At an LLL meeting, a mother said she'd just found out that her 11-month-old baby (who was lean, smiling, walking, bright as a button) had an extremely high total cholesterol level of 257. (She'd had bloodwork done because the mother was worried about anemia.) The doctor hasn't yet said what the next step is, but the mother is afraid he's going to recommend stopping breastfeeding (of course). Her husband is on medication for a similar problem; she's going to have her own levels checked (and I did tell her that maternal levels are normally elevated somewhat during pregnancy and lactation). I also said that breastmilk is the normal food for a baby and it contains cholesterol because it's essential for nervous system development. And that extremely high cholesterol levels usually have a genetic component -- some people over-produce cholesterol, regardless of what they're eating. And that if a child had that propensity, it's hard to see how artificially feeding her would improve the situation, especially since research suggests that artificial feeding is associated with higher rates of heart problems. At that point, I felt I'd talked a lot, on an issue that wasn't widely relevant to the group, and so offered to get back to her after a little more research, partly for my own learning. (The mother then offered that the 11-month old was a picky eater, and largely sustained by breastmilk, and *that* got lots of discussion going.) The Lactnet archives had posts on maternal cholesterol levels, and some concerning toddlers, but nothing on a baby this young, with levels so high. I did find this interesting page: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0841/is_n5_v31/ai_18856506 with the interesting tidbit that if a baby is being fed formula, which lacks cholesterol, the baby's body produces this essential lipid to make up the shortfall (which might explain why that person might have higher cholesterol levels later in life). This piece by Dr. Sears was reassuring, http://www.parenting.com/parenting/experts/sears/archive/index082902.html saying that you can't put a baby prior to 2-3 years on a low-fat diet, and to keep breastfeeding, while adding some practical steps that the parents can take as the child grows older, if the child is always going to be battling this problem. Another source did say that early high cholesterol levels do tend to come down. I'm actually curious as to how many bresastfed babies are in these studies, and whether that might be a factor is setting the standards. It's unusual for a baby this young to have a screening, so perhaps the information is fairly scant. Anyway, please share anything that you think would be useful in helping this mother. Margaret Wills, LLLL, IBCLC *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html