Dear all,

A mother, now breastfeeding het own 3yo has applied for adoption from China and
wants to breastfeed this child.
The committee that deals with her application has announced her that she can
adopt a 2 yo. She however wants to adopt a younger child (under 1yo) in order to
have a realistic chance to breastfeed the child. She will need to have good
arguments to even have a chance that the committee will consider her request.
She is working with an LC to write an official letter to go with it and put more
weight on the request.
I've searched the archives, but did not find what I looked for, which is
evidence based arguments why A) breastfeeding is a must for adopted children
from the Far East and B) why the child should be as young as possible to give
relactation a fair chance of success.
As to B) I've found some posts in the archives, stating that the younger the
child the better the success-chance, but that all was experience based (which is
OK with me, but not the adoption committee). In answer to A) I did find
literature ina Medline search about the general low health status of adopted
children from abroad (Far and Middle East and Eastern Europe), but that can only
be used as a secundairy argumentation (breastfeeding as a cure for infections
and a prophylaxis for disease)
Who of you wise ones can direct me to sources of ''hard evidence'' for this
mother?

TIA,

Gonneke van Veldhuizen, IBCLC, living in Maaseik, Belgium
http://www.users.skynet.be/eurolac
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