Dear Joy

Apart from the benefit to the woman's diabetic status (which should be
emphasised) that is that the breastfeeding diabetic woman requires less
insulin,

the following extract from the
RMIT's distance Education Course may be helpful.

"A study by Engelking and Opag-Lieberman cited (but not detailed) in
Riordan and Auerbach (l993) resulted in the authors recommending that
"colostrum should be given to babies of diabetic mothers as soon as
possible after birth",  they stated that "colostrum helps to stabilise the
infant's blood sugar".

Given that there  are high circulating glucose levels in the circulatory
system of the mother and glucose is converted to galactose and lactose
during milk synthesis one would suspect milk concentrations of glucose and
lactose to be adequate.  Most levels are indistinguishable from
non-diabetic women  according to one study.  Other studies showed that in
controlled diabetic women glucose and sodium concentrations in breastmilk
were slightly higher.  (Riordan and Auerbach l993),   However, glucose
makes up 0.4% of energy content and would have little clinical
significance."

  IE  glucose alone is not sufficient for the newborn infant of a diabetic
mother.

It is still not certain whether in particular the colostrum of a diabetic
woman would be higher in glucose products and compensate for a truly
hypoglycaemic baby.

There are some anecdotal reports that all babies are hypoglycaemic at birth
for a short period.  ? Part of nature's balancing act to stimulate glucose
production.

I wonder at the adequacy of the donor woman's milk when it comes to early
feedings and stabilising the infant's blood sugar.

the totality of colostrum and the other energy content of fat and protein
needs to be included in any equation.

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