we talking for the "early solids" group? If this a controlled comparison of 6 vs. 7 months of exclusive breastfeeding, or is this a division into 7 months of exclusive breastfeeding vs. less than 7 months of exclusive breastfeeding? If the latter, you could have children in the sample who started solids at 1 month or 2 months or 3 months. They might pull the average hemoglobin levels down in their group. There may be no difference in 6 vs. 7 months of exclusive breastfeeding. I also want to know how their growth was? I wouldn't necessarily want to trade-off better iron status for poorer physical growth. >The researchers found no cases of anemia within the first >year in babies breastfed exclusively for seven months and concluded that >breastfeeding exclusively for seven months reduces the risk of anemia >and should be recommended in parts of the world where breastfeeding is >common and iron supplementation is not available or culturally >acceptable. OK, so this would mean only in places like Mali and other 3rd and 4th world countries? I suspect that the early addition of solids in these places leads to poorer iron status because: (1) the solids are contaminated with bacteria, leading to GI infections and blood loss (2) the solids are contaminated with parasites, leading to GI colonization and blood loss (3) the solids contain something which binds to iron and pulls it out of the body (I know that phytates in some grain crops like millet and sorghum pull zinc out of the body, for example) So Pisacane's conclusion would then be that it is perfectly fine to give solids to 4-6 month old children in 1st and 2nd world countries where breastfeeding is uncommon and where iron supplementation is readily available and culturally acceptable. Right? Kathy Dettwyler *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html