Here is the letter I wrote to The Washington Post regarding their
article on DHA in formula.  If anyone else read the article on-line and
would care to respond, the address is:
The Washington Post
Health Editor
1150 15th Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20071

Dear Health Editor,

In reference to Lawrence Proulx’s  article in the March 4th edition of
the Washington Post Health section, I am appalled at the reporter’s
assumptions regarding human milk.

After quoting a Harvard pediatrician as saying some minerals, including
iron and zinc, are present in low levels in human milk, Mr. Proulx
concludes that "babies might actually need more nutrients than breast
milk provides".

While it is true that human milk is low in iron, it is well absorbed by
the breastfed baby.  Almost 50% of iron in mother’s milk is absorbed by
the infant.  Compare this to 10% absorption of iron in cow’s milk and 4%
from iron-fortified formula (Saarinen, U., Siimes, M., Dollman, P.  Iron
absorption in infants: high bioavailability of breast milk iron as
indicated by the extrinsic tag method of iron absorption and by the
concentration of serum ferritin.  J Pediatr 1977; 91:36-39).

As cow’s milk has been found to cause intestinal fissures, completely
breastfed babies do not lose iron though their bowels (Woodruff, C. et
al.  Iron nutrition and the breastfed infant. J Pediatr 1977; 90:
36-38).

The higher concentrations of lactose and vitamin C in human milk also
influence iron absorption in the breastfed infant.  Maternal iron serum
levels do not appear to affect the iron levels in the milk.  Increasing
iron in the mother’s diet will not increase iron in her milk.

Zinc is also more readily absorbed from human milk.  Forty-one percent
of zinc is absorbed from human milk versus 28% from cow’s milk, 31% from
milk-based formula and 14% from soy formula (Lawrence, R. 
Breastfeeding: A Guide for the Medical Profession, 4th edition, 1994,
pg. 124).  Again, increasing zinc in the maternal diet will not alter
levels in the milk.

All mammals have low iron and zinc levels in their milk.  I found it
hard to believe that our design, either by God or by nature, would have
such a serious flaw.  If mother’s milk was truly inadequate, as Mr.
Proulx would have us believe, our species, as well as all other mammals,
would have become extinct long ago.

Here are some other studies your health reporters might be interested in
before reporting on inadequacies of human milk.

Riordan, J., Countryman, BA, Basics of Breastfeeding. III.  The
biological specificity of breast milk.  JOGN Nurs, 1980; 9:273-77.

McMillan, JA., Landaw, SA., Oski, FA, Iron sufficiency in breast-fed
infants and the availability of iron from human milk.  Pediatrics, 1976,
58: 686-91.

Campbell, N., The nutritional and immunological benefits of breast
milk.  Aust Nurs J, 1981, 10(11): 40-43.

Hall, BH.,  Uniformity of human milk, Am J Clin Nutr, 1980, 32: 304-12.

Sincerely,
Kathy Koch