I objected to this statement:

>>[It is] quite clear that bf does not prevent a child from contracting >the
>>diseases that we immunise against

I wrote:

"This is not correct information. Breastmilk contains protective
antibacterial and antiviral factors for the very same diseases."

I agree that breastmilk does not PREVENT anything, I assert that it offers a
great deal of PROTECTION.

Vaccines do not confer immunity for every child. The recent outbreaks of
measles in the USA were among vaccinated populations of school age children,
probable not breastfed at the time of outbreak! The only strain of polio in
the world that is infecting people is that caused by the vaccine. Scientists
have documented that. It was the same with smallpox for 30 years that the
only strain making people ill was the strain administered in the vaccine for
the last 30 years of the polio campaign. Robert Mendelsohn, MD sites
references in How to Raise a Healthy Child....in Spite of Your Doctor and
laces the entire book with comments on the importance of breastfeeding.

Breast milk does protect babies from the childhood diseases for which
protective factors exist in breast milk.  Just as we often assert that
breast milk protects babies from .........(see the AAP Policy statement for
more)........... "diarrhea, lower respiratory infection, otitis media,
bacteremia, bacterial meningitis, butulism, urinary tract infection and
necrotizing enterocolitis, IDDM" and more, we can say the protective factors
to childhood diseases also exist.

Maybe lower the incidence and severity are better words.

Maybe this is the study, I've been waiting to do.

It is not possible to say that breastfeeding completely PREVENTS anything.
We can say it offers protection against many illnesses and maladies.

Yes, I agree it is a question of semantics,  does protect mean prevent? It
is not "quite clear" that breastfeeding does not protect healthy children
from childhood diseases. It is quite clear that is does offer protection.
Read the AAP statement and look at the Tables at the LaTrobe web site.

The tables tell us that  protective factors exist in breast milk. I assert
that it is likely that the protective factors in breast milk protect
children from the named childhood diseases,  minimize the severity of the
illness and speed the recovery time.

My hunch is that breastfeeding along with other protective factors, like
good nutrition, clean water and decent sanitation  are likely to prevent
childhood illness  and minimize them when they occur.

I can look at a population of healthy, homebirthing, breastfeeding,
co-sleeping, extended breastfeeding, attachment parenting folks and claim
that breastfeeding does prevent childhood diseases. I can say that among the
folks I've served, there have been no incidences of childhood diseases of
any severity. For this population, it probably does make a difference in the
likelihood of onset, the duration and the ability to recover, along with
other factors that are not present in Mali.

Comparing children in the developing or not developed world to children with
access to clean water, nutritious food, sanitation, health care is like
comparing apples and bananas. Many variables exist which need to be
accounted for before any comparison can be made, if one can be made.

Studies have shown that children who are nursed through a childhood illness
tend to recover better and faster.

Children in the developing world face many  challenges to good health,
including but not limited to: contaminated water, poor nutrition, poor
nutrition, lack of information about good health practices, no access  or
limited access or willingness to seek out antibiotics or surgery.

I have been living  in Micronesia for five years now. I have lived where
leprosy is common, with outbreaks of cholera, dengue fever and
leptospirosis. Guess who gets very ill  and/or dies? The poorest and least
healthy in the community.  Dengue fever is pretty common here. For a healthy
child, it is like the flu. For someone with a compromised immune system, it
can be deadly. Same with measles. Same with the skin rashes. It is the poor,
the malnourished, those without clean toilets and running water. Those who
do not seek out health care until it is too late.

In addition to breastfeeding there are other protective factors like clean
water, nutritious food, good sanitation, access to health care and medicine
that prevent childhood diseases and protect good health.

A protective factor is a protective factor. The tables at the La Trobe site
include Secretory IgA, IgG, unidentified factors, IgM, non-immunoglobulin
macromolecules, Haeemagglutin inhibitors, Mucin, Bifidobacterium bifidum,
slgA + trypsin inhibitor, Lactoferin and milk cells.

The bottom line, however, is that breast milk and being breastfed does not
PREVENT children from getting diphtheria, polio, tetanus, measles, mumps,
rubella, hepatitis B, chicken pox, or any other disease; it does offer
PROTECTION.

Kathy wrote:

>Spend some time observing the children who were breastfed for several
years,
>but who now must drag themselves around or crawl or duck-walk using hands
>and feet due to polio (no wheelchairs are available in these places
either).

It is my understanding that the only strain of polio infecting people in the
world today is caused by the vaccine itself.

>Talk to the women about the exclusively breastfed babies they lost to
>neonatal tetanus.  They can give you a really good description of the
>spasms, jaw-clenching, and back-arches that precede death.

Neonatal tetanus can be prevented through awareness and sanitation. Neonatal
tetanus occurs when the umbilical cod is exposed to a sharp object that has
been contaminated with soil that has been contaminated with infected animal
feces and provides an aneorobic environment for the spores to grow. It is
easily prevented with boiling the implement that is used to cut the
umbilical cord before using it. Or easier, let the cord remain attached to
the placenta and fall out as a unit, no cutting needed, very simple, natural
physiologic process that has been associated with lower incidence of
maternal hemorrhage.

From an emotional standpoint, talk to parents who have lost their children
to vaccine reactions. Look at the websites. hear the shock of not being
informed of the risks, of having a healthy baby one day, getting the shots
and having a dead baby, the next.


>Get a grieving
>mother to describe in detail for you what it is like to watch a
>fully-breastfed child slowly suffocating from diphtheria, and finally
>finding peace in death.  And note that it there are NO families that have
>not lost at least one breastfed child during a measles epidemic.

The same argument can be made from the perspective of a mother  who has lost
her child to a vaccine reaction.

Measles is not life threatening in a healthy child.

>It remains my mantra that scientific evidence must be our touch-stone for
>discussing breastfeeding on LactNet.  Yes, breast milk is wonderful, and
>full of all sorts of amazing antibacterial and antiviral substances, many
of
>which are probably still awaiting discovery.  Breastfeeding is wonderful,
>for many reasons.  But it absolutely cannot prevent 100% the diseases for
>which immunizations have been developed, and it is irresponsible to imply
to
>parents that as long as they are breastfeeding, their children don't need
>immunizations.

Yes, yes, yes. Let's go with evidence based practice and look at the science
that tells us that vaccines are risky, cause death in some children and may
not be as effective as good nutrition, decent sanitation and access to
antibiotics. Read the inserts with the shots to see the risks. Look at your
community or state statisitcs to see who is getting the childhood illnesses,
the vaccinated population or not.

I'd like to do that study comparing the bf not vac with the bf vacc pop, any
ideas where to begin?

I wish every child in the world, access to adequate nutritious food
(beginning with breatmilk), clean water and decent sanitation. I wish no
mother had to watch her child die from a preventable illness. I wish the
international health organizations would focus on such basic amenities as
basic human rights and stop filling the pockets of the multinationals who
profit from lack of awareness and poverty.

Sincerely,

Lisa Boisvert-Mackenzie, Midwife
Palau, West Caroline Islands

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