Well, Heather, funny you should mention the 'breastmilk is low in iron'
trope. Last night on the one really serious news broadcast in Norway, the
lead author on the B 12 study was interviewed. 'Breastfeeding is well and
good, but not exclusively for more than four months, because it is
deficient in nutrients for longer than that. For example, breastmilk lacks
Vitamin D, and it is very low in iron, so babies who are exclusively
breastfed for six months are at risk for iron deficiency anemia'.
All of this said in a very knowing, supercilious tone of voice, as though
the audience were a bit simple minded.
Pat asked about the mothers' diets - as did the host of the news show, who
said 'But couldn't a mother who wanted to exclusively breastfeed for six
months just take a B 12 supplement herself?' to which the researcher
replied 'Well, possibly, but we don't know.'

I did manage to sit still and listen to the whole broadcast without
breaking anything or blowing a gasket.

Disclaimer: I have not yet got hold of the study itself, only read a mass
media article from our national 'research news' website.
There it was stated that 80% of the group of developmentally delayed,
constipated, regurgitating babies referred to the researchers for those
problems, turned out to have low B 12 levels, and half of the babies
referred were not exclusively breastfed. In the radio interview, the
researcher said that B 12 deficiency was only found in exclusively
breastfed babies, because formula contains it so babies who got formula
were protected. But I can't see how 80% of the babies in their group could
be deficient in B12, and 50% were exclusively breastfed, if they only found
low B12 levels in the breastfed babies.

Thank goodness they had invited a doctor from the National BF Resource
Center to be on the broadcast and she was fabulous. Among the things she
said were that we have known for a long time that breastfed babies have low
levels of Vit B 12 and therefore have concluded that it is likely
physiological. A person from the directorate of health where the work of
revising our nutritional guidelines for babies and young children is going
on, said that this study can not inform us about the optimal duration of
exclusive breastfeeding in the general population, and explained why this
was. But the parting shot was from the author of the B 12 article, about
how critical adequate nutrition is for brain development in the first six
months of life, and B 12 is a vital part of that, and that is what people
are remembering.

It is so disgusting. We can't even talk about breastfeeding and brain
development here because it makes people who don't breastfeed feel bad, and
here this malignantly ignorant person is given a microphone and access to
the national radio audience on the most-heard news show, to spout this
drivel.


Grrrr.
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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