Dear friends,
I think the breastfeeding baby is teaching himself good breathing techniques that prepare him for good lung function later on. Bottle feeding infants miss this opportunity to practice good lung-use and develop less well-functioning lungs.

Warmly,

Gonneke, IBCLC, LLLL in southern Netherlands, preparing LC-2-be course lessons and thus minding het language


--- On Mon, 11/10/08, Margaret G. Bickmore <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> One step forward....
> 
> "The sheer physical effort involved in breastfeeding may leave babies
with stronger lungs well into childhood, researchers suggest.* *
> 

Interesting research, but I'm put off by the sub-headline emphasis on
"sheer physical effort".  This reinforces the widely-held
misconception that breastfeeding is hard work for babies.

We know that breastfeeding, when it is proceeding normally, is a comfortable
and 'easy' thing for babies.  During and after feeding, breastfed babies
have stable and appropriate heart rates, oxygenation, respiration, and
temperature.  This is in contrast to artificially fed babies, whose physiologic
parameters are less stable and less likely to fall within normal ranges.  Which
looks like more 'work'?

By emphasizing how much more suction a breastfeeding baby generates than a
bottle feeding baby (3x), they make it seem as if the breastfeeding babies are
putting forth a greater-than-strictly-necessary amount of effort.  But the
breastfeeding babies are the ones who look as if feeding is easy.

This begs to be Wiessingerized.  Bottle-fed babies use only 1/3 the amount of
suction they ought to.  This unnatural feeding style causes distress and may
lead to underdevelopment of other systems.

I'm thinking that the growth- and development-promoting factors in
breastmilk may play a larger role in lung function than the researchers seem to
have considered.  Epidermal growth factor [EGF] and transforming growth factors
[TGFs] are present in human milk.  It is known that they promote expansion and
maturation of epithelial cells in the breastfed baby's gut; why not in the
lungs as well?

Margaret
LLLL, IBCLC
Longmont, CO

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