Marianne asks:
"What has changed so dramatically over the course of which number of years
for us to now all be in danger of breaking our bones?"

Well, I don't want to say "danger of breaking our bones" because part of the
reason we are more interested in Vitamin D, from what I have recently
learned, is NOT because of rickets but because they have learned that
Vitamin D affects a lot more than "just" the bones...and that the levels
that prevent rickets are much lower than the levels needed to promote the
well being of everything from autoimmune, cardiac, neurological and even
psychological (depression) factors. 

However, as a long-time IBCLC and LLLLeader - I can TELL you what is
different: Mothers and babies (in the general population - there are of
course wonderfully healthy great examples as mentioned in other posts in
Lactnet) are staying INDOORS more for MANY reasons.  As a Public Health
Nurse I see it every day:
 - Babies are in "buckets" and with a BLANKET over them
 - Mothers wear sun screen MAKE UP so as to not get "too much sun" (so it
isn't just the sunscreens, it's the coverage of their skin during every day
of their lives)
 - Young boys and girls don't go outside to play - lots of dangerous
neighborhoods, TV and Computer addiction, heavy doses of homework...  No
matter what the reason, exposure to the sun is limited or non-existent.
 - Fear of sun skin damage from infancy on

The cumulative effect is the same: the mother does not have the stores she
needs,  the fetus does not get the stores required, the family is deficient
in general...and now that we know all the OTHER things that Vitamin D does
BESIDES helping with bone strength, we want to "fix" it with
supplementation.

Tell people to go out in the sun more?  I'm not sure that's the right answer
either - I saw a lot of sun damaged skin from living in the tropics...  When
we first evolved and developed this way of making our own D - our life
expectancy wasn't what it is today...as a friend told me today - we really
should be dead, now that we can't make or feed babies!

Why do we feel that breast milk MUST meet ALL our requirements?  It is a
fantastic substance that provides a protection that is unequaled - it
doesn't need to be PERFECT to be BEST!  

You are totally right in questioning the sources of information (who paid
for the studies?) and the sources of the supplements - but let's not lose
good NEW information because we don't want to accept that breast milk and
breastfeeding might need "a little help from a friend"...  

Jeanette Panchula, BSW, RN, PHN, IBCLC
California, USA

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