Hi Sheryl,

Perhaps someone has already sent you a reference for an article on "baby
formula being made to resemble breastmilk."  If not, you could refer to the
article which appeared in the July 17, 2001 edition of the New York Times.
I have cut and pasted it for you below:

A Human Touch Is Added to Infant Formulas

By JANE E. BRODY

By early next year, infant formulas sold in this country may have had an
important change in their ingredients. The Food and Drug
Administration has just approved the addition of two fatty acids that can
enhance the neurological and visual development of
children who are not breast-fed.

 These fatty acids, which are naturally present in breast milk, are already
being added to formulas in 60 countries and have been
endorsed as beneficial to infant development by the World Health
Organization.

 The substances, DHA (for docosahexaenoic acid) and its sidekick A.A. (for
arachidonic acid), are manufactured in pure form from
microscopic marine algae by the Martek Biosciences Corporation. The
substances were granted GRAS status by the drug agency, meaning that they
are "generally recognized as safe" and can now be added to infant formulas.

 But before formula producers in this country can start using them, the
companies must file premarket labeling statements with the
F.D.A. And once the modified products are on the market, the companies will
be required to do postmarketing surveillance to
assure that babies who consume the formulas experience no bad effects. The
cost of these requirements will almost certainly be
passed on to consumers, and prices most likely will rise 10 percent to 15
percent.

 Dr. William E. Connor, professor of clinical nutrition at Oregon Health and
Science University and an expert on fatty acids, praised
the F.D.A.'s move, saying, "It will improve the health of children by making
infant formula more comparable to human milk."

Breast Is Still Best

There is still no question that breast milk is the ideal food for a vast
majority of infants for at least their first six months. Not only does
breast milk contain the right amount and balance of nutrients needed to
foster normal growth and development, it also contains immunological factors
from the mother that can protect infants against infections. And, of course,
breast-feeding fosters maternal-infant bonding that can enhance a child's
emotional development.

But there is also no question that many mothers in this country are unable
to breast-feed their babies for months on end. And some
mothers, for health or other reasons, are unable or unwilling to nurse at
all.  These days a very large proportion of mothers with newborns work
full-time outside the home and cannot afford to take more than a few weeks
or months off from work when their babies are born. Pumping enough breast
milk to cover a day's feedings, or more than that for women whose jobs take
them out of town, is often not practical or possible.

The alternative, feeding babies infant formula, is an excellent second-best
option, one that has clearly succeeded in nourishing
millions of healthy children. In fact, formula-fed babies tend to grow
faster than those who are breast-fed, probably because formula
contains proteins different from those in breast milk. Pediatric experts,
including those who are staunch advocates of breast-
feeding, emphasize that women who give their babies formula instead of
breast milk should not feel guilty.

Making Formulas Better

Through the years, formula manufacturers have made many changes in their
products to make them more like mother's milk. But DHA and A.A., two fatty
acids found in breast milk and fish, have been missing from the formulas
sold in the United States. In full-term infants and adults, the acids are
formed slowly from other dietary fats.

These two fatty acids, which belong to a larger group known as omega-3 fatty
acids, have been shown to enhance mental and retinal development in infants.
They are especially important to babies who are born prematurely and who
lack the ability to convert other fats into these two fatty acids. Full-term
newborns are able to manufacture some DHA and A.A., but studies suggest that
this may not be enough to foster optimal brain and visual development. Over
time, adults can accumulate DHA and A.A. and store it in body fat.

DHA and A.A. are believed to be important to brain function throughout life.
Fatty cold-water fish - like salmon, mackerel,
sardines, tuna and trout - acquire DHA and A.A. from eating algae, and
people who regularly eat these fish get ample amounts of these fatty acids.
In a study published in February in The American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition, researchers at Bristol University in
England reported that women who ate fatty fish in pregnancy gave birth to
children who experienced better visual development at age 3.

In nursing women, DHA and A.A. are naturally transferred from body fat to
breast milk. But because the amount of DHA in the typical American diet is
low, DHA levels in breast milk of American women are among the lowest in the
world, said Dr. Barbara Levine, co-director of the human nutrition program
at Rockefeller University in New York. So some nursing mothers who consume
little or no fatty fish may want to supplement their babies' diets with
DHA-enriched formula when it becomes available.

Although Martek petitioned the F.D.A. five years ago for approval to add DHA
and A.A. to formulas, the agency moved cautiously,
awaiting studies to show not just that the substances were effective in
enhancing infant development but also that they brought on no unwanted
results. One factor slowing approval was the use of fish oil as the source
of DHA and A.A. in initial studies instead of the purified vegetarian
product from algae. Fish oil contains other fatty acids as well, and some of
those were found to impair infant growth. Also, unlike fish, algae can be
grown in the laboratory under pharmaceutical-like conditions, and the fatty
acids can be extracted free of pollutants, toxins and other contaminants.

Dr. Ronald Kleinman, a pediatrician and nutrition expert at Massachusetts
General Hospital in Boston, endorsed the F.D.A.'s
caution in approving changes. After all, he noted, formula-fed babies do
very well in this country now, and changes that may be
harmful should not be made to these products. But, he added:  "Formulas
should be made as good as they can be. There's no reason to put babies who
are not breast-fed at a disadvantage." Brain development occurs rapidly in
the first months of life.

How Certain Acids Can Help

Another limitation of the initial studies was in the comparisons, which were
made between the development of babies who were breast-fed and those given
formula supplemented with DHA and A.A. That, Dr. Levine said, was like
"comparing apples to oranges," since breast-fed babies, for many reasons,
typically do better. Instead, federal authorities needed to see results
showing differences between infants on regular formulas and those using
formulas with the added fatty acids.  In a study published in The Lancet and
conducted at the University of Dundee among full-term infants assigned to
receive regular formula or formula supplemented with a mixture of omega-3
fatty acids, those given supplemented formula showed better problem-solving
ability at 10 months.

Dr. Connor's center, in Oregon, was among eight that participated in a long-
term study of the effects of formula supplemented with
DHA and A.A. in premature babies. The study found that, when compared with
babies fed ordinary formula, those given formula
containing the fatty acids showed better motor and cognitive performance at
1 year. The babies who were fed fatty acids also had
improved visual development, as demonstrated by electrical changes in the
brain when the infants were shown certain things.

Dr. Connor said that in addition to improving the nervous and visual
systems, consuming DHA and A.A. as an infant might have
"other beneficial effects" later in life, to the heart and immune system,
for example. Adults who consume fatty fish just once a week
have significantly lower rates of fatal heart attacks. Omega-3 fatty acids
may also inhibit the development of autoimmune
disorders like rheumatoid arthritis.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/17/health/children/17BROD.html?ex=996428181&e
i=1&en=7b4a807a3429994f

What bothers me most about this article is the implication that
breastfeeding mothers would choose to use DHA-enriched formula to supplement
their "DHA-deficient" breastmilk.  If, indeed, US women are eating
DHA-deficient diets (and that may be), then the obvious solution for me
would be to have the mothers eat more DHA-rich foods, thus increasing the
amount of DHA in their breastmilk.  Is that too obvious or what?

Sara Dodder Furr, breastfeeding advocate and volunteer
Lincoln, Nebraska USA


PS  If you want to read more directly from the major manufacturer of DHA for
use as a formula supplement, visit http://www.martekbio.com and click on
their "nutritional products" link.  Caution:  reading this Martek site may
make steam come out of your ears as you read how they are out to save the
world with their product!  Note that they have a direct link to the NY Times
article so they must have been quite pleased with how their product is being
promoted in the press.

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