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Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 23 Aug 2000 22:14:22 -0500
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Another experiment with our human infants as test subjects.

We don't know what long-range effect synthetic vitamin D has on our
infants. If humans are meant to manufacture Vit D from adequate exposure to
sunlight, what happens if this process is short circuited by artificially
elevating all infants to some arbitrary level of the vitamin?   Will these
infants lose their capacity to manufacture this vitamin?

We don't know, do we?

Will the effect of this supplementing be similar to infants who are *not*
fed human milk with the "normal" levels of cholesterol. Those infants are
not prepared for a life-time of cholesterol-laden foods, and their blood
cholesterol levels are dangerously elevated throughout their lives. One of
the findings in the long-term Framingham (Mass.) studies is that men who
were breastfed for even 3 months were able to ingest high cholesterol foods
without arterial deposits.  Who would have thought it? Oops! We made a
mistake.

If the Pediatricians would mount an educational campaign about the
necessity of sun exposure for the health of all infants and their mothers,
then the infants who are breastfed and who are dark skinned (or not) will
go on to develop in a normally healthy manner. And they will do this on
their mothers milk.

Giving a breastfed infant artificial vitamins is not a recommendation
without risk. If the risk of rickets is greater than the risk of a
compromised GI tract, then the infants at risk for rickets need to be
supplemented (with vit D).  We know that anything that an infant ingests
that is not breastmilk affects nutritional absorption and immune protection
in that infant's gut. We don't know what other aspects of health we are
toying with, do we?

Dr. Lawrence Gartner tells us that even one teaspoon of pear puree will
compromise an infant's formerly healthy GI tract. It takes up to two weeks
of exclusive breastmilk to restore the gut to health.

And if the babies at risk need vitamin D, then give them vitamin D--not
A,C, and D.  Those babies don't need supplemental vit A and they don't need
supplemental vit C. An infant needs natural, human vitamins in proper
ratio, not artificial, synthetic ones of some randomly selected potency.
There is a vast difference--as much difference as breastmilk and breastmilk
substitutes. And if the pharm companies don't now make an infant D alone,
they could certainly do so. It's easy to say, "Oh, just give them all
three.  What difference does it make."

We don't know, do we?

We do know that there is an eagerness to find breastmilk deficient, but it
isn't. A breastfeeding mother who doesn't know that she and her baby should
get exposure to sunlight, should be told to do so, not that human milk is
deficient. If she cannot manage to get this healthy exposure, then *her*
infant needs to be supplemented. You can be sure that mothers *will*
interpret, or will be told, that the quality of their milk is not adequate
for their babies.

What is the medium in which those vitamins are delivered?  What effect does
that oil (petroleum based?) have on the infant's gut? What of her capacity
to assimilate all of the nutrients in her mother's milk? Will her risk for
allergy and infection be increased?

We don't know, do we?

This "news flash" is a major set-back in our goal of offering every baby
her mother's milk.  Once again breastfeeding is seen as a risk to "some"
infants--read "perhaps *your* infant."

Pat Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee, Wisconsin


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