Hello,

I'm Anna Suova-Hakala, or Ash for short, a midwife student and a
mother-to-mother -breastfeeding support group leader from Finland.

Lately I've been butting heads with the dentistry community here in
Finland since an oral hygienist told me with all her authority that
since breast milk turns too sugary after 6 months of breastfeeding
babies are better off weaned at 6 months. I was nusing my 1.5 year old
at the time.

This "breast milk turns to sugar slop" after 6 or 12 months of
breastfeeding seems to be deeply rooted into Finnish dentists' minds.
I located the source of this myth (?) to a researcher who wrote an
article published in  the Finnish Dentists' Association's Journal. He
states in his article that the amount of lactose increases from 6% to
10% after 12 months of lactation. I asked him about his data as I was
unable to find any collaborative data myself. All my sources say that
the amount of lactose remains the same until the very last stages of
weaning when milk once again resembles colostrum and the amount of
lactose decreases.

This researcher said his source for this info came from an article:
Jenness R. The composition of human milk. Seminars in Perinatology 3,
pages 225-239, 1979. He also said that there are studies that haven't
shown this increase in the amount of lactose (such as Dewey KG, Finley
DA, Lonnerdal B. Breast milk volume and composition during late
lactation. J Pediatr Gastroeneterol Nutr 3, 713-720, 1984). Yet for
some unknown reason he decided to go with Jenness' study and state as
an undisputed fact that the amount of lactose does increase.

In order to confront him about this I need to get my facts straight
and I really need to get my hands on this article by Robert Jenness. I
would be able to get hold of it through Helsinki University Main
Library's international loans but, unfortunately, it would cost me
over 100 dollars to have it sent from USA to Finland.

I'm, therefore,  appealing to some kind soul on that side of the
Atlantic. Should you have easy access to that article would it be any
way possible to have it copied and snailmailed to me? Or scanned? I
would naturally compensate for all expenses.

I would also appreciate any pointers to studies that would either
collaborate Jenness' findings (as this Finnish researcher says there
are more but he didn't name them) or recent studies that will prove
this to be utterly wrong once and for all.

best wishes,

Anna Suova-Hakala, BA, midwife student
Vantaa, Finland
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