Elaine has brought up a topic that we have discussed in the past. Fats in breastmilk are highly variable from woman to woman. Diet can affect the composition of the fats in breastmilk, however it does not explain all of the inter-individual variations. There is no evidence on the long term effect of maternal supplementation with DHA and in fact, increasing supplementation of mothers has no effect on infants DHA levels if a level of 0.8% has been reached. This means that higher levels of DHA do not result in higher levels of DHA stores or improved function in the infant once this level is already present. DHA levels are a saturable curve. Mothers are wasting their money if they believe Martek's hype about their supposed "milk deficiency." Breast milk always contains DHA and ARA. The percentage of total fat contributed by DHA declines over time but not the absolute amount in milk. DHA and ARA are always there and there is no evidence that breastfed infants are at any risk for fatty acid deficiency. Also, I must mention that breastmilk does not contain Lipil components. Lipil is the brand name that Mead Johnson has given to the blend of DHA and ARA that they purchase from Martek. These components are derived from fermented microalgae and soil fungus and do not resemble human DHA and ARA as they are carried differently on the triglyceride molecule. This is why the manufactured versions will never be the same as the real ones. Jane Heinig spoke on this subject at the ILCA conference this past summer and has a very good independent study module that is quite well done - http://lactation.ucdavis.edu. Formulas are not lipilized and I hope we do not encourage the use of a marketing term created by a formula company to persuade mothers that their milk is deficient or that infant formula is somehow similar to breastmilk. Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC Weston, MA *********************************************** 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