Bigger numbers designed badly is worse than smaller numbers designed well. So for example, a small study of truly EBF from birth, nothing else given, is better than a larger population experiment where say, not more than one bottle is allowed for the child to be designated EBF months later. Where exclusive breastfeeding is concerned, there are almost no good studies because even if the hospital records are searched, there is not the attention to detail that would disclose the fact that baby was apart from mum for long enough for some nurse to give the kid something she thinks harmless and useful, even prophylactic…. and that happens. I still quote the Danish study (Milk Matters, pp.96-7) By the mid-1980s, infant formula was accepted in most hospitals. One centre in Denmark set up a study of allergy that provides information about comp feeds. It was a prospective study of 1749 newborns. In this 1985 Danish cohort, none of 210 children who were truly exclusively breastfed in hospital developed cows’ milk allergy under twelve months, and all of the thirty-nine partially breastfed children who did develop allergy under twelve months had been comp-fed ‘significantly more often in the first month of life’ than others in the study. The full study also revealed that only nine of that thirty-nine developed symptoms while still solely breastfed after discharge: in the other thirty, symptoms emerged after other foods were introduced. And scandalously, only one of those nine mothers was aware that her child had been comp fed in hospital. The amount fed in hospital ranged from 40 to 830 ml, or eight teaspoons to most of a litre, which makes it hard to posit any safe or beneficial level of exposure! 299 However, note that even here, only 210 of 1749 babies escaped hospital without being exposed to cows’ milk protein, i.e., were probably exclusively breastfed from birth. Thankfully, only thirty-nine of the 1539 breastfed infants exposed to bovine milk in the first month went on to develop the particular symptoms that in this study defined allergy, a low rate compared with later studies, perhaps because of the intergenerational effects of their mother’s feeding. Thirty of the thirty-nine developed allergy only after foods other than breastmilk were fed. But it is physiologically certain that the other 1500 who did not develop certified allergy or intolerance did develop an altered microbiome, and may have had other health problems to deal with as a result. No one assessed the timing of onset or severity of colic, or reflux, or abnormal behaviour, or otitis media, or unexpected infant death, for example. *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome