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September 17, 2007Mother's milk a gift that keeps on giving |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Extensive medical research shows that mothers' milk satisfies babies' nutritional needs far better than any manufactured infant formula. These conclusions appear in a major new review of the medical literature published this month entitled "Benefits and Risks of Breastfeeding." The article, published in the current issue of Advances in Pediatrics (and available online at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00653101), surveys both risks and benefits associated with breastfeeding. Many mothers and medical professionals may not understand that a great number of protective factors unique to human milk are provided by breastfeeding and how much breastfeeding's benefits outweigh its rare but often well-publicized risks, said Dr. Armond Goldman, senior author of the paper and professor emeritus of pediatrics at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. In the United States, this misunderstanding of benefits versus risks --- in addition to social factors such as less generous maternity leave policies and poor preventive health care for much of the population --- has helped keep the rates of initiation and continuation of breastfeeding in the U.S. lower than those in most developed countries, Goldman said. Other risks identified by the authors include an insufficient transfer of breast milk, leading to dehydration and growth failure in the infant; certain vitamin deficiencies such as Vitamin D in human milk; the possibility that allergens consumed by the mother and passed to the nursing infant could cause adverse reactions; the transmission of a serious infection during breastfeeding; the exposure of an infant to certain toxic medications that are excreted in human milk; and rare genetic defects in the infant that prevent the digestion and metabolism of the milk constituents lactose, galactose and phenylalanine.
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