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Subject:
From:
Maria Paciullo <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 19 May 2013 10:01:33 -0400
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Thank you.  Well put.  I pray that every IBCLC understands this.  It should be on the test every July.

On May 19, 2013, at 9:54 AM, LACTNET automatic digest system <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Date:    Sun, 19 May 2013 06:51:35 -0400
> From:    Susan Burger <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Why a little bit matters
> 
> Just like having a surgical delivery prevents the normal bacterial colonization that is supposed to happen during birth, so does just a little formula prevent the normal colonization of bacteria in the infant gut and among the many thing the authors of that abysmal study did not consider in their outcome measures is how that changed those bacteria.  Research is increasingly pointing the role of how this may play a role in chronic disease -- such as the article in today's New York Times
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/magazine/say-hello-to-the-100-trillion-bacteria-that-make-up-your-microbiome.html?pagewanted=2&src=recg
> 
> Furthermore, one only has to look at the HIV epidemic to see a more immediate and profound impact of a little bit of formula damaging the gut sufficiently to allow transmission of the virus.  Exclusively breastfed infants are not dying of diarrhea and not at higher risk of getting HIV when their mothers have the virus.  The work with antiretrovirals is proving to be extremely helpful in preventing vertical transmission.
> 
> What flabberghasts me is why, when the vast majority of research funding is spent tinkering with minute changes in formula and the last time I calculated it some negligible percentage of all research dollars on infant feeding goes to research on breastfeeding and and even more negligible percentage of US Tax payer dollars goes to that research.
> 
> Why on earth would you not want better research to avoid the 10% weight loss to begin with, better research and funding for making human milk available and I mean even in the grocery store if need be (heretical as that may sound), and better research on how to fix the very real problems of insufficient milk supply?  
> 
> Medicine has turned fertility problems into a cash cow of highly stressful procedures -- and at least here in Manhattan -- mostly done with processes that treat women as if they were riding in economy class on a cheap airline -- that demean and demoralize them.  Many of the drugs used are not FDA approved.  Yet no one complains about mothers going through 7 or more rounds of fertility treatments.  On the other hand, if it is an attempt to breastfeed or obtain human milk, she is criticized for stressing herself out.  And then patronized with "well it doesn't matter very much anyway".  Talk about double standards for something you can make a profit off of versus something you cannot.
> 
> And -- since I thought it was so obvious, I didn't mention it -- one of the biggest flaws in study design is to give a treatment to a population that didn't need it to begin with.  It was such a huge elephant in the room that I didn't think it needed to be mentioned.
> 
> Sincerely,
> Susan E. Burger


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