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Giving Milk Formula to Nurses
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Things rarely change in this world in which we live. Case in point: An interview with Miss Mattie Ingram, a county health nurse in Beaufort, S.C. on January 31, 1939. This was published in the South Carolina Writer's Project.
After Mattie Ingram gave milk to a poor woman to feed her ill husband she said to the writer from the Project:
"Oh, the milk--do I buy it to give away?" She smiled. "If I started that, I'd be spending every cent I make and it wouldn't be a drop in the bucket. No, several manufacturers of canned milk send us samples to advertise their milk formulas for babies. It comes in very handy, I can tell you."
Sound familiar?
Labels: breastfeeding history, formula
posted by Jennifer James @ 6:48 PM,
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Institute Warns Against Imitating Breast Milk
Friday, January 25, 2008
We all know infant manufacturers add artificial DHA and ARA to baby formula because they want to ensure mothers that their babies aren't missing anything breastfed babies receive. Thing is, artificial chemicals cannot replace the real thing, no matter how much time brilliant scientists spend in the lab. The Cornucopia Institute has published a rather extensive study called "Replacing Mother — Imitating Human Breast Milk in the Laboratory".
The study says the fake DHA and ARA are called "designer oils" by Martek, the manufacturer of the fake amino acids and are made from algae. Algae, people!
According to the study, the FDA admits that some babies have died after ingesting the long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, but these infants deaths were attributed to SIDS.
To read the full report, follow this link:
http://www.cornucopia.org/DHA/DHA_FullReport.pdf
Labels: formula, reasons to breastfeed
posted by Jennifer James @ 9:47 AM,
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Two Continents, Exact Message, Same Results
Thursday, May 31, 2007
I have no clue why I'm constantly amazed by the low breastfeeding rates in Africa. I guess I'm still holding on to some ideal, stereotypical notion that all things in Mother Africa are still pristine and natural. The truth is, impoverished nations are severely and relentlessly assaulted by formula companies just like here at home.Ghana just launched a nationwide campaign called "The Best Protection a Mother Can Give" to help mothers keep their babies healthy by simply exclusively breastfeeding them for the first six months of their life. And here in America, the Office for Minority Health launched an awareness campaign called "A Healthy Baby Begins with You", for with breastfeeding is a critical component, in order to decrease the critically high numbers of black infant mortality.
But, what do we see here? The same story, similar campaigns, two different continents.
I hate to sound pessimistic, but I also believe in truthfulness, these two campaigns will win over a few converts (relatively speaking), but the vast majority of moms will still be chained to a formula container, even though it clearly produces poorer health and an increased risk of infant death. Government funded campaigns just don't have the muscle to compete with the money formula companies throw around.
What do you think?
Labels: commentary, formula
posted by Jennifer James @ 2:35 PM,
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Ties That Bind: WIC and the Big Three
Monday, May 21, 2007
Since I started this blog, I have been heavily in favor of WIC initiatives to get more poor moms breastfeeding. In fact, I've reported several instances where some of these new initiatives are actually working, and even an instance where it's working so well black children are getting rickets since breast milk contains no vitamin D. It is with the below information, however, that makes me angry at how wrong I've been all along.Chris Edwards, a CATO Institute scholar and top expert on federal and state/local tax and budget issues, blogged about a recent article in the International Journal of Breastfeeding: WIC's promotion of infant formula in the United States by University of Hawaii professor, George Kent which I also read.
Truly, I've never been one to know how WIC works and I certainly never understood the close ties between WIC and the three largest infant formula companies: Mead Johonson, Ross Laboratories, and Carnation. I've now learned that:
- In 2005, only .6% of the federal WIC budget was set aside for breastfeeding promotion at $34 million. (That sounds like a lot, but not when the total budget is 5 billion dollars.).
- In fact, the total numbers of WIC mothers who breastfeed have gone up, but so too have the numbers for non-WIC mothers.
- In 2001, WIC received 1.4 billion dollars in rebates from the infant formula companies, which allowed 2 million more recipients of WIC to be served.
- WIC supplies about half of all infant formula in the United States.
Labels: breastfeeding mamas, commentary, formula, WIC
posted by Jennifer James @ 5:54 AM,
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Not All Milk is Created Equal
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Last Friday I was running through the latest press releases and I saw that this formula company has come out with an entirely new line of infant formula. They're billing it as a new line of "sensitive" formula for babies who have "feeding issues". Fair enough. The thing that stuck out to me, though, was this:All three formulas include DHA and ARA, nutrients found in breast milk that support brain and eye development. These new products are now available in the baby/toddler aisle at most major retail locations.This got me thinkin': What is DHA and ARA and how can a formula company make this claim, because I know it's hard to manufacture natural substances in a lab. Since I'm not a nurse, doctor, lactation consultant or scientist, I thought I'd hunt down some information for moms who may be on the fence about breastfeeding and who may read this claim and think, "Well, it's just like the real thing".
From kellymom.com,
Actually these fatty acids are nothing like what is in breast milk and pose a number of known and unknown risks to the infants who consume them. The DHA is extracted from fermented microalgae and the ARA is extracted from soil fungus. The breast does not use either of these items to manufacture its fatty acids, and these sources are new to the food chain. Each of the processed oils has its own fatty acid composition, adding a number of fatty acids to formula that already are contained in the plant oils mixed into the base formula. Human fatty acids are structurally different from manufactured ones from plant sources. Human fatty acids interact with each other in a special matrix. Just because they perform as they do in human milk does not mean they will perform at all in an artificial construct.You can read the entire article here. To be fair, though, the American Academy of Pediatrics doesn't make a stand either in favor of or against DHA and AHA stating:
# The AAP has no official stand on the addition of LC-PUFAs to infant formula or food.What I do know is this: Nothing can replicate breast milk. The breast will always be best.
# There is simply not enough data yet for the AAP to make a recommendation either way.
On a similar note: You may have to blink twice after reading this, especially if you're like me and know little to nothing about genetic engineering.
In this article, Rice containing breast milk proteins to be grown in Kansas, I learned that a biotech company has developed a rice that contains some of the same human proteins that are present in breast milk. Of course, this rice will be used in infant formula. Can't wait to see the marketing.
Labels: formula, health, reasons to breastfeed
posted by Jennifer James @ 8:10 PM,
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