Dr. Jack writes:
>What most people who say this really mean is that breastmilk is not
>*nutritionally* necessary after 6 months, or a year or whatever they are
>saying.  And that is true, just like meat is not nutrtionally *necessary*
>ever, or plums or celery.  Nothing is nutritionally necessary if you are
>getting a wide variety of other foods in sufficient amounts.

Please don't throw brickbats at me for taking on the great and powerful Dr.
Jack.  However, I would disagree that breast milk is not nutritionally
necessary after 6 months.  The real crux of the matter is how one defines
"necessary" and what the outcome goal is that you want.  I would say that
clearly breast milk is *almost never* nutritionally necessary for First
World children if you are satisfied with a child whose immune system is
just OK, whose health throughout life is just OK, whose cognitive
functioning is just OK.  But from my perspective, if you want a child who
has reached his full potential, who has a strong immune system, robust
health, and the maximum possible cognitive development given his genes and
other environmental factors, then breast milk is nutritionally necessary
for a minimum of 2.5 years, and several years more than that to be
confident you have really given the child the very best possible start in
life.

There are many nutrients in breast milk, such as the long-chain
polyunsaturated fatty acids that are almost impossible to provide for an
infant/child from any other dietary sources, not to mention that apparently
they need to be mixed in very precise combinations in order to function as
they do in breast milk.  So even if you were willing to give your child
docosahexanoic acid in little fish-shaped capsules every day, studies seem
to indicate that you cannot replicate the effects of breast milk feeding in
terms of cognitive development by doing so.

Western culture has not done a very good job of drawing distinctions
between foods and medicines (preventative or curative) -- see for example
the current raging debate over Food and Drug Administration control of
herbs -- so while one might not consider the immune factors present in milk
to be "nutritionally necessary" they may turn out to be critically
important as preventative or curative medicine.  It may be that case of the
measles your child gets at two years of age, or the viral meningitis she
gets at three for which continued breast milk feedings mean the difference
between life and death, or between health and brain damage.

No matter what other foods a child eats, in what variety, I contend that
breast milk is nutritionally necessary for optimal development way way way
beyond six months of age.







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Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.                         email:
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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