Kika Baeza asks about this today. My understanding is not that the
supplemental iron 'binds up' the lactoferrin, but rather that it is
NOT bound to lactoferrin. The iron in breastmilk is not freely
available in the baby's blood as it is bound to lactoferrin, and as
such it is unavailable to harmful bacteria in the gut who also need
iron to flourish. That is how lactoferrin provides protection against
infection - by keeping iron unavailable to anyone but the child.
Adding extraneous iron to the child's diet will make some more iron
available to the child, but also to potentially harmful gut bacteria,
most notably E.coli.
The child gets small amounts of iron through breastmilk, assuming the
mother is not precariously anemic herself.  That iron comes already
bound to proteins which facilitate its passage across the intestinal
membrane right into the baby's blood. Iron added to the diet from
other sources does not have this characteristic and so bacteria can
compete with the baby for it.
This may be an outdated version of the situation, but it's what I
learned from a Norwegian lactoferricin (one of the substances involved
in the lactoferrin system) researcher at a talk about 10 years ago.
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome