Yes to the question on melanoma rates being high in the Aus adult population - I think we're up there with the highest in the world, and also for asthma. But even then we don't advise mothers to avoid all sunlight on their infants. I agree with Lara that this has been an amazing overgeneralisation from a small cohort - and it isn't an intervention with NO downside either as others have pointed out - ie. other vitamins and minerals interfering with those in breastmilk, and the message that breastmilk isn't good enough. I know that supplementing mothers postnatally won't make a scrap of difference because breastmilk never was meant to be the infants source of vit D anyway, but what about antenatal supplements to make sure that babies are born with their full quota. That quota (please correct me if I'm wrong here Cynthia G-M) will last for at least the first two months and longer if the baby is getting a little touch of sunlight every so often during that time. Maybe babies were designed so that if they were born in winter and weren't taken outside they had two months supply before the weather started to improve and mothers started doing normal things with their babies, like taking them for a walk! From my interpretation of the concern it's that mothers have low vit D levels and therefore their babies are behind in their supplies before they are even born. Let's spend all that money on encouraging pregnant women to go for walks in the early morning or late afternoon, and to continue that when their baby is born. Exercise, fresh air and normal vitamin D - sounds a lot healthier for all concerned to me! Denise Denise Fisher mailto:[log in to unmask] http://www.health-e-learning.com *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html