I have spent the better part of the afternoon on the internet being led a merry chase of what seems half-truth (or less)and seemingly bogus references. 

I can foresee this becoming a "new 'old wives tale' " funded underneath of course, by Nestle, which has used the services of Dr. Donovan. Can anyone help stop it in its tracks?? As yet, there are no comments submitted to the Web MD article. I hope someone more knowledgeable will comment there, hopefully a pediatrician or two. This is indeed a very tangled "slant" sure to raise the ire of those of many persuasions with many with its apparently bogus (unbelievable to me) "science". Some slick journalist already seems to have trapped 2 "lactation service coordinators/specialists" to "borrow" their credibility. 

Perhaps those who are more savvy on surfing the internet who can help ferret this out and route the rumor in its tracks. 

From Web M.D. yesterday: It begins:
<December 23, 2010 — Although women have been breastfeeding for generations and groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a child’s life, researchers are finally beginning to get a better handle on exactly what makes breast milk unique and beneficial.

The new article appears in the December 23/30 issue of Nature. . . . . . . .>

<. . . . . .Breast Milk for Boys and Girls 

According to the Web MD article, breast milk for boys contains more fat and protein than the breast milk that girls get.

The sex differences in breast milk is “fascinating,” says Ginna Wall, coordinator of lactation services at University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle.

“We know that boys grow faster than girls, and perhaps this is due to the milk, or the milk may be responding to the commands of the child,” she says. “It could be triggered by prenatal chemistry or by the infant's sucking style, although in real time they sure don't look different when they're nursing.”

Barbara Holmes, a lactation specialist at New York University Langone Medical Center, agrees. “What it means is unknown,” she tells WebMD. “We don’t have clear evidence of why this might be or even if it is true.”>

< . . . .We know that there are benefits, but we haven’t been able to put our finger on it and say ‘this is it,’”says Sharon M. Donovan, PhD, RD, a professor of nutrition and pediatrics at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Donavan’s research is cited in the new article.> . . . . . . . .  which article is described as <gene expression in infant gut cells. In a pilot study. . . . . >

<Building a Better Infant Formula? 

Adding HMOs to formula may not have the same benefit as those found naturally in a mother’s milk, she says. “We need to better understand the unique relationship between mother and her suckling infant.”

Going forward, “we can get formulas a lot more similar to breast milk,” she says. Donavan consults with various formula companies to help them optimize their products.

“Infant formulas are continually being improved, and are the best they can be,” she says. “We are trying to identify the uniqueness in breast milk and use the information to improve infant formulas because not everyone breastfeeds or is able to breastfeed.”>

The article upon which the Web MD article is supposed to be substantially based is:

Nature Magazine, Dec. 23 2010 (Nature Volume: 468, Pages:S5–S7  Date published: (23 December 2010) 
DOI: doi:10.1038/468S5a Published online 22 December 2010 : (It took me a while to dig this out of the table of contents from among the many other subjects)

Development: Mother's milk: A rich opportunity

by Anna Petherick (a journalist in Buenos Aires.)

<For example, evolutionary theory suggests that mothers should invest more in feeding sons because a successful son can produce many more offspring than a daughter. Several recent studies support this view by identifying clear differences in the breast milk consumed by males and females. In humans, for example, baby boys receive milk that has substantially more fat and protein than the milk girls get (2).>


<Over the years, the 'breast versus formula' debate has become polarized, and several researchers contacted for this article complained that either breastfeeding advocacy groups or formula companies had exaggerated their findings in the past. Donovan's recent gene expression study was sponsored by a formula milk manufacturer,(Nestle) but she is applying for US National Institutes of Health funding for further studies to avoid the criticism that comes with being commercially funded.>
 
Reference #2 is Powe, C. American Journal of Human Biology, 2010; vol 22. This citation is the one that led me a merry chase through multiple google links, some of which either would not connect, due to some error in the URL, or led me back and around the same articles that gave this citation or through supposed scholarly references to the Annals of Psychiatry, 1992, Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis Vascular Biology, Dec. 2010, and Developmental Psychology, which did at least have an article about Rhesus monkey milk and its cortisol content published online August 2010.

None of which had any such references that I could find to differing fat and protein content in mother's milk "made in response to boys" compared to that "made in response to girls". And nowhere in the Nature article could I find any reference to any study by any prestigious institution that is supposed to have done this research.

I have thrown out a bone to the Rottweilers once again!

K. Jean Cotterman RNC-E, IBCLC
WIC Volunteer LC, Dayton OH
 

 

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