I believe to be totally, technically accurate we cannot say that formula
feeding causes certain health problems such as otitis, diarrheal illnesses, upper
and lower respiratory  infections, etc., but rather that LACK of exclusive (or
some amount of breastfeeding--I don't think we really know how much)
increases risk for developing these problems. Babies are born with immature immune and
nervous systems. The live cells and other components of breast milk are
species specific. They enhance nervous system maturation resulting in increased
IQ's and the live cells protect against infectious illnesses and stimulate immune
system function. So if we could get a warning label on formula it would need
to say that feeding formula instead of breastmilk increases risk
for-------------. We do understand the mechanism by which breast milk protects against a
host of things. We cannot accurately say that formula caused the baby to get
diarrhea but we can say if baby had received breast milk instead, chances of
contracting diarrhea would be much lower. Formula is not the causitive agent.
Rather some infectious organism has caused the illness.  Withholding antibodies
contained in breastmilk (which humans were designed to receive) has increased
the infant's risk of succumbing to a host of infectious diseases.

For other protective effects such as juvenile diabetes, inflammatory bowel
disease, etc. I'm not sure that we know the mechanism of protection--is it
something in the breastmilk that protects against or is there something in the
formula that increases risk?

Kathy Boggs, RN, IBCLC

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