ParentDish

When New Mom Can't Breast-Feed, Dozens of Women Help Out

Tom Henderson — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Breast-Feeding

Credit: Getty Images

Eva van Dok Pinkley, a Brooklyn, N.Y., actress and magazine researcher can't breast-feed her newborn because she had a double mastectomy last year.

No matter. The London Daily Mail reports 25 women are pumping and donating their breast milk.

"What they are doing, it's not easy to do," van Dok Pinkley tells the newspaper. "I'm just stunned at the amount of trouble that they are going through for me. I think of them and what they have done and give thanks."

Van Dok Pinkley got pregnant last September after a battle with breast cancer so intense she had given up having children. She had abandoned hope after miscarriages, failed fertility treatments and then her cancer.

When she and her husband, Stuart, finally found out they were having a baby, she knew she couldn't breast-feed. So she began doing research on the Internet.

After consultations with doctors and lactation consultants, the Mail reports, she began asking for donations from other expecting mothers at her yoga studio, via email lists and through friends.

Among the women who responded was Kristi Guigliano, the mother of an 8-month-old boy.

"The first time Eva and I met, it was a very emotional thing to, first of all, have found someone so perfect, so close and so in need of the milk," Guigliano tells the newspaper.

The Mail reports the women are either ongoing donors, one-time donors or soon-to-be moms who have pledged milk if they have some left over.

"When they told me what they were doing, I thought, 'Only in New York,' " Stuart Van Dok Pinkley tells the Mail.

Only in New York? Not really.

In 2009, ParentDish reported on Robbie Goodrich, a widowed English professor in Marquette, Mich. When his wife died shortly after his son, Moses, was born, more than two dozen women shared their breast milk with the infant.

Related: Women Rally Around Widower to Breast-Feed Infant Son

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Breast-Feeding Reduces Children's Risk of Asthma

Tom Henderson — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Breast-Feeding, Research Reveals: Babies

Credit: Getty Images

While women's breasts often make grown men gasp and wheeze, they seem to have the reverse effect on nursing infants.

The Daily Telegraph in London reports babies who are not breast-fed are 50 percent more likely than develop asthma symptoms than babies who do breast-feed.

Researchers at Erasmus Medical Centre in The Netherlands studied more than 5,000 children and found those who were never breast-fed were 50 percent more likely to have persistent phlegm and 40 percent more likely to wheeze regularly.

They also reportedly suffered more from shortness of breath and a dry cough in the first four years of life.

Breast-feeding could cut the chance of asthma by reducing the number of serious colds and flu virus infections, researchers concluded.

"These results support current health policy strategies that promote exclusive breast-feeding for six months in industrialized countries," Agnes Sonnenschein-van der Voort tells the Daily Telegraph. "Further studies are needed to explore the protective effect of breast-feeding on the various types of asthma in later life."

The Daily Telegraph reports past studies have shown that breast-feeding cuts the risk of infections in the first six months of life.

Others have found it also cuts the chance of childhood obesity and can lead to more intelligent and better behaved children.

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Case of Woman Breast-Feeding On Demand Overturned

Lesley Kennedy — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:40:00 EST

Filed under: Breast-Feeding

Credit: Getty Images

Breast-feeding has come with it's share of questions and concerns for years. Yes, we all know it's the ideal way to feed a newborn, but is it OK to do in public? How long should you breast-feed? What age should you stop? Can you breast-feed after drinking a glass of wine? How often should you let a baby breast-feed?

It's that last question that has sparked an international debate, after a Spanish woman's 15-month-old child was taken away from her because of the woman's "chaotic" breast-feeding patterns, the Guardian in London reports.

Officials from the Madrid social services department said breast-feeding on demand and letting the girl sleep in bed with the mom, who is 21 and known only as Habiba, were factors, the newspaper says.

"She uses breast-feeding as a pacifier and a toy, offering her breast any time the girl cries and letting her take it anywhere, no matter the time and context," an edited version of the report states, according to the Guardian.

The case had childcare activists up in arms.

"This baby must be returned to her mother as a matter of urgency and should be able to suckle whenever she wants to," Sheila Kitzinger tells the Guardian.

Turns out, supporters' cries may have been heard. Habiba was reunited with her daughter, Alma, Wednesday, the newspaper reports, after the social services committee overturned their earlier decision.

"It was an amazing re-encounter between mother and child," Habiba's lawyer, Juan Ignacio de la Mata, tells the Guardian. "The child wouldn't leave her mother alone and you could see both of them slowly being transformed by the encounter. It was moving and very beautiful."

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Breast Milk Tied to Baby's Metabolism

Tom Henderson — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: Breast-Feeding, Nutrition

Breast milk lowers blood insulin levels more so than formulas. Credit: Getty Images

If babies can't have breast milk, they need to drink something a lot like it.

The Kansas City Star reports French researchers have found a significant link to breast milk and a baby's developing metabolism. The researchers found children who breast-feed have lower blood insulin levels than formula-fed babies.

The formula-fed babies also had higher blood pressure.

Therefore, when infants cannot be fed breast milk, researchers conclude they should be fed formula with a metabolic profile as close to human breast milk as possible.

According to the Star, researchers analyzed three years of data on 234 children. One group received only breast milk for the first four months of life. The other two groups were randomized to receive either a low-protein formula or a high-protein formula.

Children who received breast milk for the first four months, the Star reports, had a specific pattern of growth and metabolic profile that differed from the formula-fed babies.

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Breast-Feeding Mentally Bonds Mothers to Infants, Study Finds

Tom Henderson — Thu, 26 May 2011 12:30:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Breast-Feeding

This can lead to spooky intuition. Credit: Getty Images

Who needs a baby monitor when you have a mother's almost spooky intuition?

MSNBC reports breast-feeding does more than nourish newborns. It may actually alter a woman's brain to make her more sensitive to her baby's cries.

Researchers tell MSNBC the brains of breast-feeding mothers show a greater response to the sound of their babies' cries than do the brains of mothers who don't breast-feed. The boost in brain activity can actually be seen in regions associated with motherhood.

Researcher Pilyoung Kim of the National Institute of Mental Health tells MSNBC this phenomena may help babies as they begin to socially interact with the rest of the world.

Kim tells the network the study serves as another example of why it's important to support mothers who breast-feed their children.

"I understand the challenges mothers have," Kim tells MSNBC. "Regardless of their decision, I think it is critical during this early postpartum period that they seek support and encouragement from others, especially when they feel very stressed and challenged by the new demands because of the new parenting experience."

Kim and her fellow researchers looked at 17 new moms. Nine of the women breast-fed while the other eight used formula.

Two to four weeks after giving birth, MSNBC reports, researchers scanned the mothers' brains using a functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) machine while they listened to recordings of both their own baby's cries and the cries of newborns who weren't their children.

The network reports researchers found increased brain activity, especially in thee superior frontal gyrus, striatum and amygdala. This mirrors studies in animals.

Researchers also examined the mothers at home. The women were videotaped interacting with their 3- to 4-week-old infants, MSNBC reports. Researchers rated mothers on how affectionate they were toward their babies.

Whether or not mothers breast-fed their babies, increased activity in the mothers' superior frontal gyrus and amygdala -- the areas of the brain associated with empathy -- was connected with the level of TLC they showed their babies.

The affected brain regions are "definitely doing something to help process the information and perhaps motivate the mothers to exhibit more care-giving behaviors," Kim tells MSNBC.

The network reports hormones released during breast-feeding, such as oxytocin, may contribute to brain and behavioral changes in the mother. Kim adds research is needed on larger groups of people to better understand the relationship between breastfeeding and brain responses.

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City Bans Breast-Feeding Children Older Than 2 in Public

Tom Henderson — Thu, 19 May 2011 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Breast-Feeding

Councilors passed a law May 16 in an Atlanta suburb against public nudity, which includes breast-feeding anyone older than 2. Credit: Getty Images

Remember the song "A Town Without Pity"?

City council members in Forest Park, Ga., want theirs to be a town without ... well, let's just say it rhymes with "pity." Wouldn't want to offend anyone's delicate sensibilities. Neither would the councilors. So, that means no more breast-feeding in public.

Councilors passed a law May 16 in the Atlanta suburb against public nudity, which includes breast-feeding anyone older than 2.

City Manager John Parker tells the ABC affiliate in Atlanta this nips a potential wave of public nudity in the bud.

"It sets up a process whereby we can try to control nudity throughout the entire city," Parker tells the TV station.

Not if Regina M. Benjamin, the U.S. surgeon general, has anything to say about it. She supports this idea of women breast-feeding their children. Just four months ago, she released "The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Support Breast-Feeding."

"Many barriers exist for mothers who want to breast-feed," Benjamin said in her announcement in January. "They shouldn't have to go it alone. Whether you're a clinician, a family member, a friend or an employer, you can play an important part in helping mothers who want to breast-feed."

A federal law allows women to breast-feed in federal buildings or federal property.

Why, it's enough to make Southerner swoon.

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Child a Brat? Maybe He Didn't Get Enough Breast Milk

Tom Henderson — Thu, 12 May 2011 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Breast-Feeding

Infants who get regular doses of mother's milk tend to be less bratty children. Credit: Getty Images

The next time someone is rude to you, just shrug it off and think, "Oh well, he probably didn't get enough breast milk."

Breast milk apparently hath charms to soothe the savage, well, breast.

CBS News reports British researchers have found infants who get regular doses of mother's milk direct from the tap tend to be less bratty children later on. They also are less likely to lie, steal and be anxious or hyperactive.

Researchers from the universities of Oxford, Essex, York and University College London used collected information on more than 10,000 infants born in 2000 and 2001. They found that 16 percent of the babies given formula instead of breast milk were little hellions (to some degree) by age 5.

Only 6 percent of breast-fed children were such troublemakers.

What makes breast milk so wonderful? Well, there's the packaging, of course. Sheer brilliance! Nursing creates a strong bond between mother and child. Beyond that, CBS reports, breast milk has fatty acids that aid in brain development.

"We just don't know whether it is because of the constituents in breast milk, or the close interaction with the mum, or whether it is a knock-on effect of reduced illness in breast-fed babies," Oxford University's Maria Quigley tells CBS. "But it does begin to look like we can add fewer behavioral problems as another potential benefit of breast-feeding."

On the other hand, just because you didn't breast-feed your baby doesn't mean he's going to grow up to become John Dillinger.

"We must not send a negative message to mothers that they have failed, or make them feel guilty because they bottle-feed their babies," breast-feeding expert Janet Fyle of the Royal College of Midwives tells CBS.

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Day Care Centers Cut Off Babies From Breast Milk

Tom Henderson — Mon, 09 May 2011 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Babies, In The News, Childcare, Breast-Feeding

Watch a videos on weening your child from breast-feeding.

A lot of day care centers don't provide overnight refrigerated storage. Credit: Getty Images

"No breast milk? What do you mean no breast milk? Come, Marjorie, we're leaving!"

Oh, if only your baby could talk. He or she would be appalled by a report on how few establishments offer breast milk. After all, babies are supposed to get breast milk for at least a year.

Yet, BusinessWeek reports a small study by researchers in Cincinnati suggests too few day care centers, at least in that city, are set up for moms to nurse their babies.

BusinessWeek reports doctors at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center found only 12 percent of infants enrolled in area centers received mother's milk, even though 96 percent of the center directors said they're comfortable allowing moms to nurse.

"We were surprised to find that despite the high staff comfort levels in feeding human milk, only a small percentage of infants were being fed human milk," lead researcher Kristen Copeland, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, tells BusinessWeek.

Of course, moms don't need to nurse their babies. They can pump their breast milk and refrigerate it for ... what's that? A lot of centers don't provide overnight refrigerated storage? That's a problem, Copeland says.

"We know that centers that allow pumped milk to be stored overnight make it easier for women to provide a constant supply of milk for their babies," Copeland tells BusinessWeek, "so if more centers offered overnight storage, it might increase the number of infants who are fed human milk."

According to the Ohio doctors, this is a big deal. About half the infants in the United States are in child care, and 18 percent are in centers.

Researchers called the directors of 167 day care centers, and asked them how many infants at the centers received pumped breast milk, how comfortable the centers' employees were with feeding pumped breast milk and if the center provided a refrigerator or freezer where moms could store pumped breast milk overnight.

Your odds of being able to provide your baby with breast milk increases in centers with the smallest proportion of babies receiving subsidized tuition. It also helps if the babies at the center are predominantly white.

Copeland tells BusinessWeek non-white mothers might not have the chance to pump their breast milk, especially at work.

"The findings speak to the tremendous challenges women face in being able to successfully breast-feed their babies," breast-feeding researcher Dr. Alison Stuebe, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, tells BusinessWeek.

Day care centers can help, she adds.

"For instance, there should also be a comfortable place where mothers can sit down and nurse their babies, either at lunchtime or when they come to pick them up at the end of the day," she tells BusinessWeek.

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Breast-Feeding Impacts a Child's Metabolism, Study Finds

Lesley Kennedy — Tue, 03 May 2011 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Health & Safety: Babies, Breast-Feeding, Nutrition, Research Reveals: Babies

Study finds another benefit to breast-feeding. Credit: Getty Images

We know breast milk is the preferred method of feeding a newborn, but here's another benefit to breast-feeding: It could impact your child's metabolism.

A new study conducted by French researchers finds babies who were breast-fed for their first four months of life had different growth and metabolic rates than babies fed formula, the Los Angeles Times reports.

According to the newspaper, researchers looked at three years worth of data that followed the feeding patterns of 234 kids. During the first four months of life, one group, the Times says, was strictly breast-fed, while two other groups were fed either a low- or high-protein formula.

At just 15 days of life, the Times reports, the babies who were only breast-fed showed lower blood insulin levels than the formula-fed newborns, and, by age 3, the high-protein formula-fed babies had higher blood pressure readings than the breast-fed babies, although the readings were still considered normal.

The study, presented this week at the annual Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Denver, "suggests that if breast-feeding is not possible, infants should be fed formula that has a metabolic profile as close to human breast milk as possible," the Times reports.

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Will Bacon Baby Formula Sizzle in Sales?

Mary Beth Sammons — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:30:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Weird But True, Breast-Feeding

Could bacon-flavored formula for baby be the new superfood? Credit: Getty Images

Mom bringing home the bacon is taking on a whole new meaning for babies.

The latest sizzling idea on the infant front is bacon-flavored formula, which is being touted as the new superfood to fuel brain power for pint-sized Einsteins.

J&D Foods, makers of this not-yet-launched bacon-inspired liquid baby blend, claim on their website that by adding a single ingredient -- bacon -- formula becomes a more healthy food for young minds and bodies.

They claim the high protein and high fat found in bacon are essential for early stage brain development and will give your young one a competitive edge. They're taking first-come, first-serve orders online -- asking $19.95 for 25.7 ounces of J&D's Bacon Baby Infant Formula.

Founders Justin Esch and Dave Lefklow, who call themselves "bacontrepreneurs," and claim their mission is to "make everything taste like bacon," write on their site that the inspiration for bacon-flavored formula came from reading Dr. Bill Sears' book "The Nutrition Deficit Disorder."

The fact that the infant's brain experiences the most rapid growth during the first year of life, and needs to be fueled by the fat in foods, "got our brains spinning," Esch and Lefklow write. "What about using bacon (which is 65 percent of fat) to deliver these proteins and fats to babies?"

They add that they consulted with pediatricians and began to experiment with drying and grinding bacon into a fine powder.

Esch and Lefklow claim on their site that the female infant they tested with the product started walking and talking by 4 months and, by 6 months, could read and memorize early stage children's books.

"At 2 years old, she read her first 300-page book, memorized the Declaration of Independence and (this is absolutely true) began composing her first symphony," they write.

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Did Veganism and Alternative Medicine Kill Breast-Fed Baby?

Mary Beth Sammons — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Breast-Feeding

An 11-month-old baby's death in France was blamed on breast-feeding and the mother's vegan diet. Credit: Getty Images

Despite the increasing popularity of natural remedies in soothing many ailments, it's a good idea for parents to steer away from homeopathic and holistic health treatments in the care of babies and young children.

Just ask the French couple sentenced to five years in jail for refusing to take their sick and undernourished 11-month-old daughter to a hospital, and instead treating her with advice from a 35-year-old alternative medicine book, Time magazine reports.

The case, which has attracted considerable attention in Europe, serves as a reminder that homeopathic treatment alone is hardly the answer to every health woe, and, in some cases, may even be tantamount to child abuse, according to Time.

Joel and Sergine Le Moaligou were accused of "neglect or food deprivation" after their daughter died due to their failure to follow a doctor's advice. But they escaped actual jail time after their sentence was partly suspended, Time reports.

In 2008, two months before their baby Louise's death, the strict vegans brought their baby to a doctor. The doctor suspected pneumonia and directed the couple to get their daughter a chest X-ray. Instead, they returned home and followed recipes they found in books on natural medicine for mustard, garlic and clay poultices. The couple's alternative "bible" was "The Natural Guide to Childhood," written in 1972 by Jeanette Dextreit, Time reports.

Louise had been losing weight -- she wasn't even 13 pounds at nearly 1 year old, but her parents canceled an appointment with her doctor. She died about a week later. Prosecutors pointed to breast-feeding and the mother's vegan diet as the causes for the baby's death, Time reports.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends babies be nourished exclusively on breast milk for the first six months; solid foods are gradually introduced one by one after that. It would be highly unusual for an 11-month-old to be solely breast-fed, but even more so in France, where breast-feeding is the lowest of any Western nation, according to Time.

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Breast Milk May Serve as Personalized Breast Cancer Screen, Study Says

Mary Beth Sammons — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Breast-Feeding, Health

Breast cancer risk can be determined by examining the cells from the breast. Credit: Getty Images

Pumping your breast milk is not only good for baby, it could help detect your risk for breast cancer.

New research suggests breast milk, in addition to the more sophisticated and invasive biopsies and screens, can uncover the earliest signs of breast cancer, according to researchers at the American Association for Cancer Research.

Breast cancer risk can be determined by examining the cells from the breast, says Kathleen Arcaro, a professor of veterinary and animal sciences at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in a news release presented at the organization's annual convention in Florida this week.

Her team of researchers studied 250 women in 41 states who were deemed at high risk for breast cancer. The women also were nursing and agreed to provide breast milk for the study, Arcaro says in the release. The fresh samples were processed within 24 hours of expression.

Researchers relied on a growing body of data that shows the DNA of malignant cells take on a distinct epigenetic profile as a result of a molecular process known as methylation, Arcaro says. These methyl groups attach to DNA to turn genes on or off, and, in cancer cells, more of these groups bind to the DNA.

"Although the sample size in this study is small, "it's sufficient to tell us that we can use the cells in breast milk to assess breast cancer risk," Arcaro says in the release. Additional studies are needed to expand the results, she adds.

Breast cancer screenings of every woman who gives birth in a hospital is the long-term goal, Arcaro says in the release.

"We'll take a little sample of colostrum, and we'll tell her how her breasts are doing," she says in the release. "It's totally noninvasive, potentially inexpensive and really accurate."

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Small Doses of Vicodin OK for Breast-Feeding Moms, Study Says

Mary Beth Sammons — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Breast-Feeding, Research Reveals

Watch a Related Video to This Article

Breast-feeding pain may be eased by small doses of Vicodin, a new study shows. Credit: Getty

Breast-feeding may be a healthy and economical way to feed and bond with your baby, but it also can be a real pain -- literally -- for some moms who are still cramping and sore from mega hours of labor and C-sections, not to mention the whole nipple pinching thing.

But now there's good news on the lactating front: Apparently, it's safe to pop a few Vicodin while you're breast-feeding.

The strong painkiller hydrocodone, better known as Vicodin, may be safe in smaller doses for women nursing newborns, U.S. researchers tell Reuters.

Only traces of the drug end up in the mother's breast milk, according to findings from a study out of the University of Toronto and the University of California San Diego. Researchers say in cases where weaker painkillers such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Advil) don't take care of the pain, up to 30 milligrams of Vicodin (six tablets of 5 milligrams each) might be acceptable, the news service reports.

The findings, published in the March journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, give more options to nursing moms who previously were advised by experts to use over-the-counter painkillers, according to Reuters.

But if moms opt for the more powerful painkiller, they should stick to the prescribed dose, "not take the drugs more than two to three days and see the doctor immediately if their baby is unusually sleepy or not sucking properly," Dr. Shinya Ito of the University of Toronto, who was not involved in the new study, tells Reuters.

Some experts, however, say the findings could be misleading and nursing moms should not reach for the powerful painkillers.

Dr. Gideon Koren, who heads The Hospital for Sick Children's Motherisk Program in Toronto, tells Reuters the trace number could be misleading because a newborn keeps the drugs in his body longer than older babies and children do.

"These numbers cannot replace looking at the baby, and these numbers are not reassuring," he tells the news service.

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Does This Formula Make Me Look Fat? Breast-Feeding and Childhood Obesity

Polly Palumbo — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Breast-Feeding, Opinions

Breast-feeding is Weight Watchers for the stroller set. That's if you swallow the hype that breast-feeding "protects" babies in the battle of the bulge.

True, studies have found lower rates of obesity among children who were breast-fed. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin plugged the reduced obesity risk in her Call to Action enlisting the public's help in getting more babies on the boob. Michelle Obama has also pushed the breast in her campaign against childhood obesity.

No doubt, too many kids are chubby. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates obesity has tripled over the last 30 years with over 33 percent of children overweight or at risk of being overweight. A study out last month classified 32 percent of 9-month-olds obese or at risk.

Yes, there's a problem all right, but more breast milk is not the answer.

However well-intentioned the claims about breast-feeding, the actual evidence remains ... slim.

Typically studies ask a question or two about breast-feeding, sometimes decades afterwards, then look at a mix of weight, body mass, and fat from infancy through early childhood to adolescence or young adulthood. Sometimes results show a benefit for breast-feeding, sometimes not. The lower obesity risk tends to be small and often limited to groups like preschoolers or non-Hispanic white kids.

White kids. Those skinny white girls? Gotta be the breast milk.

You can see how it gets hard to argue a physiological or biological explanation for benefits that accrue to only one privileged ethnic group. Nor is it plausible that only breast-fed white babies learn how to accurately assess their hunger cues thereby preventing a lifetime of overeating.

So breast-feeding benefits have nothing to do with breast milk and everything to do with parents, namely the differences between mothers who breast-feed and those who don't. The former tend to have more education, higher incomes and let's be honest, gym memberships and pantries full of whole grains.

Ah, food. The missing ingredient.

Researchers who study obesity and breast-feeding have no idea what kids eat in a normal day, let alone week or decade. Almost none bothered asking about food, unless it's infant oatmeal, like the recent study showing the introduction of cereal before 4 months raises the obesity risk only for formula-fed babies. It's as if humans miraculously stop eating after infancy. Sure, it's hard to accurately measure. People are notoriously bad at estimating their food intake and even if they weren't, who's going to admit a serious relationship with McDonald's?

Still, it's ridiculous to make causal conclusions about what babies eat now and what they will weigh years later without seriously considering their childhood diets.

Somehow none of this has stopped the media, the pediatric community or public health officials from touting breast-feeding as essentially a diet aid. It's only a matter of time before it becomes a full-blown adult weight-loss system. Remember, you read it here first:

The Breast Milk Diet

Week One: Consume only human breast milk*
Week Two: Add oatmeal.
Week Three: Collapse into fetal position.

For best results, drink from a straw or, better yet, a nipple.

*Although the FDA doesn't yet regulate Donor Human Milk it strongly cautions against drinking any "acquired directly from individuals or through the Internet."

Cheers. Drink responsibly.

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Enough With the Breast-feeding Wars!

Lenore Skenazy — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Breast-Feeding, Opinions

And we think men are obsessed with breasts? Geez, can we possibly call a time-out on the mom vs. mom breast-feeding wars?

The latest skirmish erupted recently when Michelle Obama said she wants to promote breast-feeding, particularly among African Americans, even as the IRS announced it will now give a tax break on breast pumps.

To which Michelle Bachmann said that this just shows the left thinks "government is the answer to everything," while Sarah Palin said that of course Mrs. O says you "better" breast-feed your baby -- "because the price of milk is so high."

Yap, yap, yap. You know what is truly optimal, when it comes to feeding your baby?

Whatever works best for you.

It's a measure of how crazed we have become on this topic that just saying, "It's not such a big deal!" is a big deal. Our culture is hung up on mama's milk, and the undercurrent is: Why should anyone consider what is best for the mom when the baby's whole future is at stake?

I'll tell you why. Because a baby's whole future is not at stake. That's the conclusion I came to after reading the new book, "Is Breast Best?" by Joan B. Wolf.

As Wolf points out, we are treating "Breast vs. Formula" as though it were "Safety vs. Danger" -- even though we know that millions of American babies have been brought up on formula and are doing just fine.

Are they doing as outstandingly fine as they could be if only they'd been breast-fed from day one through day 365? Pretty much, yes.

Wolf knows that this is heresy, but after poring over countless studies, she realized that, aside from a measurably lower risk of GI infections, the differences between breast- and formula-fed babies could not definitively be traced back to what those kids were drinking. It's quite possible that the breast-fed babies enjoyed some advantages simply by being parented by health-conscious moms.

Moreover, the advantages were not so overwhelming that they trumped a mother's desire to not breast-feed. If we are set on giving our kids every single advantage, "no matter how high the cost to the mother or how marginal the risk to the baby," Wolf points out, then why don't we tell the families of newborns to move out of the city? After all, clean air is better for the baby, too.

Her point is that we face decisions on an almost daily basis about what is best for our kids. Some things that sound good we do, some we don't, and that's okay. Life is never perfect. We cannot prevent (or even predict) all risks down the road.

Our culture makes it sound as if accepting even a tiny risk is evil, but it's not. It's life. Let's quit beating our breasts -- and everyone else's -- about it.

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Michelle vs. the Michelles: A Breast-Feeding Throwdown

Rachel Campos-Duffy — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Breast-Feeding

To celebrate the anniversary of her "Let's Move!" anti-obesity campaign, Michelle Obama is talking up the health benefits of breast-feeding and new government incentives that she hopes will encourage more moms to nurse and hopefully, curb childhood obesity.

But two other Michelles, Michelle Bachman and Michelle Malkin, breast-feeding moms themselves, are challenging her "nanny state" approach to the issue.

Look, I'm the first to agree that Obama's obesity campaign is an ineffective use of taxpayer dollars. Do we really need another government program to tell us that Oreos, Hot Pockets, Dr Pepper and Big Macs will make kids fat -- especially if they're also sitting in front of the television or computer instead of playing outside?

We like our first ladies to champion a good cause, and breast-feeding awareness is a very worthy one, but too often, Obama's "good deeds" entail government task forces, federal agencies and more mandates and spending.

Malkin calls the studies Obama cites linking obesity to baby formula "junk science." Meanwhile, Bachman criticizes the first lady for offering a tax break on breast pumps. I'm a fan of the feisty and fearless conservative Michelles, but couldn't they at least give props to Obama for championing privacy for nursing moms in the workplace and encouraging a "family friendly" practice that has so many proven benefits for babies? After all, Obama isn't mandating nursing or pumping rooms at the office. She issued a press release from the Surgeon General encouraging employers to consider the benefits to moms, babies and workplace morale and retention. Can't women on both sides of the aisle put aside the politics for a second and at least call a truce on that?

During a recent visit to the U.S. Capitol, I was relieved when I discovered a small designated room where I could nurse my baby and I praised Rep, Nancy Pelosi for making the room possible for moms who would otherwise be hauling in breast pumps and extension cords and sitting on a toilet in a bathroom stall. It's fair to say that Pelosi was in a position to accommodate moms on the Hill, but plenty of employers are also doing it, and I'm certain many more would voluntarily follow with a little awareness.

Ignorance, not cold heartedness, is the obstacle here, and the vast majority of business owners are not the big, mean capitalists so many liberals paint them out to be.

I'll never forget when, as a first-time mom, I tried to nurse my fussy baby in a restaurant booth. Frustrated, I went to a chairless bathroom where I tried in vain to calm her down and nurse her while standing up. Thankfully, a kind, more experienced mom who had been watching followed me into the bathroom with a chair, washed her hands and offered to hold the baby while I got comfortable. She then handed me a calmer baby who was ready to eat. As I nursed, the woman told me what a wonderful mom I was for trying and gently encouraged me not to give up on nursing -- something I might have done on that day, left to my own frustration and humiliation. When I left the restaurant, I smiled as I drove past a billboard with a picture of a mom rocking her child and the simple message, "Support a nursing mom."

Now isn't that a bipartisan, pro-family message we can all agree on?

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Why Breast Milk Sharing Is Booming Online

Blair Henley — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:40:00 EST

Filed under: Babies, In The News, Breast-Feeding

Despite a widespread push to breast-feed, the FDA warns against sharing unregulated breast milk. Credit: Getty

Eats on Feets is a Facebook group created in July 2010 by an Arizona midwife as a place where women in need of breast milk for their babies can find breast milk to share. Since then it's gone global with 110 chapters in all 50 states and more than 20 countries. Not surprisingly, the Food and Drug Administration is not a fan.

Specifically, they warn against sharing unregulated breast milk, citing the obvious dangers of infectious diseases, illegal drugs and prescription drugs being passed on to the baby. It's unlikely that the donor has been screened for such. In addition, there are potential storage and handling issues.

Given that millions of healthy babies drink formula (a complete, proven source of infant nutrition), it's safe to say that any potential ill effects from the breast milk substitute are negligible. That said, it's hard to imagine today's safety-obsessed moms feeding their children another woman's milk without comprehensive knowledge of where it came from. Hard to imagine, that is, until you consider how women who can't breast-feed must feel when they log on to an all-knowing parenting website or engage in playground conversation with those who consider breast-feeding an indisputable mommy must.

Then there's the concerted effort by several organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the World Health Organization to push the "breast is best" concept. In fact, WHO actually recommends "raw" donor milk if a woman can't produce enough of her own. And with the advent of Eats on Feets, the Internet has been abuzz with parents (aptly nicknamed "lactivists") just dying for a chance to share their opinion on the subject.

"If you make a choice to formula feed out of convenience, then you do not deserve to have kids!" said one poster.

"Every baby deserves human milk," said another.

Needless to say, new moms are feeling squeezed.

"If we formula feed, we feel we are giving our amazing children 'second best' or handicapping them for life," said one mother who admitted to sobbing in the shower from shame and guilt when she gave up breast-feeding.

Has the breast milk brigade of pushy peers, organization endorsements and calculated campaigns gone too far when a mother feels like unscreened milk is her only option to raise a healthy baby?

It's not hard to see how a mother could feel compelled to go to unsafe lengths to be sure her child is receiving the magical milk responsible for illness-free childhoods and supposedly above-average intellects. Considering milk from one of the 10 human milk banks in the U.S. can cost anywhere from $24-$40 for an 8-ounce bottle, it's no surprise that desperate women have gone elsewhere.

As natural as nursing may seem, many women don't produce enough milk, produce none at all or have extreme difficulty with the latching process. Add that to the possibility of a clogged milk duct or infection and, well, breast-feeding doesn't sound quite as beautiful as the La Leche League literature implies. On the other hand, some new mothers' cups runneth over. Eats on Feets donors claim they want to share their excess with those who need it most -- and often free of charge.

After all, in addition to being cheap and convenient, breast milk composition changes as babies grow to provide exactly what's needed for each stage of development. And it's not as if breast milk sharing is a new concept; the practices of wet nursing and cross-nursing (i.e. nursing a friend's baby) have been around for ages, though at least in those cases the mother knew the milk source personally.

To be sure, the women providing milk for use by families in need are probably not the same bunch shooting heroin while their kids play in the other room, and home-pasteurization by flash heating has proven successful in killing disease-causing agents. As another Internet poster put it, "Isn't it a little weird that culturally we don't think twice about milk from an unknown cow, but get grossed out at the thought of actual human milk." Hmmm ...

If nothing else, the popularity of breast milk sharing on the Internet likely spurred the recent meeting of the FDA's pediatric advisory committee to discuss donor and banked human milk. They concluded that "the industry is doing a good job with screening, storing and distributing," but further research is needed on the risks and benefits of milk banking, according to an FDA spokesperson.

Breast milk is, without a doubt, a natural miracle, but with formula substitutes proven to nourish growing babies, women should renounce the guilt associated with using it -- and self-appointed mommy experts should stick to raising their own little angels. In the meantime, perhaps lactivists should devise a plan to accommodate the glaring need for more cost effective, regulated human milk banks. It would be a much more productive use of their time.

Blair Henley is a freelance writer based in Florida and a regular contributor to WorldTennisMagazine.com. Her non-tennis related work has been published in the Sacramento Bee, the Springfield News-Leader and on AOL News.

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Surgeon General Says Americans Should Be More Supportive of Breast-Feeding

Mary Beth Sammons — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 13:15:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Breast-Feeding

Tonya Lewis Lee, wife of Spike Lee, is an advocate for breast-feeding. Credit: Bryan Bedder, Getty Images

Add breast-feeding to fighting fat, quitting smoking and other advice from America's top doc.

And it's not just for new moms. The surgeon general is calling on employers, medical experts, spouses and friends to rally their support for mothers who breast-feed.

Flanked by breast-feeding advocates -- including Spike Lee's wife, Tonya Lewis Lee -- Regina Benjamin, MD., recently detailed her campaign, "Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding," which includes greater cultural support of nursing moms at work, home and in the community, Medpagetoday.com reports.

"One of the most highly effective preventive measures a mother can take to protect her child and her own health is to breast-feed," Benjamin, surgeon general for the Department of Health and Human Services, said during a briefing.

The official call to action is intended to jump-start efforts across the country to promote breast-feeding as the healthiest option for feeding babies, both physically and emotionally, Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, says in a report that coincided with Benjamin's briefing.

"For much of the last century, America's mothers were given poor advice and were discouraged from breast-feeding, to the point that breast-feeding became an unusual choice in this country," Sebelius states in the report. "But as parents and health professionals have realized the importance of nursing, more and more mothers are doing so."

Today, three-quarters of all newborns are breast-fed, she adds. But what's concerning federal health officials is that a number of informal exchanges have popped up on the Internet where moms who can't breast-feed can buy breast milk at a substantially lower cost than the $3.50 per ounce reported at some milk banks, NPR reports.

While they support formal breast milk bank sharing programs, the Food and Drug Administration and the American Academy of Pediatrics take a dimmer view of this informal breast milk-sharing phenomenon, which, they say, puts babies at risk of HIV, hepatitis B and other infectious diseases, according to NPR.

"We cannot recommend the sharing of breast milk over the Internet," Lori Feldman-Winter, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and a spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics, tells NPR.

Instead, Feldman-Winter says, mothers in need should turn to one of the country's 11 breast milk banks sanctioned by the Human Milk Banking Association.

These banks take donations from nursing mothers who have been tested to make sure they don't have infectious diseases, and the donated milk is pasteurized to further ensure its safety. Premature babies get first dibs on the milk because human milk gives them a host of benefits -- including protection against necrotizing enterocolitis, a serious intestinal disorder. Parents of full-term babies also can buy breast milk from a bank, but it's expensive, NPR reports.

Benjamin describes specific steps people can take to participate in a society-wide approach to support mothers and babies who are breast-feeding, including making the workplace more breast-feeding friendly, the report states.

"I recall my own cherished memories of breast-feeding, and I am grateful for the help and support I received, especially when I went back to work as a young mother," Sebelius adds in the report. "I am also aware that many other mothers are not able to benefit from the support I had."

The report also cites specific health risks to newborns associated with formula-feeding, including common childhood ailments such as diarrhea and ear infections. The risk of acute ear infection, also called acute otitis media, is 100 percent higher among exclusively formula-fed infants than those who are exclusively breast-fed during the first six months of life.

Additionally, parents can save $1,200 to $1,500 in expenditures for infant formula in the first year alone, according to the report, and better infant health means fewer health insurance claims, less employee time off to care for sick children and higher productivity, all of which concern employers.

Other findings in the report include that while 75 percent of women start out breast-feeding, just 43 percent are still breast-feeding at all by six months, and far fewer -- 13 percent -- are exclusively nursing at that point, according to the latest national data, Medpagetoday says.

Several strategies are in place to promote breast-feeding in the workplace, including policy-making, the online newspaper reports.

Specifically, Benjamin is calling on employers to offer women a "clean and private place other than a bathroom" to nurse or pump breast milk. They should also offer paid maternity leave and lactation support programs, Medpagetoday reports.

Benjamin also says physicians need to make sure they're well-equipped to care for breast-feeding mothers, and promote breast-feeding to their patients, while health care systems should incorporate breast-feeding into their maternity education.

The surgeon general is pushing to change society's image of breast-feeding, which can make some women hesitant or embarrassed.

"The popular culture's sexualization of the breast makes some women want to hide the fact that they're breast-feeding," Benjamin said at the briefing.

In order to achieve this kind of societal change, Lewis Lee, who breast-fed both of her children, says more people "just need to see it ... Those of us in the mainstream need to come out more and let people know we do it," Medpagetoday reports. "My husband used to say, 'Oh, I want to taste some. It was a little weird, but I appreciated the sentiment. Men need to begin to understand what breast-feeding is really all about."

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What to Do When Breast-Feeding Issues Arise

Melissa Kossler Dutton — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 11:18:00 EST

Filed under: Newborns, Babies, Feeding & Sleeping, Breast-Feeding

In the beginning, breast-feeding isn't easy for every mom. Credit: Getty Images

Although it's not uncommon for women to initially have difficulty breast-feeding their babies, many new mothers are surprised by the issues that can occur.

"Breast-feeding is natural," says Cathy Carothers, co-director of Every Mother, Inc., a national nonprofit organization that provides lactation training for health care professionals. "But sometimes it takes both Mom and baby a little time to get comfortable learning how to do it."

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends moms breast-feed for the first year of a baby's life.

Carothers says mothers should hold their babies skin-to-skin immediately after birth. Placing the baby near the breast allows the child to "hear Mom's heartbeat, feel her skin, smell her special scent and find their way to her breast all by themselves," she says. "Babies who latch by themselves often latch well, and milk production begins quickly."

If a baby has difficulty latching, seek help from a lactation consultant, adds Liz Brooks, secretary of the International Lactation Consultant Association. Lactation consultants can work with you at the hospital -- and after you've gone home -- to ensure your baby is nursing properly, she says.

Brooks and Carothers offer the following tips to help mothers address these breast-feeding concerns:

Pain when the baby latches on: It's not uncommon for a woman to experience nipple pain for five to 10 seconds when a baby latches on. Any pain that lasts longer than that is a sign of trouble and should be brought to the attention of your pediatrician, lactation consultant or obstetrician.
Concerns that baby isn't getting enough milk: Moms can count the number of wet and dirty diapers to be sure baby is getting enough. Newborns should have two to three dirty diapers a day. A good rule to remember is that babies should wet as many diapers as they are days old in the first few days. By the time the baby is a few days old, mom's breasts should feel full at the beginning of the feeding and softer when she is through feeding.
Itchy, pink, red, shiny or burning nipples or shooting breast pain after feedings: These are symptoms of thrush, a common and harmless yeast infection in a baby's mouth that can spread to your nipples during breastfeeding. Consult your doctor for treatment, which is usually anti-fungal medication.
Breast pain or redness, chills, fever or body aches: These are symptoms of mastitis, a breast inflammation usually caused by infection. It's most common during the first six months of nursing. It can develop if the breasts are not being emptied regularly or from a plugged duct. Women often feel tired. The condition is usually treated with rest, lots of breast-feeding and an antibiotic prescribed by a physician.

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Feeding Babies With Formula Could Put Kids at Risk for Obesity

Mary Beth Sammons — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 13:05:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Breast-Feeding, Research Reveals: Babies

A new study shows baby formula can lead to childhood obesity. Credit: Getty

If you're planning on feeding your baby infant formula rather than breast milk, first, get ready for an ugly debate with other new moms and random people who will be teeming with insults and accusations that you're "selfish and lazy."

A survey reported by ABC earlier this year showed the two camps are at serious odds when it comes to feeding your child.

But, brace yourself. The battle could get worse. A new study warns that formula puts kids on a path of obesity. The question now, the Los Angeles Times reports, is will this formula make my baby look fat?

The study, published online in the journal Pediatrics finds babies fed a particular kind of infant formula -- cow's milk -- gain more weight than other babies and continue to gain weight faster than their counterparts during the first seven-and-a-half months of life, Pediatrics says.
Researchers from the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia explored whether babies would respond differently to formulas based on cow's milk (where proteins are intact) and those made with proteins that are pre-digested, which are easier for some babies to tolerate, the Times reports.

These formulas, known as protein hydrolysate formulas (or PHFs), have about 35 percent more protein than cow's milk formulas. They also have more free amino acids, the study says.

The study followed 56 moms who planned to feed their babies formula. The difference in the groups became apparent after two months, the newspaper reports. By then, the babies receiving cow's milk formula had significantly higher weight-per-length than the babies on PHF formula. By 3-and-a-half months, the cow's milk formula babies also had significantly higher weight-per-age than the PHF babies, whose weight (per length and per age) matched those of breast-fed babies, according to the Times.

What's more, even after the babies started eating solid food, the ones who were fed cow's milk continued to gain weight, according to the newspaper.

This has wider-spread implications, the Times reports, because the most popular formula on the market is cow's milk. Researchers say they will continue to explore the implications of the study.

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