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Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
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Tue, 12 Jun 2001 11:47:33 EDT
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Betsy, concerned, writes:

<< In the recent posts, as opposed to some in the last two months, I don't
seem
 to be reading what I thought was a balance...that even though these toxins
 are present, there are still elements of breastmilk that protect against some
 of the very problems these pollutants create.  >>

I think it's broader than that.   That is, not breastfeeding your kids may
actually benefit them in some small ways, and it sounds like we don't have
enough data to know for sure whether, say, Betsy's son's visual-motor
problems might have been aggravated, or caused, or made more likely by
contaminants in her milk.    Maybe yes.    But there would have been lots of
other problems that she could have bought by not bf -- all the cognitive
deficits, health problems, increased risks of everything from Crohns to
leukemia, etc, that we all know about.

If I understand the points that Sandra and Annelies and others are making
here, they could be summed up by saying:

On balance our children are better off breastfed.   But they are not quite as
much better off as they would be if we lived in a cleaner world.

That's on a population wide basis; individual cases are unknowable.  As
parents all we can do is play the averages and do what is overall best for
kids overall, and tailor that for our individual kids as data about that
individual child becomes available, and not kick ourselves for what we can't
help, when we've done the best thing on balance.

fwiw.

Elisheva, NYC

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