Well, I wrote the e-mail requesting they add information about nutrition for
pregnancy and breastfeeding and received their response:

We know how important pregnant and breastfeeding women are and we would love
to be of more help to them. I know at this point in time our website does
not provide much information but we hope to soon have additional links and
information for this population. We believe that the mother's needs at this
time are as important as the child and we prefer they see their doctor to
get nutritional advice.


So I decided to "push" the issue a bit and replied that the MD usually
doesn't address nutritional issues.well, I got this response:

We (USDA) don't give specialized nutritional advice and we don't think we
should. There's a lot that one needs to know before you can even advice
something as important as nutrition to somebody such as the person's dietary
history, patient history, family history and what kinds of foods one can eat
(vegetarian or non-vegetarian). It's impossible for us to obtain every
person's patient history. If the doctor is least aware of nutritional needs,
then he or she should be responsible enough to send the person to someone
who can assist. 

..so I guess is the bottom line is we'd better make sure the MD's know about
nutrition and breastfeeding and where to get resources to help moms, as the
USDA isn't going to address it!

.interesting that it's OK to give nutritional advice to women, children,
those who are overweight and underexercised.through the interactive My
Pyramid - and NOT get all the other information menetioned above.unless
she's pregnant or breastfeeding.

Jeanette Panchula, BSW, RN, PHN, IBCLC
Vacaville, California




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