I've been nomail, so I apologize if this is familiar material

After repeatedly reading the press release about "better" formula today, I
decided to research Dr. Heird, whose wonderful quotation about not being
able to pick out a breastfed baby on the street has been driving me to
distraction.

As many on the list know, he is connected to the Children's Nutrition
Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine.  When I put his name in a
search engine, I got one of the CNRCs web pages
(http://www.bcm.tmc.edu/cnrc/win98.htm), and it described a study he would
be doing to test the effects of adding certain fats to infant formula.  What
caught my attention was this paragraph:

"Pregnant women whose infants will be exclusively fed formula will be
enrolled in the study. Infants will be assigned randomly formulas that
differ only in "-linolenic content. The study involves non-invasive studies
of growth, body composition, and energy throughout the first year of life.
Free portraits of the infant will be taken at each visit, and free formula
will be provided."

Giving away free formula is, of course, really, really bad, but especially
jarring to me is the notion that they are recruiting pregnant women into the
study, thereby ensuring that their babies will never receive any breastmilk.

How do studies such as these get past ethics committees?

I should add that at the top of the same webpage, weirdly enough, is a
retrospective of the CNRC's 20 year existence which focuses exclusively on
how great it is that breastfeeding rates have gone up and how unique and
amazing breastmilk is.

Kerry Ose

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html