I appreciate the responses to my question 'why test the fat content
of breastmilk' but I *still* don't get it!
In the UK, women do sometimes hear from people who should know better
that there may be something lacking in their milk, but I have never
heard of anyone being asked for a sample to measure it for fat (maybe
the machines don't exist here). So I am somewhat of an outsider
commenting on it, I accept.
So it seems to me that testing would be to show the doctor that there
is indeed sufficient fat in it - based on some (probably) spurious
idea that the energy value of human milk is an 'average' of 20 kCal
per ounce...but while this might shut the doctor up a bit, it doesn't
really *educate* him or her.
In fact, it confirms that this is indeed something so important to
know, that the mother can have her milk assessed. "Thank you, doctor,
a good question to ask, and yes, of course this mother's milk should
be tested, and here are the results!"
In any case, fat is only one part of the milk that ensures growth in
the bf infant.
What about protein? A brief literature search showed me that protein
is the 'worrisomely variable element of breastmilk' du jour with
several papers testing and comparing and wondering (mainly for
pre-term infants, who I accept have different needs).
So satisfying the doctor that Ms X's breastmilk has more than 20 kCal
per ounce and is therefore adequate will not satisfy the really
determined doctor who can then say 'aha! But what about its protein
content?'
Moreover, really, it's VOLUME of breastmilk that drives growth, isn't
it? So even if you had some weak 'n' watery, low protein, low fat
sample, if the baby drank enough of it, that wouldn't be a problem.
Doctors need to know this, and who better than the bf specialist to tell them?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15693858 is a study whose abstract
at least is interesting - shows that different ways of assessing
content of breastmilk give different results (and their figures show
a variability between samples, anyway).
Heather Welford Neil
CT bfc, tutor, UK
--
http://www.heatherwelford.co.uk
http://heatherwelford.posterous.com
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