Dear Everyone, I have been off-line for a while and now spent a morning
catching up on some of the backlog. May go no-mail over Easter as I can't
cope. Some random thoughts.
1. Acidophilus is always grown on something and therefore contains trace
amounts of antigen sufficient to sensitise (after all, even oils do, and by
the way all commercial lactose is contaminated with milk protein). Since
one common medium for acidophilus growth is bovine milk, I would be very
reluctant to put any such thing in any baby's mouth without knowing
everything about where it came from and being prepared to do long-term
allergy follow-up on the family.
2. Re phenylalanine: taking any one amino acid in excess is likely to cause
disturbances in the absorption or utilisation of others. Nutrasweet was
approved under the Reagan administration despite great concern; MIT
researchers (such as Wurtmann) then and since have protested that the
safety of such excessive intakes is highly dubious,and consider it to be
linked with headaches, seizures and other symptoms of brain dis-order. The
evidence Sue Wright quotes favourably actually supports the case that the
stuff is potent in the brain. ANYthing powerful enough to do good is active
enough to do harm. I advise people not to take the risk of using a powerful
brain-altering substance. I have found that simply enquiring about intake
of Diet products and suggesting they be eliminated has ended many problems
of recurrent headache, though only after withdrawal symptoms including
headache, in some people. By the by, PKU is not like an injury you either
have or don't have: it's an enzyme deficiency. We sp[ot those who have a
major deficiency problem by testing, but there are undoubtedly a range of
people with limited tolerance of phenylalanine who mange perfectly well on
a normal diet but cannot cope with the artificial overload of diet foods
and drinks. Just as the lactose intolerant usually cope OK with small
intakes but develop major symptoms when exposed to doses they can't
metabolise. I'm sorry, but these artificial sweeteners are unlikely to do
anyone any good.
If anyone wants to look this up further, get access to the very expensive
Washington trade weekly, Food Chemical News, for the early-mid 1980's and
check the index. After reading that, I decided rather be fat/have rotten
teeth than ever swallow diet gunk. And I'd NEVER give potent
neurotransmitters to kids.
The mother having it shouldn't alter the structure of breastmilk protein,
which is synthesized to the human blueprint by the mother's body. So a baby
is OK as far as we know. Not that anyone has researched this before
approvong Nutrasweet as far as I can discover. Maybe someone on line can
tell us more. But the mother herself is my concern.
3. Asymmetrical breasts: not uncommon and not usually a problem. If one
grows during pregnancy and the other doesn't, it will be interesting to see
if and how quickly baby develops one breast preference (also not uncommon
and not a problem). But the basic cause might not be related to the breast
or her hormones but to wider structural factors in the mother: poorer
innervation or circulation to one side of the chest because of a spinal
injury, for example. Or she might just have a left foot bigger than her
right and a left breast bigger than her right: we don't know why that
happens either. Humans are rarely symmetrical.
4. Catherine Watson Genna, you are absolutely right that having "mom bring
baby to breast with the lower jaw leading increases tongue-breast contact"
or mouth-breast grasp. That's why all midwives in the UK and OZ recommend
that the baby NOT BE FLEXED as he/she comes to breast, not even a little.
As Mavis Gunther emphasized decades ago,to get the best mouthful, the baby
must lead with his chin. This is still a major discrepancy between the US
and the rest of the world, and I still do not understand it. The exception
is in what Chele Marmet has taught: Chele's head erect position is within
the parameters of leading with the chin: there is a range of angle from
erect to slightly extended, and what she describes as erect, because she is
visualising the internal spinal realities, looks externally slightly
extended. But none of the experienced healthworkers I teach agrees with the
positioning suggestions in certain key US texts. Any flexing of the neck,
even slight, in their experience and mine pulls the chin away from the
underside of the breast and so leads to sore nipples. Fewer babies fall off
the breast when smooshed right in leading with the chin, too.
Sorry this is scrappy. Am flat out and haven't been near Lactnet for a
week; am now still about 5 days behind. ALCA Vic Branch has just paid for
Sandra Lang to come out here on tour and it's been wonderful but hectic:
she's in NZ now and back soon so I will stay behind for a while I guess. I
apologise that I simply cannot do all the individual things requested of
me: give me a research assistant and secretary and I might have a hope. It
isn't that I'm uncaring when I don't reply to individual requests: I have
to choose between priorities, and only the most urgent can be done. I will
continue to do what I can but via the whole list...
Maureen Minchin
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