Breastfeeding
& Bottlefeeding quotes
Child Health
Breastfeeding
(Natural immunisation)
& Bottlefeeding
"There is literature that baby milks lack
the oils essential and that there is possibly an association with
poor brain development but nothing is done about it....Ettissh
describes how baby milks are used to greatly reduce our intellect; they do not
support proper brain development due to a lack of nutrients called essential
fatty acids, EFA'S. These EFA'S are
deliberately excluded, even today Scientists are suppressed, even killed:
'we don't add them do we- that's deliberate - we don't let the
scientists find out - we suppress it - we are the baby milks - we are in all of
the baby milks e. g. Nestle, cow and gate, any baby milk company, we're them.
We've killed a baby milk scientist - you'd know him, he's quite well
known- heart attack, encircling stuff — he was convinced we were wrong and tried
to tell other people.' "
The Body Snatchers by Susan Reed BSC Most women who are breastfeeding do not menstruate and for thousands of years
many have known that there is a connection between the resumption of
menstruation and fertility. Certain groups actually shortened the period of
breastfeeding so as to increase their birth rate. There has not been a great
deal of communication between ordinary women (who may be reticent about
discussing their bodies' functions) and researchers who until recently had
mostly been men. Consequently this 'old wives' tale' was disregarded for many
years.The Politics of
Breastfeeding by Gabrielle Palmer
It is also extremely doubtful, given the documented deficiencies of
tryptophan in infant formula milk, that such a commercial preparation meets the
magnitude of requirements of the other essential amino acids for infants that
have been established by WHO. Table 2 lists the infant requirements for the
essential amino acids compared to adult requirements (Merck Manual 1987). The
damaging effects of such nutritional deficiencies in infant formula milk upon
the developing brain, specifically brain neurotransmitters, have yet to be
evaluated. The recent authorization by the FDA to provide the nutritional
additives of two fatty acids, DHA (Docosahexaenoic Acid) and AA (Arachidonic
Acid)-essential nutrients for brain development-to infant formula milk attests
to the additional recognition that infant formula milk is malnutrition for
normal brain development (Cunnane, et.at, 2000; Brody, 2001).
[2002] The Origins of
Love & Violence: An Overview by James W. Prescott,
Ph.D.
Mental health [See:
Bonding (attachment)]
Breastfeeding On Demand by newborn/infant/child and for “two years or
beyond”, as recommended by the World Health
Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. Failure to breastfeed results in positive harm to
normal brain development and to the Immunological
health of the newborn, infant and child. Encoding the developing brain with the
smell of mother’s body through breastfeeding is
essential for the later development of intimate sexuality.TEN
PRINCIPLES OF MOTHER-INFANT BONDING by James W. Prescott, Ph.D.
Bonding or Violence: An Introduction by
Michael Mendizza
discovered in the 1960's and 1970's; that lack of affectionate, intimate
contact between mothers and infants during the most sensitive periods of brain
growth may result in permanent brain abnormalities associated with juvenal and
adult patterns of depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, aggression and
violence.....Mothers are not valued, nurtured or
supported by the culture. Drugs and technological birth practices routinely
separate mothers and babies during the most sensitive bonding period. Single
parent families, an euphemism for single moms, without the support, mentoring,
and nurturing of extended families and communities, routinely place the majority
of infants and young children in institutional childcare for extended periods of
time, shortly after birth. Lack of initial bonding, institutional childcare, and
social pressures, such as work schedules and welfare reform prevent most mothers
from bonding with and breast-feeding their babies.
No mammal on this planet, except the human mammal, separates the newborn from
its mother at birth and during the crucial and formative postnatal period of
brain-behavioral development. No mammal on this planet, except the human mammal,
refuses to breastfeed its newborn and during the crucial and formative periods
of breastfeeding for brain-behavioral development that varies with mammalian
species. The violation of these two mammalian universals by the human
primate-homo sapiens-has brought devastating consequences upon itself in terms
of damaged biological and emotional-social health that threatens the very
existence of the species.
[2002] The Origins of
Love & Violence: An Overview by James W. Prescott,
Ph.D.
It is worth noting that the bonobo chimpanzee, which is the most peaceful
primate on the planet, breastfeed their young to about four years of age; the
mother carries her offspring on her body through early adolescence (particularly
male offspring); and where multiple male/female sexual relationships are
commonplace which are characterized by the lack of aggression or violence
(Diamond, 1992; De Waal and Lanting, 1997, Prescott, 2001).
[2002] The Origins of
Love & Violence: An Overview by James W. Prescott,
Ph.D.
Newman (1995) has summarized the essential role of breastfeeding for healthy
human development where WHO/UNICEF (1990) have recommended breastfeeding for
"two years of age or beyond" that, inexplicably, is not supported by the
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP, 1997). Laudenslager, et al. (1982) have
documented impaired immune system development from mother-infant separations
(includes lack of breastfeeding). We shall see that breastfeeding of the human
primate for 2.5 years or greater is essential to optimize the health benefits
(biological and psychosocial) of breastfeeding for child and mother.
[2002] The
Origins of Love & Violence: An Overview by James W.
Prescott, Ph.D.
Liedloff (1975) has documented the importance of baby carrying and
affectional bonding between mother and infant/child in her single culture study.
Joseph Chilton Pearce reinforced the significance of bonding in Magical Child
(1977): "Bonding is the issue, regardless of age.
Bonding is a psychological-biological state, a vital physical link that
coordinates and unifies the entire biological system. Bonding seals a primary
knowing that is the basis for rational thought."
[2002] The Origins of
Love & Violence: An Overview by James W. Prescott,
Ph.D.
Cook (1996) has provided a review of how infants and nations are placed at
risk with early child institutional care that ensures lack of bonding. For over
a century we have been given wrongful and disastrous advice by "authorities" in
pediatrics and psychology that continues to this day. Ferber (1985), a
pediatrician, states: "If your child is like
this, you may be comforted to know that headbanging, body rocking, and head
rolling are very common in early childhood and, at least at this age, are
usually normal. If your child exhibits any of these behaviors there is little
need for concern about emotional difficulties or neurological illness" p.193;
and "In the infant and young toddler, rhythmic patterns are of little
significance and you will not need to intervene" (p.197).
[2002] The
Origins of Love & Violence: An Overview by James W.
Prescott, Ph.D.
In a series of subsequent cross-cultural tribal studies, Dr. Prescott found
that 77% of 26 tribal cultures whose weaning age was 2.5 years or longer were
rated low or absent in suicidal violence. Further, he found significant
differences in suicidal behaviors between cultures with weaning age of 2.0 years
or less v 2.5 years or greater. This finding suggests that a critical period of
brain development exists at this age to mediate this effect. These and other
data suggest that breastfeeding for 2.5 years or longer is required to optimize
the health benefits of breastfeeding for child and mother (Zheng, 2000). These
breastfeeding effects are undoubtedly mediated, in large part, by the rich
presence of the amino acid tryptophan in breastmilk that is deficient in infant
formula milk and which is necessary for normal brain serotonin development
[2002] The
Origins of Love & Violence: An Overview by James W.
Prescott, Ph.D.
This issue of duration of breastfeeding for optimal biological and
mental-social health is particularly urgent when it is recognized that only
6.8% of American mothers are breastfeeding at 12 months; 2.7% are
breastfeeding at 24months; and only 1% at 30 months or more (Hediger,
2001; Prescott, 2001). These statistics on breastfeeding become even more
alarming in the light of child and youth suicidal deaths which have doubled in
the 5-14 year age group over this past generation and has been the third leading
cause of death in the 15-24 year age group over this past generation. Further,
for the 5-14 year age group the ratio of suicide rates to homicide rates have
consistently increased over this past generation, as follows: 1979--36 %;
1994--60%; 1998--73%. It is also a sobering statistic to note that
more children and youth (5-24 year age group) have died from suicidal death in
the past ten years (est 55,000) than combat lives lost during the ten year
Vietnam War (47, 355). Yet, no memorial has been established for these children
of suicidal death.
[2002] The Origins of Love & Violence: An Overview
by James W. Prescott, Ph.D.
It should be noted that the American Academy of Pediatrics in its 1997
revision of its breastfeeding recommendations did not acknowledge the research
studies that confirmed tryptophan deficits in infant formula milk which
compromises normal brain development and places infants/children at high risk
for the development of depression, impulse dyscontrol, drug abuse and suicidal/
homicidal violence. Further and inexplicably, the AAP did not affirm the
recommendations of WHO and UNICEF that breastfeeding should be for "two years of
age or beyond" (AAP, 1997; WHO/UNICEF, 1990). What does WHO and UNICEF know that
the AAP does not know?
[2002] The Origins of Love & Violence: An Overview
by James W. Prescott, Ph.D.
These data demand studies to evaluate the harmful effects of infant formula
milk upon brain development and behavior compared to breastfeeding for "two
years of age or beyond" and to evaluate the history of duration of breastfeeding
in child and youth suicides and those with a history of depression and
psychiatric medication. The NIH, inexplicably, refuses to conduct these studies.
[2002] The
Origins of Love & Violence: An Overview by James W.
Prescott, Ph.D.
The report of the NICHD (National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development) Study of Early Child Care (SECC) found that infants and very young
children who spend more than 30 hours a week in child care "are far more
demanding, more noncompliant, and they are more aggressive" and "They scored
higher on things like gets in lots of fights, cruelty, bullying, meanness as
well as talking too much, demands must be met immediately", according to
Dr.Belsky, one of the principle investigators" (Stolberg, New York Times, April
19, 2001) (emphasis mine)
Dr. Sarah Friedman, NICHD
Scientific Project Officer was reported as saying ""We cannot and should not
hide the findings but I don't want to create a mass hysteria when I don't know
what explains these results" (Stolberg, 2001). Unfortunately, no measures of
biological stress disorders were incorporated into this study nor was there any
awareness of the early NICHD studies in the 1960s and 1970s, which documented
these behaviors in the maternally deprived young.
[2002] The Origins of
Love & Violence: An Overview by James W. Prescott,
Ph.D.
It has yet to be recognized that cruelty, bullying and meanness that
terrorizes so many of our children and youth in our elementary schools and high
schools have their roots in the emotional trauma of mother-infant/child
separations associated with institutionalized day care and from other
separations These collective emotional-social traumas are sufficiently great to
establish an unstable brain that combined with other stress experiences compels
many students to despair and the violent acts of homicide and suicide. It is
estimated that some 20% of our nation's students have contemplated suicide at
one time or another (Moran, 2000; Silverman, et al 200l; Prescott, 2001). What
is wrong with America and American families that drive so many of our youth to
depression, despair and suicide?
[2002] The Origins of
Love & Violence: An Overview by James W. Prescott,
Ph.D.
Health benefits
of breast and dangers of bottle milk
"If you want to prevent SIDS, the one thing you must do is breastfeed with
absolutely no bottles of formula "to top up" -as mothers say.
Ridiculous!" Never never never give formula."--Hilary
Butler
Modern formulas are only superficially similar to breastmilk. Every
correction of a deficiency in formulas is advertised as an advance.
Fundamentally, formulas are inexact copies based on outdated and incomplete
knowledge of what breastmilk is. Formulas contain no antibodies, no living
cells, no enzymes, no hormones. They contain much more aluminum, manganese,
cadmium, lead and iron than breastmilk. They contain significantly more protein
than breastmilk. The proteins and fats are fundamentally different from those in
breastmilk. Formulas do not vary from the beginning of the feed to the end of
the feed, or from day 1 to day 7 to day 30, or from woman to woman, or from baby
to baby. Your breastmilk is made as required to suit your baby. Formulas are
made to suit every baby, and thus no baby. Formulas succeed only at making
babies grow well, usually, but there is more to breastfeeding than nutrients.---Jack
Newman, MD, FRCPC.
"There is literature that baby milks lack
the oils essential and that there is possibly an association with
poor brain development but nothing is done about it....Ettissh
describes how baby milks are used to greatly reduce our intellect; they do not
support proper brain development due to a lack of nutrients called essential
fatty acids, EFA'S. These EFA'S are
deliberately excluded, even today Scientists are suppressed, even killed:
'we don't add them do we- that's deliberate - we don't let the
scientists find out - we suppress it - we are the baby milks - we are in all of
the baby milks e. g. Nestle, cow and gate, any baby milk company, we're them.
We've killed a baby milk scientist - you'd know him, he's quite well
known- heart attack, encircling stuff — he was convinced we were wrong and tried
to tell other people.' "
The Body Snatchers by Susan Reed BSC
[2006/7] "Four out of five Norwegian infants are
still breastfed at the age of six months. Just one per cent of the infants were
never breastfed. This is shown by the first national survey on infantry
nutrition in Norway."
"I have never
seen a SIDS death in a healthy breastfed baby, unvaccinated, who
has slept on anything from here to Timbuctoo. Over the 19 years
in IAS, we have never seen one."--Hilary
Butler
The immunologist (Catharina
Svanborg) had logged hundreds of lab hours
documenting ways in which human milk helps babies
fight infections........... They applied
breast milk to the cancerous lung cells, and all
the cells died. [pdf]
Milk Therapy
Baby-milk manufacturers spend countless millions devising marketing strategies
that keep their products at the forefront of public consciousness. In the UK,
formula companies spend at least £12 million per year on booklets, leaflets and
other promotions, often in the guise of ‘educational materials’. This works out
at approximately £20 per baby born. In contrast, the UK government spends about
14 pence per newborn each year to promote breastfeeding............The
UK babymilk market is worth £150 million per year and the US market around $2
billion. The worldwide market for baby milks and foods is a staggering $17
billion and growing by 12 per cent each year. From formula manufacturers’ point
of view, the more women breastfeed, the more profit is lost. It is estimated
that, for every child exclusively breastfed for six months, an average of $450
worth of infant food will not be bought. On a global scale, that amounts to
billions of dollars in lost profits.
[2006] Suck On This by Pat Thomas
Read shocking analysis of how formula doubles
infant deaths in U.S. -- Dr. Linda Palmer's report on the new NaturalFamilyOnline
website. Notice there are a short and a full-detailed version. An NFO Special
Report THE DEADLY INFLUENCE OF FORMULA IN AMERICA This groundbreaking analysis
from noted author, health educator and advocate Dr. Linda Folden Palmer may
be a rude awakening for the millions of Americans who have bought into the myth
that infant formula is a perfectly safe breast milk substitute. Read the shocking
results here. Dr. Palmer's key finding: Using formula DOUBLES THE DEATH RATE
for American infants. For both condensed and full, referenced versions of Dr.
Palmer's report, see http://www.naturalfamilyonline.com/BF/200312-formula-report.htm
SHORT VERSION http://www.naturalfamilyonline.com/BF/200312-formula-report2.htm
FULL-DETAILED VERSOIN
Compared to breastfed babies, bottlefed babies are twice as likely to die
from any cause in the first six weeks of life. In particular, bottlefeeding
raises the risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) by two to five times.
Bottlefed babies are also at a significantly higher risk of ending up in
hospital with a range of infections. They are, for instance, five times more
likely to be admitted to hospital suffering from gastroenteritis.
Even in developed countries,
bottlefed babies have rates of diarrhoea twice as high as breastfed ones. They
are twice as likely (20 per cent vs 10 per cent) to suffer from otitis media
(inner-ear infection), twice as likely to develop eczema or a wheeze if there is
a family history of atopic disease, and five times more likely to develop
urinary tract infections.
In the first six months of life,
bottlefed babies are six to 10 times more likely to develop necrotising
enterocolitis – a serious infection of the intestine, with intestinal tissue
death – a figure that increases to 30 times the risk after that time.
Even more serious diseases are also
linked with bottlefeeding. Compared with infants who
are fully breastfed even for only three to four months, a baby drinking
artificial milk is twice as likely to develop juvenile-onset insulin-dependent
(type 1) diabetes. There is also a fi ve- to eightfold risk of developing
lymphomas in children under 15 who were formulafed, or breastfed for less than
six months.
In later life, studies have shown
that bottlefed babies have a greater tendency towards developing conditions such
as childhood inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, dental
malocclusion, coronary heart disease, diabetes, hyperactivity, autoimmune
thyroid disease and coeliac disease. Suck On This
by Pat Thomas
20 years ago, the research was quite conclusive about
breast-fed babies. They didn't usually die of SIDS. There are records of some
"breastfed" babies dying, but if you look at them, those babies also received
supplementary formula bottles. Anyone who has read my paper will know that one
formula bottle will create an alkaline environment, and also raises the babies
basal temperature by over 1 degree for nearly two weeks. One bottle of formula
wreaks such intestinal havoc that it puts these babies bacterial flora into a
completely different catagory to totally breastfed babies.
A breastfed baby has an acid ph in the gut, and its
basal temperature is lower and the bacterial flora is totally different
Bottlefed baby have alkaline guts, 1,000 ties more E.Coli and different
bacterial balance, no breast milk immune system and a higher body temperature.
Bottle fed babies also sleep much longer, and are typically "zonked" after a
bottle. Put this together with sleeping on the stomach. Stomach sleeping
babies get much hotter than back-sleeping babies because there is less skin area
exposed for heat exchange.
The one thing in babies, which can and does respond
dramatically to heat, is E.Coli. The outer coating is toxic, but normally
trapped by the liver and dealt with. Humans are exquisitely sensitive to this
endotoxin, and the group of babies that have the highest numbers (one thousand
times more actually) are bottle-fed babies. E.Coli replicates in heat and
alkaline conditions. It is a heat-loving putrefactive bacteria which thrives on
formula and in heat - the hotter, the better......breast-milk not only keeps
e.coli at bay, and has compounds which fight it, breast milk switches on and
educates the immune system of the gut, which is the key barrier between the
environment and the body. A bottle-fed baby is not only way behind the 8-ball,
it is hotter, has one thousand times the number of E.Coli than breast-fed
babies, and is 'deprived of the maternally supplied defences against E.Coli.
And even so, most of these babies do not die of cot death.
Hilary
Butler
"A ‘cold’, a viral infection, or anything that disturbs immune
responses can result in subtle changes in the gram negative bacterial flora of the the
gut, stimulating them to produce endotoxin. This is absorbed into the blood stream, not
adequately detoxified, and results in inflammatory responses in the mucous membrane
linings of the middle ear............ that endotoxin is the initial cause of the
inflammatory response in acute otitis media............ Dr Robert Reisinger in America had first alerted me to this group of
substances and their relationship to SIDS......The reason why proper
breast-feeding provides a known and large amount of protection against otitis media
becomes obvious. Breast-feeding tends to prevent the overgrowth of abnormal forms of
intestinal organisms that tend, under certain conditions, to produce
endotoxin........Finally, there are two substances that are known to be effective as rapid
detoxifiers of endotoxin - Vitamin C and erythromycin -they are both in
‘Archie’s triple injection’. The relationship between SIDS, sudden
unexplained shock, sudden unexplained unconsciousness, and otitis media is worthy of
consideration. If endotoxin is the ‘cause’ of otitis and also the
‘cause’ of SIDS, sudden unexplained unconsciousness and unexplained shock —
as I now know (at least there is a association), then otitis media should be found in a
significant number of SIDS cases. That this is so is clearly demonstrated in a number of
reported studies. "---Dr Kalokerinos MD
(p311 Medical Pioneer)
"Tissier. H (1900 and 1925) reported that bottlefed babies have much higher
levels of intestinal E.Coli than breastfed babies, a fact subsequently demonstrated by
others. Hauck F.R. (1996) and others have stated that bottle-fed babies had three times
the risk of SIDS as breastfed babies."---Hilary Butler
Hanson
LA. Human milk and host defence: immediate and long-term effects. Acta Paediatr Suppl.
1999 Aug;88(430):42-6. Review. PMID: 10569222 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Convincing studies demonstrate significant protection during breastfeeding against diarrhoea,
respiratory tract infections, otitis media, bacteraemia, bacterial meningitis, botulism,
urinary tract infections and necrotizing enterocolitis. There is also good
evidence for enhanced protection for years after the termination of breastfeeding against Haemophilus
influenzae type b infections, otitis media, diarrhoea, respiratory tract infections and
wheezing bronchitis. In some reports breastfeeding has also improved vaccine
responses. Several studies show that milk may actively stimulate the immune system of the
offspring via transfer of anti-idiotypic antibodies and lymphocytes. This may explain why
breastfeeding diminishes the risk of developing coeliac disease. Some
investigations suggest that there may also be a similar effect on allergic
diseases and autoimmune diseases, as well as inflammatory bowel diseases and certain
tumours. This needs to be confirmed.
"Because doctors pushed formula so well by reassuring mothers that this was
the best way since God didn’t give you a glass fronted tit so you don’t know if
your little darling has enough "input" as they still graciously call it, they
created another problem. They had to deal with all these poor women waddling around their
wards (with compulsory episiotomies), and breasts the size of a Friesian’s udder that
had just come in to milk. And a bellow of equivalent ear shattering proportions. As a
dairy herd tester for two years, I became well-acquainted with the verbal responses of
engorged Friesian cows. It was known that in animals, oestrogens stopped the pituitary
from releasing the hormones that triggered milk production, so doctors figured that the
logical solution to the problem they had created was to give hormones to the women to
suppress the milk. And the tablets worked. For many years, so it seemed. It
was "self-evident", you know , so logical – so scientific – just like
its self-evident that MMR never causes autism. But some doctors got concerned, because
stilboestrol could also cause serious illness and blood clots. Admittedly it was rare, but
it happened a bit too often for their liking, and, in keeping with the patronising
medicine of the time, they kept that little fact well away from the very people they gave
stilboestrol to. Even so, they decided they better do a little controlled trial where one
half of women who bottlefed their babies, were given Stilboestrol, and the other half were
given a look-alike placebo tablet with nothing in it. The conclusions were finally
published in the British Medical Journal1968, No 4: page 578, and upset a lot of people.
The fact was, it didn’t matter what you gave the mothers. Both stopped lactation
equally as effectively. It was, the saying goes, all between the ears."---Hilary Butler
In 1907, Dr. H. C. Emerson, Massachusetts State Inspector of Health, District
14, investigating an epidemic of poliomyelitis in that state, made a careful
inquiry regarding the diet. No infant who was fed exclusively on the breast
developed poliomyelitis. [1952] The Poison Cause of
Poliomyelitis And Obstructions To Its Investigation by Ralph R. Scobey, M.D.
"One bottle of formula is enough to change a baby’s gut dramatically,
and it takes two weeks of breastfeeding to return the gut back to normal. (Personal
communication, Dr Robert Reisinger) How can this happen?
E Coli is the main culprit. This bacteria is a putrifactive protein loving bacteria. The
protein content of human breast milk is lower than in any other mammal, and the protein
content of formula or any other milk supplement has a direct influence on the numbers of E
Coli in the gut . Not only does the acid gut and very low protein content of breastmilk
provide a more hostile environment for E Coli, but breastmilk also contain neutralising
factors against E Coli.
Several studies have shown that babies who died of SIDS have a
high prevalence of E Coli in the flora of the gut. Some suggest that the E coli "have
acquired a plasmid which confers toxigenicity" (Med J Aust, 1989, Vol 151, pg 538)
But E. Coli is intrinsically toxic. The outer coating (lipopolysaccharide) is the
toxic component, but the key to the toxicity level is the speed with which it can
multiply, given the right circumstances. These factors include bottle feeding (which
results inmore gram negative bacteria, and a protein and alkaline level favouring E Coli),
stress, overheating, viruses, vitamin deficiencies AND the suppressive actions of vaccines
on the reticuloendothelial system.
In 1974, Dr Robert Reisinger presented a paper at an
International SIDS conference. He quoted many authors who found SIDS predominantly among
bottle-fed babies. Included in the authors quoted (but not referenced) was Shirley Tonkin
from New Zealand:
"Tonkin reported that in her series of 86 SIDS cases, only two were
breast-fed. Since twenty-five percent of her control population were breast fed, she
should have had 21 cases of SIDS in breast-fed infants if the risk were the same in both
breast-fed and bottle-fed."
"Coombs stated that if SIDS were relatively as common in the breast-fed as in
the bottle-fed infant he should have had 17 breast-fed cases in his series, whereas at
that time he had not one."---Hilary Butler
"Protection against Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) infection is
enhanced by breastfeeding up to 10 years after lactation. For each week of breastfeeding,
the protection improved." (J Epidemiol 1997;26: 443-50 quoted in Annals of Allergy,
Asthma & Immunol 1998, Dec. Volume 81 on page 530.
Marko Kalliomäki, MDa Arthur Ouwehand, PhDbHeikki Arvilommi, MD, PhDc Pentti Kero, MD, PhDa
Erika Isolauri, MD, PhDa
Transforming
growth factor- in breast milk: A potential regulator of atopic disease at an early age
Background: According to data from animal and in vitro studies,
transforming growth factor-
(TGF-) has a crucial effect on 2 essential parts of the
mucosal immune system: IgA production and oral tolerance induction.
Objective: We sought to ascertain whether TGF- in breast milk is associated with specific IgA production and
atopic disease in human subjects.
Methods: Forty-seven infants with several atopic family members were followed
during their first year of life. The concentrations of TGF-1 and TGF-2 in
maternal colostrum, mature milk, and the infants’ sera were determined. The
enzyme-linked immunospot assay was used to assess the infants’ specific IgA
production in response to -lactoglobulin,
casein, gliadin, and ovalbumin.
Results: At 12 months, atopic dermatitis was confirmed in 29 of 47 infants; in 11,
atopic disease had begun during exclusive breast-feeding (preweaning onset), whereas in 18
the disease manifested itself after weaning (postweaning onset). The concentrations of
both TGF-1 and TGF-2 were higher in maternal colostrum, but not in mature milk and
infants’ serum, in infants with postweaning-onset atopic disease compared with those
with preweaning-onset disease (P = .0008 and P = .015, respectively). The
concentration of TGF-2 was, and that of TGF-1 tended to be, higher in the colostrum of mothers
whose infants had specific IgA-secreting cells at 3 months in response to at least one of
the dietary antigens tested compared with those who did not have such cells (P =
.048 and P = .076, respectively).
Conclusion: TGF- in colostrum may
prevent the development of atopic disease during exclusive breast-feeding and promote
specific IgA production in human subjects. (J Allergy Clin Immunol 1999;1251-7.)
In a surprising newsmaker interview this past April 1999, Dr. Limeback announced
a dramatic change of heart. "Children under three should never use fluoridated
toothpaste," he counseled. "Or drink fluoridated water. And baby
formula must never be made up using Toronto tap water. Former
Fan of Flouridation Now Warns of its Perils
In 1974, Dr Robert Reisinger presented a paper at an International SIDS
conference. He quoted many authors who found SIDS predominantly among
bottle-fed babies. Included in the authors quoted (but not referenced) was
Shirley Tonkin from New Zealand:
“Tonkin reported that in her series of 86 SIDS
cases, only two were breast-fed. Since twenty-five percent of her control population
were breast fed, she should have had 21 cases of SIDS in breast-fed infants if the risk
were the same in both breast-fed and bottle-fed.” ---Hilary Butler
Politics
Unfortunately, the road that gained insight into the developmental mechanisms
that mediate the aggressive, noncompliant and other disordered emotional-social
behaviors.....was blocked and terminated by the NICHD in the late 1970s. The NICHD
unlawfully abandoned its agency responsibility to continue to support research
on the causes and consequences of violence against children and failed to
recommend implementation of national health programs for the prevention of this
violence. These unlawful NICHD/NIH actions has not only set-back scientific
advances in this field for over a quarter of a century but more importantly has
resulted in the epidemics of depression, drug abuse, psychiatric medications and
violence that characterizes this nation today with a substantial loss of child
and youth life due to suicidal and homicidal deaths that are mostly
preventable.
....The children, youth and families of America are
worse off today-- by any health statistic-- than they were in 1970-over thirty
years ago. This massive failure of America can be laid at the doorsteps of the
Congress and its political parties; The White House; the National Institutes of
Health and the Department of Health and Human Services [2002] The Origins of Love
& Violence: An Overview by James W. Prescott, Ph.D.
In a recent issue of Parenting magazine, a pediatrician
comments, "When I first visit a new mother in the hospital, I ask, 'Are you
breastfeeding or bottlefeeding?' If she says she is going to bottlefeed, I nod
and move on to my next questions. Supporting new parents means supporting them
in whatever choices they make; you don't march in postpartum and tell someone
she's making a terrible mistake, depriving herself and her child.
Watch Your Language
By Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC
In the media frenzy around the publicity, there were many
factual errors. The Daily Mail, to whom I gave an
interview, fabricated quotes left, right and centre and
in one particular quote, wrote the exact opposite of what I
said. They hounded me for a family photo on the day of my mother
in law's funeral. Not only was my story fabricated, but the
other two women involved also had their stories altered in
favour of how the Daily Mail thinks their stories should be! In
Sophie's case, they stated (wrongly) that breastfeeding caused
the break-up of her first marriage.
I also gave an exclusive interview to NOW magazine by email,
but they too, sadly, managed to misquote and change the tone of
what I said, despite it being written in black and white.
Extend
Breastfeeding's Benefits
By Kyla Steinkraus
"I accused doctors of still failing to give women detailed information
about the immunological benefits to babies of breastmilk, at which point the only woman
paediatrician got very upset at me, and said that was a mother’s choice, just like
abortion. I looked her square in the face and asked if she had children, and her answer
was "Yes" I then raised my eyebrows and "Who you bottlefed, right?"
She instantly got up and left. I think the unspoken implications got through loud and
clear."--Hilary Butler
"Early in my own pediatric training I was taught that if
a mother questioned whether she should breastfeed or bottlefeed, the proper
answer is: "The decision is strictly up to you; I will assist you in whatever
method you decide to use."--Dr Mendelsohn
MD
One of the most powerful arguments many health professionals, government
agencies and formula company manufacturers make for not promoting and supporting
breastfeeding is that we should "not make the mother feel guilty for not
breastfeeding". Even some strong breastfeeding advocates are disarmed by this
"not making mothers feel guilty" ploy. Because,
indeed, it is nothing more than a ploy. It is an argument which deflects
attention from the lack of knowledge and understanding of most health
professionals about breastfeeding. This allows them not to feel guilty for their
ignorance of how to help women overcome difficulties with breastfeeding, which
could have been overcome and usually which could have been prevented in the
first place if mothers were not so undermined in their attempts to breastfeed.
This argument also seems to allow formula companies and health professionals to
pass out formula company literature and free samples of formula to pregnant
women and new mothers without pangs of guilt, though it has been well
demonstrated that this literature and the free samples decrease the rate and
duration of breastfeeding. Breastfeeding and Guilt
by Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC.
Babies tend to be loathed by many people, especially where rigidity in childcare
has been well established for several generations. It seems likely that the
presence of a baby stirs up feelings of a sad period in our own lives and we can
project that onto the baby. People in western society get angry or upset when
they think a baby is dominating the attention of an adult, perhaps because it
unconsciously reminds them of their own inability to get their needs met as a
baby. The 'loud noise at one end and no sense of
responsibility at the other' definition of a baby denies the vulnerability of a
new child. Similar factors may influence the rates of post-natal depression.
Post-natal depression is considered by some to be hormonal in origin, yet why
the hormonal state is assumed to precede the emotional state is unexplained.
.....It is so evident in those societies where babies are nurtured, never left to cry
and breastfed whenever they ask, that not only are the babies far more socially
pleasing in that they are more content and alert, but also that adults in those
societies do not view babies with the alarm and revulsion that so many people
show in my own society. Also, where babies are cherished, children usually
appear better socially integrated than in some western societies. One rarely
meets the whining 'brat' who so often justifies the exclusion of children from
adult company. The extremes of bitchiness and horror shown by some adults'
over-attention to a baby is more than cultural habit; it has some deeper
emotional cause. The Politics of
Breastfeeding by Gabrielle Palmer
Breastfeeding in industrialised society is closely bound up with perceptions of
sexuality. The very reason it is frowned upon in public is that breasts are
perceived exclusively as objects of sexual attention. The extremity of this
attitude was brought home to me when a male friend, responding to my statement
that I could not see any good reason for women not being able to leave their
breasts showing, stated that after all men did not walk about with
their penises hanging out.The Politics of
Breastfeeding by Gabrielle Palmer
The fact that such abhorrence is absent in some other societies may have another
foundation. Few of us in industrialised society can remember suckling our own
mothers. Many women have denied themselves the experience of reproduction
because they know what a handicap it can be in the economic and career stakes.
Others have children but do not breastfeed for the same, reason or because it
went wrong in the hopelessly unsupportive medical and social systems. When we
see a suckling pair it does not summon up associations of tenderness and
pleasure, but of rejection, failure and pain both in our relationships with our
own mothers and with our babies if we have them. Men who are jealous of their
partners' breastfeeding may have had damaged feeding relationships with their
own mothers and seeing the same scene in public may be too inexplicably painful.
Women who have not fed their own children, especially if they had wanted to, may
feel terrible seeing a breastfeeding pair. My sister taught me this when she
admitted how angry she felt whenever she saw a breastfeeding couple. She could
not feed her first baby because, as she realised when she was helped with her
second, she had never been taught to position him properly. Until she understood
her own experience better she had unconsciously projected her anger at failure,
and betrayal by those who should have helped her, on to other, luckier women.The Politics of
Breastfeeding by Gabrielle Palmer
Here is an account from travellers in Nepal:
"We stopped one night in a tea house in the Himalayas.
The mother was cooking, but stopped to breastfeed the baby and the father took
over at the stove. After the meal, when everything was cleared and put away, the
parents began what was obviously a nightly ritual. The baby was lovingly
massaged with oil and it was evident that both the parents and the baby
thoroughly enjoyed the procedure. The baby was gurgling, the parents were
smiling and sharing the task, one doing between the toes while the other
concentrated on another area. Eventually the baby fell into a profound and
peaceful sleep and the whole family retired contentedly to bed."
Compare this with a typical British scene where the family are watching
television and groan when they hear the baby wake up in its expensively equipped
nursery upstairs. The Politics of
Breastfeeding by Gabrielle Palmer
Mrs Margaret McNaught, one of Britain's 'champion mothers', had twenty-two
single children in twenty-eight years, which is a mean interval of 1.3 years
between each birth.8 Mrs McNaught did not breastfeed her children, and was given
stilboestrol as a lactation suppressant at birth. If she had breastfed each
child for just three months the McNaught family might have been five fewer and
this little family population explosion would have been reduced by almost a
quarter. I do not wish to show any disrespect to the McNaught family, but their
example shows how significant lactation suppression can be on one woman's
fertility. The health workers persuaded women around the world to reduce their
duration of breastfeeding and the companies which managed to get women to stop
even earlier have had a potent effect on the world's
population explosion, yet the false presentation of this situation as a problem
caused by irresponsible individuals has prompted the unthinking genocidal
sentiments of many people like my friend.
What appeals to me about this fascinating strategy of anovulation during
lactation is that it destroys the arguments made by some religious and cultural
groups that nature designed sexual activity only for procreation.The Politics of
Breastfeeding by Gabrielle Palmer
By the twentieth century breastfeeding in much of western Europe and North
America was quite different behaviourally from what it had been and what it
still is in the areas of the world where it has not been disrupted. As the 'men
of sense' (see page 41) took over the management from women, new ideas came into
vogue. First came the limiting of feeds to an ideal of not more than five times
a day, the prohibition of night feeding and then a limiting of the actual feed
times. Only someone who did not spend twenty-four hours a day with a baby could
have thought of restricting feeding time. These ideas had arisen from the dread
of overfeeding, but they actually caused the problem of underfeeding, as the
baby was prevented from stimulating the amount of milk she actually needed.
Consequently there was a greater requirement for supplements which in turn
decreased the baby's control of the breast milk supply. The discouragement of
sleeping with the baby at night, which had been the norm since the dawn of human
life, spread throughout the nineteenth century. In England, the early twentieth
century health visitors zealously handed out banana boxes (available via cheap
colonial labour) to serve as cradles in order to try and stamp out the habit of
mothers and babies sleeping together. This was to prevent overlaying, supposedly
a common cause of infant death, though this is debatable. Such deaths are
unreported in those countries where it is still custom for babies and mothers to
sleep together. What this separation did do was increase the risk of infant
hypothermia, maybe cot (crib) death and lessen the important contraceptive
protection of night suckling which is crucial for the maintenance of the
frequent nipple stimulation necessary to maintain anovulation. A mother sleeping
with her baby in her arms might not even be awakened, but that occasional
mouthing is an important contraceptive. With these reductions in suckling time
and the increasing promotion and use of other infant foods,
mothers were truly breastfeeding less and less. Even the use of a dummy
or boiled water given by spoon can reduce the nipple stimulation needed to
maintain infertility.The Politics of
Breastfeeding by Gabrielle Palmer
Both late menarche and breastfeeding contributed significantly to child
spacing in pre-industrial Europe and still does in the developing world, for
breastfeeding prevents more births worldwide than all other forms of
contraception put together.......the west's export and
promotion of artificial baby foods, together with the grosser errors in infant
feeding techniques disseminated by health workers, have had a serious effect on
birth spacing, which is a key factor in both demographic trends and in the
well-being of individual women. This method of fertility control had been
recognised since ancient times, but its importance was forgotten and ignored
during the last two centuries because the changes in social organisation and in
breastfeeding practices damaged its effectiveness. A seventeenth-century working
Englishwoman married late and had well-spaced pregnancies. She used
breastfeeding both to supplement her living and to space and limit her own
childbearing. As unrestricted breastfeeding was the normal practice in those
days she would have been unlikely to ovulate. Wealthy women were discouraged
from feeding their own babies in order to reproduce greater numbers of the
nobility. Slaves had their breastfeeding time limited so that they could breed
more slaves for their owners. Yet by the twentieth century in Europe the use of
lactation as a means of child spacing was not discussed or considered by doctors
or advocates of birth control.
The Politics of
Breastfeeding by Gabrielle Palmer
Paediatricians funded by baby milk companies
AMERICAN COLLEGE OF OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY http://www.cspinet.org/integrity/corp_funding.html#universities
"Received $548,000 from two of the four major formula makers in 1993."
(Mothering magazine, July-August 2000, p.60)
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS http://www.cspinet.org/integrity/corp_funding.html
"Friends of Children Fund" Annual Report, July 1, 1996 - June 30, 1997,
indicates $2.085 million in funding from corporations. Donors include Procter &
Gamble, Gerber, Infant Formula Council, McNeil Consumer Products Company, National
Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products, Abbott
Laboratories, Wyeth-Lederle Vaccine & Pediatrics, Mead Johnson Nutritionals,
SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, Schering Corp., Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Food Marketing
Institute, Sugar Association, International Food Information Council, Merck Vaccine
Division, and others. Also gets foundation support (RWJ, Pew, etc.).
Formula manufacturers "donate $1 million annually to the
American Academy of Pediatrics in the form of a renewable grant that has already netted
the AAP $8 million. The formula industry also contributed at least $3 million toward the
building costs of the AAP headquarters." (Mothering magazine, July-August,
p.60; refers to a book Milk, Money and Madness by Naomi Baumslag and Dia L. Michels
(Westport, Conn.: Bergin and Garvey, 1995, p. 172))
Infant formula export
"I saw mother after mother in the paediatric wards, head in hands, crying beside
the cribs where their babies lay, malnourished, dehydrated, sick from Bottle Baby Disease.
It doesn't need to happen. A decade ago we knew the truth about irresponsible marketing of
infant formula. Allowing the companies to continue these practices is an inexcusable
outrage of humanity, if not outright criminality." Janice Mantell, Action for
Corporate Accountability (USA) http://www.mcspotlight.org/beyond/nestle.html
Third World export of babymilk