Karleen, is she saying it's okay to essentially start weaning immediately,
by partial breastfeeding and/or early solids, because if the mother keeps
nursing just a little, the baby will get all the immunological benefits?
(If so, does she realize that a minimally breastfeeding mother is likely to
stop sooner?)  Or is she trying to be cost-effective in buying human milk
from a milk bank, trying to find some magic number of milliliters that will
give all the health benefits of full breastfeeding while the baby is
actually being fed cheaper formula?

Sure, 15 ml/feed is lots better than nothing...but....!

I have heard the assertion that the immunological components remain at
about the same level throughout nursing.  Linda Smith at the VLCA
conference in Vermont this spring said something very like that.  I drew a
little graph on the back of a page--don't remember if it copied, or
interpreted, how she presented it, but it looks a bit like the boa
constrictor that ate the elephant in _The Little Prince_: the immunological
factors are a steady low quantity that forms a high percentage of the
low-volume colostrum and weaning milk, and a smaller percentage of the
"elephant" of the mature milk during full breastfeeding.  Clear as mud?
        I imagine you've already tried other angles with this person: repeating
like a broken record the evidence that the benefits of breastfeeding /
hazards of other feeding are dose-related; sharing Facts About
Breastfeeding or other such information; mentioning how *presence* of
*other* foods impairs gut, messes up absorption of nutrients, fosters
growth of pathogens etc.; listing non-immunological results of
breastfeeding such as oral/facial development.

Breastfeeding is meant to sustain and grow a human being, as pregnancy
does.  To focus on one single element of that complex task, excluding
others, is like saying "during pregnancy the mother's body keeps the baby
warm, so if we just keep preemies warm after birth, they'll be fine."
Breastfeeding is food and drink and medicine and immunization and
socialization and physical therapy/development all in one bundle.  Remember
the old story about the farmer with the quarreling sons?  He gave them a
big bundle of sticks tied together and told them to break it.  They
couldn't, but then he untied the bundle and they could easily break each
stick in turn.  Once you untie the breastfeeding bundle and try to pick and
choose what "sticks" you will provide, you've lost the overall bundle
strength that is more than the sum of the parts.  And each "stick" is
weaker when not supported by the others.

Elise

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