I've been thinking about the mother with the high blood lead level.  How
frightening to find out she has an elevated level (at risk for
peripheral neuropathy), and that her baby's level seems to be traced to
her.  My sister-in-law recently found out her breastfed 10-mo old has a
lead level of 13 (from living in a 112-yr old house), and she has been
quite concerned about future developmental problems or learning
disabilities.   While I'm not familiar with the literature, I'll guess
no study that found a risk of learning disabilities in children with
marginally elevated levels of lead controlled for infant feeding.
Knowing what we do about the effect of breastmilk on infant brain growth
and intelligence, I'd choose to breastfeed my baby my milk with lead in
it instead of serving abm.

I happen to have the 1986 edition of "Casarett and Doull's Toxicology".
>From p. 599: "Placental transfer of lead occurs.  Cord blood generally
correlates with maternal blood lead levels but is slightly lower.  It is
interesting that maternal blood lead decreases during pregnancy,
suggesting that maternal lead is transferred to the fetus or excreted in
some way."

Some thoughts about this mom's lead level. Iron deficiency may increase
absorption of lead.  Adequate levels of calcium (from a non-contaminated
source) and zinc also help prevent lead absorption.  I'm really curious
how she might be ingesting so much lead.

Lead is excreted through stools, urine, and surprisingly, sweat.  I
don't think its worth rinsing her breasts before breastfeeding - maybe
if its really hot out.  There are clinical measures to increase lead
excretion.  I wonder if it would be worth it, for her peace of mind, to
consider treatment for a day or so.  I'm not really familiar with what
this involves on a practical level or the risks of treatment; from
Casarett and Doull p. 604, about 20 percent of the body burden of lead
is excreted in the urine within 24 hours of an injection of EDTA.

Please let us know what happens with this mom and baby.  I wish them the
best.

Susan Bond
LLL Leader, toxicologist many years ago
Williston, VT