Perhaps you could print out this excerpt and give it to the disbelieving
doctors at the hospital.  Would they be this blase about a mother who
"doesn't want to use a car seat" or "doesn't want to quit drinking while she
is pregnant"?:

From Allan S. Cunningham, 1995,  "Breastfeeding: Adaptive Behavior for Child
Health and Longevity," in Patricia Stuart-Macadam and Katherine A. Dettwyler
(eds.) Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives.  New York: Aldine de
Gruyter.  Pp. 243-264.

From p. 249, under the section "Long Term Health/Disorders of Immune Regulation"

"Autoimmune diseases, subtle immune deficiencies, systemic vasculitis
(inflammation of small blood vessels), and allergies are immunoregulatory
disorders that have antecedents in early infant feeding practices.

Inflammatory bowel disease.  In 1961, the observation that patients with
ulcerative colitis (a severe inflammation of the large intestine) benefit
from dietary exclusion of dairy products prompted Acheson and Truelove
(1961) to ask whether early exposure to cows' milk protein was a relevant
factor.  Their retrospective study revealed that lack of breastfeeding or
its early termination was significantly associated with the eventual
development of the disease.  A similar association was demonstrated among
bottle-feeding, lack of breastfeeding, and the development of Crohn's
disease, another intestinal inflammatory disease (Koletzko, Sherman, Corey,
Griffiths and Smith, 1989).

These inflammatory bowel diseases are immunologically mediated, and the
first steps in their pathogenesis amy occur as early as the first 2 weeks of
life (Jayanthi, Probert and Mayberry, 1991).  It is biologically plausible
that deprivation of some factor(s) in human milk, or early exposure to
foreign antigens such as cows' milk protein, or both, may initiate this
process.  It is now well-known that foreign proteins, including those from
cows' milk, are absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract, especially in
young infants.  The same proteins cross the placenta to enter the fetal
circulation and also enter the milk of nursing mothers after entering their
circulation from the gastrointestinal tract."

Acheson, E.D. and S.C. Truelove 1961  Early weaning in the aetiology of
ulcerative colitis.  British Medical Journal 4:929-933.

Jayanthi, V., C.S.J. Probert and J.F. Mayberry 1991  Epidemiology of
inflammatory bowel disease.  Quarterly Journal of Medicine 78:5-12.

Koletzo,S., P. Sherman, M. Corey, A. Griffiths and C. Smith  1989  Role of
infant feeding practices in development of Crohn's disease in childhood.
British Medical Journal 298:1617-1618.

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Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.                         email: [log in to unmask]
Anthropology Department                               phone: (409) 845-5256
Texas A&M University                                    fax: (409) 845-4070
College Station, TX  77843-4352
http://www.prairienet.org/laleche/dettwyler.html