Practice Parameter: The Management of Acute Gastreoenteritis in Young
Children, Provisional. Committee on Quality Improvement, Subcomm. on Acute
Gastroenteritis, Peds 1996, 97(3):424-435.
Incidence of diarrhea in children< 3 yrs. est to be 1.3 to 2.3 episodes per
child per yr (higher in day care-attending children). Direct costs of
treating > $2.0 BILLION! 300 deaths per yr in children <5 yrs old, and
220,000 hospitalizations yrly. Not one word about preventative effects of
bfg. The committee did drop the traditional ritual starvation advice of not
feeding children with diarrheal disease, and state "Infants fed human milk
can be nursed safely during episodes of diarrhea." pg 427, They go on to say
they can also receive formula and cows milk.
Another article: Aluminum Toxicity in Infants and Children, Committee on
Nutrition, Peds, 1996, 97(3):413-16. "Aluminum is now being implicated as
interfering with a variety of cellular and metabolic processes in the nervous
system and in other tissues." pg. 413. A table (pg 414) shows the aluminum
content of human milk and infant formulas (ug/L)
Human milk 4-65 (ug/L)
Standard cow milk-based formula 15-400
( 20 or 24 calories/oz)
Soy-based formulas 500-2400
Premature infant formula 100-900
The commentary reads: "The aluminum levels in all infant formulas are higher
than those in human milk. The formulas containing the highest levels of
aluminum are those with additives, such as calcium salts and soy protein,
which contain aluminum as a contaminent." The committee goes on to report
conflicting data about whether this poses a threat to infants. They conclude
"Currently, the data are insufficient to recommend against the use of
specialized formulas in premature infants; on the contrary; the nutritional
advantages of premature infant formulas clearly outweigh the concern about
the higher concentrations of aluminum in these products. However, it seems
prudent to seek further reduction in the aluminum levels of infant formulas
and to investigate whether aluminum accumulates in the tissue of premature
infants fed formulas." pg. 414.
Boy, talk about your uncontrolled experiments on human populations. And aside
from the info on the table, again, no discussion of human milk as the norm --
deviation from which plays a role in causing the problem under
consideration.
Barbara Wilson-Clay, BSE, IBCLC
priv. pract. Austin, Tx
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