Chris you wrote,

"If we, as breastfeeding experts, have an opportunity to comment about
reports of toxins in milk, I think it's important to avoid knee-jerk responses
saying "there's bad stuff in formula too."

I cannot agree with you.  The strategy for many years among breastfeeding
advocates was to never say anything bad about infant formula only talk about the
benefits of breastfeeding.  I think this strategy backfires. The issue of
hiv/aids and breastfeeding is a good example of staying mute about the risks of
infant formula and accepting poor research from various governmental agencies as
the "truth."

The Rubas-Fit et al. study was taking a look at exposure in utero and through
breastfeeding.  But, what kind of breastfeeding are we talking about?
(long-term and short-term is the only descriptions I saw in briefly skimming this
article)  Shouldn't we know whether these infants were exclusively breastfeed or
partially breastfeed? Breastfeeding research in which we are determining
responsibility for infant health outcomes has to define breastfeeding.  Were all
those women exclusively breastfeeding (no infant formula, no water supplements,
no foods or teas)?  If these women were giving other things to these infants,
how can you say that breastfeeding alone determined a particular outcome?
Take for example the fact tthat the high cord blood level, short-term
breastfeeders did so poorly compared to those on infant formula.  I would think that
short-term breastfeeders would be more likely to be partially breastfeeding.
Which might mean that many of the protective elements  in breastmilk would be
minimized.  It might also mean that the infant would have other sources of
contamination---such as water, infant formula, etc.

Research done without clear definitions of breastfeeding is useless in
determining infant health outcomes and health care policies.  Infant formula and its
role in determining toxin levels in infants has to be a part of this issue
because so few women exclusively breastfeed for long periods of time.  Thus if
we truly want to know about toxins in infants, we have to know about toxins in
infant formula.  Water carries a high risk of exposure to environmental
toxins.  Does plastic-coated cans used for infant formula leach various toxins?
Avoidance of the issue of toxins in infant formula benefits who?

I believe that human milk should not be used to determine environmental toxin
levels.  Why are we using human milk?  I have heard it is because it is easy
to obtain and because of the fat tissue. But those explanations aren't good
enough, when the survival of breastfeeding is at risk.

Our government investment seems to be in finding toxins in human milk. This
investment creates fear of human milk.  Faith in human milk might be shown by
an investment in building a large network of milk banks to help feed infants
that cannot breastfeed.  Yet the investment is fear.

How regulated are toxiology labs who are using human milk?  What is done with
excess human milk--since it is so easy to obtain? Real human lactoferrin (not
recombinants) is worth up to some $3000 per gram in research.  After looking
at some 700 human milk component patents, I do have to question any lab that
asks for human milk.  What do they do with excess human milk...throw it out?
Can't imagine any research lab ever throwing it out.  It is so useful in
cloning and in growing cultures that I can't understand why there seems so little
regulation.  Heck, even the government has gotten into patenting human milk
components as an investment. So let me see, we can only use human milk for
studying toxins in the environment???

Our society seems to be seriously invested in fear and fear-making.
Breastfeeding is only part of the picture in regard to the accumulation of toxins.
Infant formula is the other part of that picture.  Not mentioning this fact,
only serves to distort the picture.
I see nothing positive about using human milk like the "caged" canary in the
mineshaft.  In fact we all know what happens to the canary in the mineshaft
when we have a toxic leak.......
Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC





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