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Subject:
From:
Carlos Gonzalez <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 21 May 1996 19:00:07 +-200
Content-Type:
text/plain
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text/plain (33 lines)
Feeding babies without breast milk and without formula has already ben
done. It was done in Europe until this century, and mortality among
children raised in this manner was close to 100%. It's being done now; and
those of you having worked in developing countries know the tragic
consequences of feeding children all kind of "living" foods, as rice milk,
mandioca milk, maize milk, juices, cola-loca (yes, I have seen it: "the
spark of life", given in a bottle to sick or malnourrished children...)
Exclusive breastfeeding for about (at least!) 6 months is important; too
many infants receive juices or herbal teas at an early age because their
mothers have been wronged to think these things are "healthy". In many
parts of this world, even addding plain water to breast milk increases the
risk of death.
No food other than breast  milk is a "living" food. Certainly, if I were an
orange, I would not consider being juiced as life. Even oysters, ingested
alive, die in a few seconds, far before being digested. The only living
thing we eat and remain alive are bacteria, especially E. coli.
The question for feeding a baby is not the living quality of food, but its
composition. A newborn fed mainly juices, rice, or weath sprout will die.
Promotion of inadequate substances as breast milk substitutes is a
violation of WHO code (art. 9.3). Adding more things to formula, including
bovine colostrum, is also very dangerous.
When a baby is not breastfed, and there is no human milk available, the
best substitute nowadays is comercial formula. It has been improved by a
long tryal and mistake process, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of
deaths; only in recent years has it been possible, in countries were
sanitation, health care and public welfare are of good quality, to reduce
infant mortality of bottlefed babies to less than 10 in a thousand.
When formula is unavailable or unaffordable, home-made formula can be used,
following detailed instructions, and based in a source of good quality
protein, usually milk.
                        Carlos Gonzalez
                        Barcelona, Spain

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