I just spoke to a mother who is breastfeeding her 15 month old son, and just found out that she is pregnant. Her doctor told her that she has to stop breastfeeding immediately. Why? Because there is a hormone present in her milk that will cause problems in the sexual development of the older child ( I think he said that the testicles would be affected and this would only be apparent at puberty). I asked her to ask the doctor for the study from which this conclusion was derived. Has anyone heard of this? While searching, I did find this tidbit: Physiol Behav 1996 Jan;59(1):147-52 Related Articles, Links Does the male reproductive performance depend on the early lactation milk in rats? Carlos CP, Lemonica IP, de Grava Kempinas W, Marques Pereira OC. Department of Pharmacology, Sao Paulo State University, Brazil. This study investigated the role of the early lactation milk (ELM) on the male reproductive performance and the participation of GnRH on this effect in Wistar rats. Newborn males were divided into three experimental groups: 1) ELM-deprived pups, 2) ELM-deprived pups treated with exogenous GnRH 1, 7, 25, and 31 h after birth, and 3) non-ELM-deprived and without exogenous GnRH. In relation to the other two groups, the ELM-deprived male rats exhibited as adults: reduced fertility, decreased weight of both vas deferens and seminal vesicle, and reduced levels of fructose in the seminal vesicle and prostate gland. We suggest that the intake of ELM during the neonatal period is important to the later sexual development of rats, and that GnRH is somehow involved in such an effect. Esther Grunis, IBCLC Lis Maternity Hospital Tel Aviv, Israel *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html