Breastfeeding

In 1981 the US was the only country to vote against a voluntary World Health Code for the marketing of breastmilk substitutes, its stance being along the lines of “Breastmilk is good for babies but not for business”. Today, we still do not have a national code of this nature, despite the Clinton administration’s endorsement of the WHO/UNICEF code in 1994.

With some of the highest rates of both infant and maternal morality, the United States needs to promote breastfeeding — an action which will improve our infants health, decrease infant obesity, lower the number of hospitalizations, and more. Breastmilk fed infants don’t need the Rota-virus vaccine.  Yet despite these proven advantages, the USDA’s WIC (Womens Infants and Children) Program provides nearly half of all US newborn infants with free infant formula.  Not only does WIC give taxpayer money to infant formula companies, it promotes a product greatly inferior to breastmilk.

There are many instances where the infant formula industry has interfered and watered down breastfeeding promotion initiatives, such as those of HHS.

Breastfeeding saves lives and gives babies a passport to life. The health care cost savings of breastfeeding are tremendous. (See my book, Milk, Money and Madness, for details.) We need a strong program to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.

Maternity Leave

Most industrialized countries have 12-weeks or more of paid maternity. The United States of America has none. The health of American mothers and their infants should be of first priority. Should America not be a world-leader in this area, as well? America should have a federal minimum of 12-weeks paid maternity leave.

In the past few years there have been 70-odd recalls of the so-called ‘infant formula’ (in reality a risky mix of chemicals without immunological protective factors).  There is now an epidemic of kidney stones and deaths in Chinese infants due to what is believed to be excessive amounts of melanin added to milk to allegedly increase protein content of milk.

The FDA says 2.5 ppm is the most that can be safely tolerated by humans. Is this also the case for infants and why do they need melanin at all?  It is outrageous that the melamine levels found recently in Chinese dairy products were astronomically high — as much as 2,500 ppm.  Why it had to be added in the first place is worrying and why the FDA cant just say it should not be added at all is not clear.  Melanin is not an essential nutrient for infants and is clearly harmful.

If you know anything further on the issue, do comment.

1. Buy your tomato sauce in glass jars. Canned tomato sauce is likely to have higher levels of BPA because the high acidity of the tomatoes causes more of the chemical to leach from the lining of the can. Think beyond plain tomato sauce to any canned pasta—like ravioli and those fun-looking kids’ meals.
2. Consume frozen or fresh fruits and vegetables instead of canned. In addition to their BPA-free benefit, fresh and frozen produce usually have more nutrients, which often get lost in the process of canning. Eden Foods does offer canned beans that are BPA-free.
3. Purchase beverages in plastic or glass bottles. Canned soda and juice often contain some BPA. You don’t need to worry, though, about disposable plastic water bottles. Most don’t contain bisphenol A, and those that do are usually marked on the bottom with a number 7 recycling code.
4. Use powdered infant formula instead of ready-to-serve liquid. A separate assessment from the Environmental Working Group found that liquid formulas contain more BPA than powdered brands.
5. Think in terms of moderation. You don’t need to avoid all canned foods. Just consult the chart below and follow a sensible approach, eating less of those foods that are high in BPA. Click here for the full report on canned foods.

SOURCE: http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/heart/2008/09/17/5-ways-to-keep-bisphenol-a-or-bpa-out-of-your-food.html

I agree with the above suggestions, except for step 4: just use breastmilk!

Read all about it in http://baumslag.com/mm/.

The book can be purchased from me for $20  plus postage.

According to a report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week, BPA completely abolished the formation of some nerve connections in two key regions of the brain - the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.

These findings have “profound implications,” the investigators maintain, given the critical role of these nerve connections in cognition and mood.

“Based on these findings, we think the EPA may wish to consider lowering its ’safe daily limit’ for human BPA consumption,” Hajszan said. Knowing this the EPA has taken no action to alert mothers of the danger of plastic baby bottles and infant formula cans.

SOURCE: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September 2, 2008.

http://in.reuters.com/article/health/idINREE57304220080905

Yet more evidence that BPA (widely used in infant forumla cans and baby bottles) is bad for humans and especially infants.

The new line is that you must give your infant Vitamin D.  It is true that Vitamin D is important for all women and men, but instead of giving infants supplements and formula, lets just make sure that mothers get plenty of natural vitamin D (sunshine) so that it can transfer into their breastmilk.

A positive example is The Indian Pediatric Association. It does not use formula company money for its conferences and scholarships and so does not promote the formula companies.  Any more positive (or particularly awful negative) examples that you have in mind? Leave it in the comments.

It is poor women who are most at risk and infant food companies are aiming to increase sales of their products to poor women.

Hooray for networking and women support. Its really disgusting that even the 21st century, bottlefeeding is allowed but breastfeeding is considered indecent and offensive.