Formula is an Ongoing Experiment
Formula makers continue to identify new substances found in breast milk and add them to their formulas if possible, and then claim that they are now “more like breast milk!” Unfortunately, this approach ignores two very real properties of breast milk (and breastfeeding):
• Breastmilk is a living, dynamic substance—full of cells providing immune protection, and ever-changing, based on the needs of the child. The milk that a mother makes for her newborn is not the same as what she’ll make days or weeks later. And the milk that she makes in the morning is not the same as the milk she’ll make in the evening. Formula can never hope to be such a responsive fluid.
• Breastmilk is synergistic—the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Merely identifying a new substance in breastmilk and adding it to a formula does not guarantee that this substance will behave the same way as it does in breastmilk. The immunological components interact in ways that aren’t yet fully understood, and the nutritional components complement each other in ways that improve their absorption and use by the infant.
With this approach to creating the formula “most like breastmilk” comes the possibility that adding one new ingredient without other yet-to-be-identified ingredients, or in quantities that can’t match the changing composition of breastmilk, will create a formula that is either deficient or overloaded with a particular component. There have also been many accidental omissions or excesses in the manufacturing process that have led to serious problems in the infants who ingest the resulting formula.
There are many mothers and infants who do rely on formula, for whatever reason. There are a few conditions for which breastfeeding is contraindicated for mother or baby, and there are many mothers who choose not to breastfeed. For these situations, it is critical that formula companies continue to work towards creating the best product they can.
It is also critical that mothers be given all the information with which to make the decision concerning how they will feed their infants. It is also critical that mothers who choose to breastfeed are fully supported in their efforts to do so. This is the mission of La Leche League International:
To help mothers worldwide to breastfeed through mother-to-mother support, encouragement, information, and education, and to promote a better understanding of breastfeeding as an important element in the healthy development of the baby and the mother.
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Formula does not harm babies. Breastfeeding is best, but formula doesn't harm babies. Nothing in these "arguments" gives any evidence that formula is harmful. Only that it's not as good as breast milk.
Your analogy of breastmilk is better, but formula does not harm babies is like using the analogy of a car crash victim, who died of a stroke, but wasn't adversely effected by the crash. The victim died of a stroke, that was brought on by the crash. Indirectly, the crash killed the victim. This is the same analogy of formula, certain biological sequences were set off from not having the optimum food, thus diabetes sets in or obesity. I would say that it caused harm.
Risks are harmful, if they come to fruition. They are real. It's like playing russian roulette, you never know what trigger pull will kill you. So when the bullet does come out and kill or maim someone, I'd say that it caused harm, even though the person knew it was a risk and did not believe it to be real or really statistically probable.
Human babies are born with immature immune systems. That's why they can get sick very easily and quickly. They depend on their mother's milk until their immune system if fully developed. There are many things about this relationship that I find amazing. Mother's milk not only helps her baby fight infection, it also helps her baby's immune system develop stronger and faster. For example, the thymus, an important organ in the immune system and the site for production of T-lymphocytes, is 2X's bigger is fully breastfed babies compared with exclusively formula-fed babies. Breastfed babies also have more of these T-lymphocytes circulating in their bodies.
Another important part of this relationship is that the ingredients of human milk - proteins, sugars and fats - all provide both nutrition for the baby's growth and protection against illness. And what I find truely amazing is that these cells fight infection without causing inflammation, so baby can continue to use all his or her energy on growth. Some of the cells line the digestive and respiratory tracts destroying germs and providing a barrier to prevent germs from entering baby's body. Others promote the growth of "good" bacteria (low-virulent E.coli) in the baby's gut.
Because of the living cells in human milk and how they provide babies with protection against illnesses, there is no comparison between breastfeeding and formula-feeding.
Reference: Hanson, L. Immunobiology of Human Milk: How Breastfeeding Protect Babies. Amarillo, TX:Pharmasoft Publishing, 2004.
If the dear reader would do a google search for "HHS Toned down Breast-feeding ADs", she would discover that our very own government in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics, gutted an ad campaign about the health risks of formula. According to research from the CDC, babies that are not breastfed are 40% more likely to develop Type 1 diabetes, and 250% more likely to develop respiratory disease.
Doing a search on the National Library of Medicine's PubMed on "milk proteins in the etiology of insulin dependent diabetes" will retrieve 142 citations. Most formula is derived from cow milk.
Currently, there are 9 theories as to why formula is associated with diabetes.
The evidence says that formula feeding is the first step towards overweight/obesity and diabetes, both of which are epidemic in the US.
Drs Rogan and Chen calculated that 720 babies die every year in the US because they are not breastfed.
The public does not know this. At least one-third of the public believes that formula is equivalent to human milk. Industry encourages this belief through marketing and by giving free samples of their product away to new mothers.
Mothers can't make informed choices if the information is kept from them.
I want the truth to be told to all.
warmly,
Nikki Lee