I may have missed some posts but I haven't seen anyone mention the most critical point that needs to be made regarding research on asthma and breastfeeding. How does the researcher define breastfeeding? What do we mean, when we say, "Are you breastfeeding?" What does the mom mean when she answers, "Yes, I am breastfeeding." I have worked with moms who breastfeed and supplemented with 1-2 ounces of formula after every nursing session. The mother told me she was breastfeeding and not until I was doing a home visit with her did I realize that this baby was getting alot of infant formula. How much breastmilk was this baby really getting? I have had new moms tell me that their babies were being exclusively breastfed (what did they mean by that?). I have talked to fathers and grandmothers who have privately told me that they had given these "exclusively" breastfed babies infant formula. Mothers requesting their baby's birth records find that their infant received infant formula during a hospital's mandatory separation. LC's differ on what is meant by exclusive breastfeeding. The CDC until recently defined exclusive breastfeeding to include water supplementation. If studies do not define breastfeeding, then how can we know that there are protective or no benefits from breastfeeding? How can we know anything about health outcomes in infants, if breastfeeding could mean that the infant got some infant formula, or some water, or some food, or some tea, or meds. What about the exclusively breastfed infant who receives antibiotics and how is the GI tract effected? How about the mom who exclusively breastfeeds and receives antibiotics for a breast infection--might that change the infants GI tract especially in the early days? "How breastfeeding is operationally defined is of particular interest when evaluating and comparing study results, because imprecise definitions of breastfeeding categories affect data analysis and interpretation of study outcomes." from "Breastfeeding and Human Lactation"-second edtion, by Riordan & Auerbach, page-755. It is amazing to me that breastfeeding advocates have less faith in breastfeeding and human milk; than the infant formula companies who are positively poetic about the wonders of human milk in their patents. How strange is it to have companies using human milk components to treat asthma (genetically engineered human milk components--and remember the FDA has declared that a substance that is genetically engineered is "identical" to the natural substance) while publicly questioning the protective effects of breastfeeding towards asthma? What do we believe and why? It seems that our research helps us buy products and yet it makes us question the value of nature. Is research about truth or about what we want to sell to the people? Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC *********************************************** 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(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html