Dear all:

Since when did sensible policies developed by international and national organizations based on a thorough peer-review process get thrown out based on an opinion piece written by those that have clearcut conflicts of interest?  And even the authors of that opinion piece didn't suggest a universal shift to introducing solids for all infants at four months of age -- they thought the issue should be revisited.  There has been NO change in policy.  In one of the articles that was listed -- there is a misreading of the literature.  The study that was cited by the American Academy of Pediatrics Nutrition Committee as showing iron deficiency anemia in "exclusively breastfed infants" actually did NOT say that the breastfed infants were "exclusively fed".  Having read the study I would say that they were barely breastfed and many were already on solids.  We know very well that introduction of other less absorbable forms of iron than in breastmilk changes the absorption for the worse.   Furthermore, in an another study where they showed only a 3% deficiency among exclusively breastfed infants -- compared to MIXED fed infants, the one exclusively breastfed infant that was iron deficiency was actually eating cereal.  Really, if I had more time and energy, I would plow through all those studies all over again and write some provocative piece on how mixed feeding induces iron deficiency anemia which would be at least as credible as the speculation made by the authors of the opinion piece.  I would, however, be resorting to the same tactics as the authors and would have to chastise myself for doing it because it wouldn't meet my own standards of credibility.  What we really DO know from the research is that premature birth and premature cord clamping are at least two interventions that would prevent the need for premature introduction of iron to the diet of infants.

On another note, I love it when Nestle gets slammed. How many of us warn parents who feed powdered formula on the dangers of using bottled water?  Here is a fun piece that goes over how Nestle and Pepsi and other companies lie about bottled water.  My personal pet peeve is Starbucks which promotes bottled water so that donations will go to developing areas of the world and create clean water sources.  About and brilliant as the guy who showed up in Niger thinking he could save all the children from getting diarrhea with disposable diapers.  At that time, the black plastic bags had infiltrated a country that was plastic bag free in the mid 1980s, but had been transformed into a place where goats were dying from eating the plastic bags and the spindly acacia trees looked as if they had fringy black growths from the plastic bags hanging from their limbs.

Enjoy this one. 

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-story-of-bottled-water.html

Best, Susan Burger, MHS, PhD, IBCLC

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