PS. My address is Kathleen Bruce BSN, IBCLC, 766 South Road Williston
Vermont 05495. Phone 802 879 8854.


I am the co owner of LACTNET, an internet email listserv list for
professionals who wish to discussion health issues related to lactation.
Thanks. Kathleen

Dear Mr. Somerson,

I read your letter about your breastfed toddler with interest.  I would like
to relay a little story to you.  I have three daughers. My middle daughter
Martha, now aged 10, was always sick as a baby and toddler and preschooler,
and she was breastfed for a long while.  I too wondered, heh, what's up with
this child?  It turns out that she has bad allergies to cats and pollens,
and these went undiagnosed because the allergy testing does not always react
accurately at that young age.  I shudder to think now, what her life would
have been like without breastfeeding.  We too had a shelf for antibiotics in
our fridge, and rivers of mucus, and boxes of Kleenex, and a cranky child
for *years.* Just now, at age 10, her allergy tests finally showed what we
had suspected all along...allergies that cause a predisposition to
respiratory viruses.

In illustrating your story, you have, maybe inadvertently, maligned
breastfeeding. I know that you don't see any concrete benefits at this
point. However, research shows, as you point out, that the benefits of
breastfeeding are truly important, and that the dangers of artificial
feeding are real and palpable. It is not just the colds or ear infections of
today. It might be cancer down the road, or juvenile diabetes that could
ruin vision later in life....

Your presentation of breastfeeding, in fact, in a lukewarm light, does a
disservice to the many people who read and trust you as a medical
correspondent. People in a position of influence owe it to those who listen
to them (whether they be medical correspondents or physicians, nurses, etc.)
to be well informed.  In this case, I think you might have a bit of work to
do. The statistics are present. The studies have been done.  Breastmilk does
boost the immune system. So, the time has come for you to get yourself a
good pediatrician and allergist, and have your child evaluated. And, be glad
that your wife is breastfeeding, because who knows *what* situation you'd be
in if she weren't.  And, breastfeeding is all one word. : )

Kathleen B. Bruce BSN, IBCLC



Kathleen B. Bruce, BSN, IBCLC co-owner Lactnet,TLC, Indep. Consultant
http://together.net/~kbruce/kbbhome.html
LACTNET Archives http://library.ummed.edu/lsv/archives/lactnet.html
LACTNET WWW http://www.telcomplus.net/~kga/lactation.html