Many different peoples believe that colostrum is not good for the
baby.  I worked in South Africa.  In that area, some people would
express the milk until it was white and then start feeding the baby.
The baby was fed water by spoon until then.  Nevertheless this belief
was not universal, and the same tribal group, same language 50 km down
the road would feed from birth.  The practice of not feeding the baby
colostrum, and, even worse giving the baby Transkei water is very
dangerous indeed.  One of the obstetricians where I worked, himself a
Xhosa, could not understand how a cattle raising people, who knew that
the calf who does not get colostrum always dies, throw away their own
colostrum.

In my experience, though, this is not a typical belief amongst
Hispanics, but "Hispanics" covers a lot of territory.  Most Hispanics
in Toronto come from Columbia, Ecuador and Argentina.  Likely in Los
Angeles, the origin of Hispanics is quite different.

This is something we must not forget.  No group of people is uniform.
Just as I have different beliefs from my neighbour, who thinks her
baby should be trained early to sleep through the night, one
Ecuadorian from Quito may have quite different beliefs from her
neighbour.

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC