>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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