Hi,
>I remember the night when it hit me emotionally -- breastmilk really
>really transmits HIV.  I started sobbing hysterically, in a pizza
>parlor; my date was not thrilled.  I am still grieving for the good old
>days when breast was always best; now breast is only best, almost all of
>the time.

Maybe there are not many mothers in the world with my kind of problem -
a family history of *severe* food allergies and intolerances, but I seem
to be meeting more and more of them. I even know of babies allergic to
so-called "hypoallergenic" or "chemical" formulas. Food allergies kill
many thousands of people (I haven't got figures I am afraid) and in the
third world, with water contamination, poor sterilizing etc. added to
the risk of food allergies, you have a pretty fatal mixture without even
considering HIV.

The *best* solution, IMHO, for this dilemma is not formula at all, but
donated breastmilk/pasteurised mother's milk. It may not have the live
factors in it, but it is still perfectly nutritionally balanced,
containing all those wonderful nucleotides and long-chain fatty acids
and hundreds of other factors we probably don't even know the half of.
And most important of all, IMHO, it is hypoallergenic (food allergies
via mother's milk are considerably less dangerous than direct allergies,
in my experience). It is also very cheap, even if you do have to
pasteurise it.

Maybe breastmilk banks are hard to organise in the 3rd world, but
pasteurising is not a highly technological feat - you can do it with a
thermometer and a cooking pot. Maybe some enterprising WHO scientist
could devise a low-tech EBM pasteuriser for women to use? Give the
mother's HIV -ve, lactating relatives a good manual pump and away they
go.

Well, that's just my idea, off the top of my head, but it seems to be
one solution I haven't heard any mention of, which somewhat distresses
me. It is certainly the solution I personally would have to use - no way
would I risk formula-feeding my babies, and I live in the developed
world.
--
Anna (Mummy to Emma, born 17th Jan 1995, Alice, born 11th Sept 1996,
??? due 18th April 1998)
Email: [log in to unmask]  Web Page: http://www.ratbag.demon.co.uk/anna