> >>In THE POLITICS OF BREASTFEEDING (1993) Gabrielle Palmer wrote of an
>experiment done in Keneba, The Gambia ... "One of their projects was to
>supplement
>lactating women's diet to see if this would increase their milk supply.  The
>women do extremely hard agricultural work on a much lower energy diet than
>western women...  The supplement did not appear to make any significant
>difference to their milk output as measured by the baby's intake...
>
>As a point of interest, this or a similar project intended to increase
>lactating women's weight failed to do so to the extent expected.  What they
>found was that the extra food simply gave women the energy to work harder...
>
>Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC  Ithaca, NY
>

I also have heard about a study from way back that *seemed* to work -
ie giving extra food increased milk supply in mothers in a poor
country. However, I believe they actually worked out that what was
happening was that the women didn't have to leave their babies so
much to go out to work to get the food (as they were given it), so
they fed their babies more often and it was this that increased the
supply!
******************************************************************
Joy Anderson B.Sc. Dip.Ed. Grad.Dip.Med.Tech. IBCLC
Nursing Mothers' Association of Australia Breastfeeding Counsellor
Perth, Western Australia.   mailto:[log in to unmask]
******************************************************************

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