Dear Friends:
 
I went and got this article (Pediatrics 2005;116:385-391). Very interesting reading.
 
The work was supported in part by grants from Mead Johnson Nutritionals, along with 2 Wisconsin organizations. I don't know how much the dairy industry accounts for revenues in Wisconsin. Was Tommy 
Thompson, former head of DHHS, governor of Wisconsin? I know that the breastfeeding task force in some dairy state, could have been Wisconsin, tried 18 times to have breastfeeding metioned as a way to reduce the risk of diabetes, all unsuccessful.
 
The last paragraph of this study: "It was the hope of this study that breastfed infants could have the best of both worlds, ie, the advantages of exclusive breastfeeding plus the decreased risk of severe hyperbilirubinemia associated with formula feeding. The results show that significant reductions in transcutaneous bilirubin levels can be achieved, with no negative effect on breastfeeding, through administration of small daily amounts of selected key ingredients of currently available infant formula..................."
 
Now isn't that putting the cart before the horse; is formula considered the standard to feed babies in that ingredients from formula will protect babies from hyperbilirubinemia?
 
What about all the research showing that early and frequent breastfeeding reduces the occurrence of hyperbilirubinemia? Varimo, Yamouchi and Yamanouchi, and De Carvalho? What about Dr. Barbara Philips, who has been quoted as saying that she couldn't find any cases of hyperbilirubinemia in her (Baby-Friendly) hospital nursery, because breastfeeding practices there are so good?
 
This study started out by saying that mothers had to be planning exclusive breastfeeding, and then goes on to say that only 1 of 4 groups was the exclusively breastfeeding group, the control. However, nowhere in the study is there any mention of how many times a day the 'exclusively breastfed' infants went to breast. 
 
We all know that insufficient exclusive breastfeeding creates "lack of breastfeeding" jaundice.
 
I am not thrilled at all with this study.
 
warmly,
 
Nikki Lee RN, MS, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CIMI, CCE
 
 
________________________________________________________________________
Check out the new AOL.  Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.

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

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET email list is powered by LISTSERV (R).
There is only one LISTSERV. To learn more, visit:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html