Over the past year, I have seen numerous posts about lactoengineering human
milk to make it more suitable for an infant with some specific health
problem.  Lactoengineering must then be based on the premise that human milk
is not good enough for certain babies and must be redesigned.  Frankly, I do
not understand nor accept that position.  Where are the studies that support
this? What has happened to what we now call "evidence-based" medicine?

Why is it that we believe that humans can "know" the exact component in human
milk that is needed or not needed? Have we decided that there is no
relationship between the various components?  How easily can we separate out
one component from another?  Have we decided that taking one component out
will do NO HARM to the infant?  Have we decided that the physical act of
rearranging the milk has no consequence to the mother and baby?

The research on various components of human milk has brought upon our
community some grave consequences.  That research is not about promoting
breastfeeding, it is about making a better infant formula or a pharmaceutical
product which will make breastfeeding unnecessary. Will getting milk from the
mother at her breast, do an infant harm?  Or will the harm be greater by
taking that milk and adjusting it to our "belief" of what human milk must do?


The science of human milk has become a science of reductionism.  Components
are identified and its usefullness determined to the infant formula and drug
industries.  When we, breastfeeding advocates, follow suit with reductionist
thinking about breastfeeding, we are bound to destroy the very thing we prize
most dearly.
Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC

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