I recently read a short abstract by human milk researcher, David Newburg, that made me think that some of what he wrote would make a terrific advertising campaign for the promotion of breastfeeding (which I believe the US Government ought to sponsor--a dream but one can hope). He writes: "The single environmental factor most responsible for suboptimal brain development is the combination of diarrhea and malnutrition that afflicts 30 million children each year. Artificially fed infants are 3-10 fold more likely to develop this condition than breast-fed infants." Of course the reality is that this researcher, is defining a new class of antimicrobial agents to be made. He has defined and named the human milk glycoprotein, lactadherin. So the reality is that we may have a new class of antimicrobial agents that the researcher considers to be unlikely to develop resistance. Newburg also is named as an inventor (among several) for several patents--# 5667797 and # 5505955. Both these patents are on HMFG (human milk fat globule). In fact one of the two patents is called, "Anti-diarrheic product and method of treating rotavirus-associated infection." This patent mentions the use of HMFG as a treatment for immune-compromised individuals such as hiv-positive patients. This surely is the irony of science---hiv positive mothers discouraged (to put it mildly) from breastfeeding their babies will use infant formula. Infant formula carries a 3-10 fold risk of diarrhea. We shall treat the diarrhea with HMFG or whatever the product will be named. Life is iro nic....... I can't imagine the infant formula industry allowing a public advertisement that states dirrectly how its product is contributing to suboptimal brain development. But it sure is nice to dream about an advertisement that puts infant formula in its place--a known risk for suboptimal brain development!! Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC PS Can't ya see the ad? Lots of breastfeeding mothers in various "public" locations talking about how they are avoiding the risks of infant formula so that their babies will grow up bright and healthy...... *********************************************** 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