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Subject:
From:
"Valerie W, McClain" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 4 Feb 2004 06:25:19 EST
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Darshak Sanghavi (author of the Boston Globe article) wrote a book called, "A
Map of the Child:  A Pediatrician's Tour of the Body."  I found a website in
which it was reviewed by various anonymous readers.  One review I found was
most enlightening and believe it had to be written by someone who knew alot
about breastfeeding, maybe someone on this list--great review!!

The title of the review is "Where is the chapter on Immunology?"  No chapter.
 Rather significant that this is missing from this pediatrician's tour of the
body.  In the last paragraph of the review, "He [Darshak Sanghavi] writes
about his son's first night, when he and his wife "took turns feeding him."

If  physicians do not get an education on the value of breastfeeding/human
milk in building an immune system, they will not understand how this act of
sharing feeding will impact their son's health and sabotage breastfeeding.

I was just reading a news release from Mead Johnson (know thy
competitor--first rule) in which Harvard Medical School received a $300,000 Bristol-Myers
Squibb/Mead Johnson unrestricted nutrition research grant.  The grant went to the
Harvard Medical School Division of Nutrition's Clinical Nutrition Research
Center.  Dr. W. Alan Walker will serve as supervisor and principal investigator
of the grant.  (Dr. Walker at one time had a Wyeth Pediatric Fellowship).
This announcement also states, "The unrestricted biomedical research program has
committed over $100 million in no-strings-attached funding in support of 240
grants at more than 150 institutions worldwide."
http://www. meadjohnson.com/about/pressrelease/harvard.html

The influence on pediatric medical training by the infant formula industry is
tremendous.  Despite the words "no-strings attached," a benefactor is a
benefactor and most of us are enormously grateful for help in our education and
funding for our research. We need to recognize these influences.

I cannot believe that these articles are just mere coincidence.  The infant
formula companies are just gearing up for a media blitz.  Nestle also has an
education program and funding that is incredible.  How do we feel about the
organizations or people that help us with the enormous costs of education?  Would
we publicly criticize them, if they had paid for our schooling, our training,
our research?  Is our world-view, our view of infant feeding skewed by the
training we receive?  Even if we think the "infant formula companies" are wrong,
would we risk censure or the possibility that funding would dry up?
Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC

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