To all;
There have been numerous comments in the last 2 digests "bad mouthing" Dr.
Lucas.
The conflict of interest points not withstanding, I take offense at the
assumptions made and the immediate attack of him and his motivations for
several reasons. It amazes me that although he was invloved (I'm not sure to
what degee as I haven't read the study in it's entirety) with the positive
results so widely acclaimed in another recent study ie. the one detailing the
incidence of lower BPs in children formerly breast fed, he and his
credentials/motivations weren't mentioned at all. Now that a study purports a
possible negative result of breastfeeding we immediately assault the man.
I consider myself lucky enough to have heard the man speak, albeit 7 or 8
yrs. ago about another quoted study/research project, the study of the large
cohort of premies, the very one that the BP data came from (I think!) and
some older data (as mentioned in a previous post), regarding the higher IQs
of these breast fed premies .
I found him to be a wonderful advocate of breastfeeding but, unfortunately
for the lactnet members uninterested or unappreciative of the "science"
behind  the study of breastfeeding,
he seemed to be first and foremost wanting to maintain the scientific
integrity behind his and all of our "feelings" that breastfeeding is the
unequivocal best. I believe he has 7 or so children all breast fed for a long
time.
Unless he has made a complete change of heart, the negative quotes regarding
IQ (previous post) were taken totally out of context. At least according to
my understanding,  he was firmly attached to the benefit to these premies in
terms of IQ and was not opposed to ANY premie receiving breast milk, as a
matter of fact he glowingly described the many benefits and suggested ways to
promote its use in the NICU. He did have concerns regarding the use of breast
milk only with micropremies (this is well documented).
Since this was 7-8 yrs ago and I still remember many details, I guess you can
tell that I was very impressed and inspired by the knowledge/devotion of the
man. I find it very upsetting that he was attacked in such a way.
Lynn Shea Rn,Bsn,Ibclc
Franklin,Massachusetts

             ***********************************************
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