During Flu Season - Breastfeeding Is The Best Protection For Your Baby

During the flu season and especially since the Swine Flu epidemic, breastfeeding is so important in safeguarding your little ones.

Even the Center for Disease Control, whom I typically disagree with, agrees:

Because mothers make antibodies to fight diseases they come in contact with, their milk is custom-made to fight the diseases their babies are exposed to as well. This is really important in young babies when their immune system is still developing.

Breastmilk is nature's way of boosting a young ones immune system. All those lovely antibodies that mom has built up over her lifetime are passed along to her baby. This is a much safer and respectful way to immunize your baby.

There is one H1N1 vaccine approved for infants. The package insert for the H1N1 vaccine produced by Sanofi Pasteur, Inc. lists formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, as an ingredient in this vaccine. Since extensive testing of this vaccine hasn't been tested yet - the long term effects remain to be seen. What I can tell you is that injecting formaldehyde into any body, but particularity a little body can be very dangerous and in some cases fatal.

Mercury is also an ingredient in the Swine Flu vaccine. According to Victoria Nicks of Suite 101:

A .5 mL dose of the vaccine contains 25 micrograms of mercury, according to the package insert. Each infant dose of swine flu vaccine is .25 mL, exactly one-half the amount of vaccine and mercury, which equals 12.5 micrograms of mercury. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency uses a formula to state the amount of mercury that an individual can be exposed to without "recognized adverse effects," of .1 microgram per kilogram of body weight per day. In order to avoid adverse effects, the six month old infant receiving a 12.5 microgram dose must weigh at least 275 lbs.

Read more at Suite101: Infant's Swine Flu Vaccine Injection Ingredients: Toxins in H1N1 Vaccination Formulated for Babies Six Months and Up http://public-healthcare-issues.suite101.com/article.cfm/infants_swine_flu_vaccine_injection_ingredients#ixzz0bCca0aM7


In my house if a kid is sick, I will express some breast milk into a cup and have them drink it. I realize that some people might be grossed out by the idea, however, my children don't stay sick for more then a day or so. Even when my entire family had a Type A flu that we believe was H1N1 - not one of us was in bed for over 24 hours.


For guidelines on breastfeeding while infected with the Swine Flu visit http://breastfeeding.suite101.com/article.cfm/breastfeeding_and_swine_flu

If you can't or won't breastfeed please consider going to a milk bank to boost your baby's health. There is a yahoo milk share group as well as local milk banks all across the country.


A real look at the components of formula and why it is substandard to breastmilk, visit: http://www.theecologist.co.uk/trial_investigations/268337/breastmilk_vs_formula_food.html

When Are You Going to Wean Her?

I hear this question at least once a week. Talia turned two February 15 and she is still nursing. It wasn't a conscious decision to nurse her this long, in fact I had planned on weaning her when she turned two. Talia had a different timeline.

She's just not ready. So the more she wants to nurse, the more research I've done. This is what I've found:

Each time you nurse your toddler, you are providing nutrition, boosting her immune system and reducing her risk of allergies, no matter how old she is.


Some doctors may feel that nursing will interfere with a child's appetite for other foods. Yet there has been no documentation that nursing children are more likely than weaned children to refuse supplementary foods.


Nursing toddlers between the ages of 16 and 30 months have been found to have fewer illnesses and illnesses of shorter duration than their non-nursing peers

"Antibodies are abundant in human milk throughout lactation" (Nutrition During Lactation 1991; p. 134). In fact, some of the immune factors in breastmilk increase in concentration during the second year and also during the weaning process. (Goldman 1983, Goldman & Goldblum 1983, Institute of Medicine 1991).

Extensive research on the relationship between cognitive achievement (IQ scores, grades in school) and breastfeeding has shown the greatest gains for those children breastfed the longest.


Meeting a child's dependency needs is the key to helping that child achieve independence. And children outgrow these needs according to their own unique timetable. Children who achieve independence at their own pace are more secure in that independence then children forced into independence prematurely.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that "Breastfeeding should be continued for at least the first year of life and beyond for as long as mutually desired by mother and child... Increased duration of breastfeeding confers significant health and developmental benefits for the child and the mother... There is no upper limit to the duration of breastfeeding and no evidence of psychologic or developmental harm from breastfeeding into the third year of life or longer." (AAP 2005)

According to Dr. Jack Newman:

Common concerns associated with nursing a toddler were also addressed. Some health care professionals comment, "There is no nutritional value of human milk beyond a certain age." Newman called this an unbelievable statement. He wondered aloud how human milk suddenly became white water after a certain age when, before that age, breastfeeding had all sorts of benefits to mother and baby. The concern that extended breastfeeding will prevent a child from developing his own immunity was discussed. In reality, breastfeeding provides passive protection via mother's immunities that come in human milk, but also stimulation to a child's immune system. A breastfed child has a more mature immune system.

Another concern Newman often hears is that breastfeeding a toddler will cause dependency. He pointed out that all three-year-olds tend to be pretty dependent on their mothers. Breastfeeding provides a sense of security and love that will help foster independence rather than create dependence. Newman stated that loving human contact does not cause harm to a child.

Armed with all this information on the benefits of extended breastfeeding it's puzzling why my family and friends are constantly trying to get me to wean her. I am going to nurse Talia for as long as she wants; it's not real fun for me and I catch a lot of slack for it but it's good for her and my job as a mom is to make the best choices for my child.

Formula is Wonderful

That is according to Dr. Nancy Snyderman, a woman who combines an active surgical practice of head and neck surgery with her role as a medical correspondent for ABC News. She is certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology in head and neck surgery, and specializes in head and neck cancer.



How is it that a surgeon specializing in cancer is getting national press for her expert opinion on feeding an infant?

Why does mainstream America blindly follow these celebrity doctors?

Is she being paid by a formula company to make these statements?



The infant formula market in the United States is estimated at US$3.9 billion for 2007. Infant formula is big business folks: Big, Dirty, Unethical Business that is declining. Just consider the following:

Global baby foods and infant formula market continues to be affected by the changing consumer trends and declining birth rates. Concern for health and fitness; safety and nutritional awareness are major trends expected to influence the industry in the coming years. -Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

I reprinted 101 Reasons To Breastfeed a few months ago, you can see the entire article with footnotes by clicking on http://earthymommaodyssey.blogspot.com/2008/08/101-reasons-to-breastfeed.html. I pulled the following information out of the article about formula to illustrate just how "wonderful" formula is.







1.Formula feeding increases baby girls' risk of developing breast cancer in later life

Women who were formula-fed as infants have higher rates of breast cancer as adults. For both premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer, women who were breastfed as children, even if only for a short time, had a 25% lower risk of developing breast cancer than women who were bottle-fed as infants.






2.Formula Feeding is associated with lower I.Q

Human breast milk enhances brain development and improves cognitive development in ways that formula cannot. One study has found that the average I.Q. of 7 and 8 year old children who had been breastfed as babies was 10 points higher than their bottle fed peers. All of the children involved had been born prematurely and tube fed the human milk, indicating that the milk itself, not the act of breastfeeding, caused this difference in I.Q. level. Another study to support this statement was done in New Zealand. Here an 18 year longitudinal study of over 1,000 children found that those who were breastfed as infants had both higher intelligence and greater academic achievement than children who were infant-formula fed.






3. Formula increases the risk of diabetes

There are many studies linking development of insulin dependant Type I diabetes (formerly referred to as "juvenile diabetes") to lack of breastfeeding. The results of a study from Finland suggest that the introduction of dairy products at an early age, and high milk consumption during childhood increase the level of cow's milk antibodies in the children's systems. This factor is associated with an increased risk of insulin dependent diabetes. Now a new study has indicated that breastfeeding in infancy may help reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes. This sort of diabetes was formerly referred to as "adult onset" diabetes, but has been mysteriously occurring in more and more youngsters.







4. Formula feeding may increase risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

According to Dr. William Sears, MD, cow's milk should not be given as a beverage to infants under one year of age. "Cow's milk can irritate the lining of your infant's intestines, causing tiny losses of iron. This can contribute to iron-deficiency anemia."







5. Formula-fed babies are more at risk for obesity in later life

A study of 32200 Scottish 3 year old children found that the incidence of obesity was significantly lower among those who had been breastfed, after adjusting for socioeconomic status, birthweight and gender. Another study, this one of Czech children, found that the even older children (6 -14) who had been breastfed were less at risk for overweight/obesity. Additionally, a German study found that 4.5% of formula fed children are obese, while only 0.8% of breastfed children have this condition








6. Bottle-fed babies are at increased risk of cardiopulmonary disturbances, including prolonged airway closure and obstructed respiratory breaths due to repeated swallowing.

According to one study, infants can experience oxygen saturation below 90% when bottle feeding. Nine of 50 healthy term infants in one study experienced bradycardia during bottle feeding. Six of these episodes were preceded by apnea, three showed hypopnea (marked reduction in ventilation) and one had certral apnea (no respiratory efforts).






7. Formula is expensive

It presently costs upward of $1,200 dollars per year to formula feed an infant in the United States. If you factor in the added medical cost you are statistically likely to incur, that brings the cost up to around $2,500 per year. If your baby happens to require a hypo-allergenic formula, you will have to pay considerably more









8. Formula costs the government (and taxpayers) millions of dollars

The U.S. government spends more than $2,665,715 a year to provide formula for the children of non-breastfeeding mothers participating in the WIC supplemental food program. Of course, this doesn't take into consideration the additional costs of caring for those infants who are statistically much more likely to get sick. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, higher breastfeeding rates could reduce US health care costs by $3.6 billion per year.







So Dr. Snyderman, are your insinuating that the risks of SIDS, childhood obesity, diabetes, lower IQ's and breast cancer are wonderful? Or maybe it's the cost to us, the taxpayers. You claim that their is no scientific proof that formula is dangerous, I find that hard to believe. Promom http://www.promom.org/101/ is chock full of scientific studies done regarding the effects of formula. Seeing as pediatrics aren't your speciality, I can understand your ignorance on the topic, but please don't spread ignorance around.

According to the World Health Organization, the safest and best way to feed a baby is:

1. Breastfeed
2. Breastmilk pumped in a bottle
3. Donor Breastmilk
4. Formula

Formula is #4! There are milk banks, milk share groups and all sorts of mothers willing to donate breastmilk. Giving mother's an OK that formula is safe is irresponsible and erroneous. Please Dr. Snyderman, don't make it so that parents feel validated about formula feeding. It is not wonderful unless the parents are out of options.