What is it with doctors and breastfeeding?

[bobthebaby]

My 9 mo ds has bad eczema and allergies to lots of stuff notably milk, egg and peanut. As I am bfing I avoid these too. Today I had to take ds to hospital because his skin got so bad he had to have antibiotics. His paed. gave me a jar of Neocate to wean him onto and the registrar said "I bet you will be glad to wean him" when I told her the things I couldn't eat. I don't want to wean him, in fact I'm not going to. Can anyone point me to studies which show I am helping not harming by continuing to bf him. The doctors seem convinced that if I weaned his eczema would go away, which I think is total rubbish. I think its the only thing that helps the pain and about the only useful thing I can do for him. But then this doubt comes in, because they are doctors and I am just a mum.

I thought that f-milk could trigger diabeties or at least make a child susecptible to it in later life. Yes life style and genetics play a part but what you feed your child lays the basis of what comes later...

Found this ... will try to put a link in

Early Nutrition and Later Adiposity

but here is also an excerpt ...

Breastfeeding

This literature is contradictory in part because many studies are based on small sample sizes and lack adequate control for confounding. The two landmark studies, published in 1981 and 1999, are in agreement that breast-feeding has a protective effect on childhood obesity (Kramer 1981 , Von Kries et al. 1999 ). In both these studies, the findings were robust and could not be accounted for by confounding. Breastfed infants are fatter than formula-fed infants in the first months of life (Garza and de Onis 1999 ). This is probably achieved by increases in fat cell size rather than cell number (Pi-Sunyer 1999 ). In the latter half of infancy breastfed babies thin out in comparison to nonbreastfed infants (Garza and de Onis 1999 ). It is not clear what makes them lose the weight and what makes them remain thinner at later ages. Future investigations should explore whether breastfeeding is related to the timing of the adiposity rebound. Also, investigations are needed from developing countries to assess whether the protective effect of breastfeeding is as found in Canada and Germany. Finally, studies are needed to address whether the protective effect of breastfeeding on obesity persists into adulthood.

Poor nutrition in early life has not been shown to predispose to fatness later in life. Therefore, claims that poor nutrition may be fueling an epidemic of obesity in developing countries would seem unfounded. On the other hand, it appears that intrauterine overnutrition and breastfeeding have an enduring influence on subsequent adiposity. These two nutritional influences, the former associated with greater risk of later fatness and the latter protective of it, appear to be important causes of childhood obesity but of modest importance relative to known causes of obesity among adults (i.e., excessive caloric intakes and sedentarism) for the simple reason that most obese adults were not obese as children.

Eulalia, thanks again for yet more excellent bf info.

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I'll laugh off the breastfeeding mafia comment, as it must surely be no more than a tasteless joke.

I am surprised you are not aware of the research linking breastfeeding to a protective effect against osteoporotic fractures - there are several papers now:eg Int J Epidemiol. 1993 Aug;22(4):684-91. Breastfeeding and other reproductive factors and the risk of hip fractures in elderly women. Cumming RG, Klineberg RJ.

Most of the work is epidemiological, but we know from other studies that breastfeeding women recover their bone density efficiently and rapidly after breastfeeding ceases, so there is no long-term calcium deficit due to breastfeeding.

Breastfed babies can have oily fish as part of the weaning diet. Sorry - am I missing something here?

I think it is totally unnecessary to use the offensive term 'breastfeeding mafia' during these discussions. It strikes me that you have unresolved issues regarding breastfeeding Robinw to be so abusive at times. I hope you are not such an abrasive person in real life.

In case you really care to know, here is a link with info regarding osteoporosishere

My kids seem to have never had an ear infection, either, but neither did DH until he went to school. Then he had so many he developed glue ear & permanent hearing loss, so I'm still waiting with baited breath. I have heard that the main risk factor for ear infections is short Etruscan tubes (spell?). It's a structure in the ear; and how short it is, is genetic.

I was grouping ear infex/colds together, in trying to directly address what Robinw said about "over-rated". I can't find anything definite, but All About Mums says that only 10-20% of children will have 3 or more ear infex by age 1, and Ibfan says that breastfeeding only reduces ear infex by half, so I guess that could mean even an average Brfed child has 1-3 by age 5, with the average F-Fed child having 2-6 (so an increase of 1-3 incidents). I think any parent of a child with recurring ear infex would be delighted by a reduction of just 1-3.

Colds: Statistics on what is "average" varies so much; and then there is the interpretation of when one cold ends, another starts, and whether it's a cold or something else. There are so many confounding factors; Robinw would claim that xylitol is one of them.... but I think I've read that the lower bound on the 95% confidence interval for the advantage of breastfeeding, is that it prevents, as a bare minimum, something like 1 cold every 18 months, or just over 3 by age 5.

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Of course breasfeeding is best for the baby and protects against infections. I used to always put breast milk in my children's noses when they weer blocked. For ear infections, you can always try with olive oil. It really helps!

Don't you think calling people criminals and nazis because they support breastfeeding and breastfeeding women in a very hostile climate is just a tad deliberately inflammatory?

But it is also true that if you have a lot of allergies in the family, it is better if you exclusively bf for longer as well as bf while weaning. You don't have to quote any research as this is surely common knowledge accepted by all?

Robinw there are a number of papers linking breastfeeding to later bone health - and if you'd seen the suffering of anyone with osteoporosis I think you'd agree it is worthwhile informing women of this (ditto breast cancer).

However, I don't think 'research paper tennis' is getting us anywhere, as you clearly think anyone outlining the risks of not breastfeeding is equivalent to threatening them with a concrete overcoat

I didn't know that babies with eczema should not have oily fish until 10 months of age....but I am not an allergy expert. I am not sure what it has to do with the subject under discussion, either., but maybe it's just got a bit lost!

FairyMum, I don't know if extending bf to beyond 6 mths (alongside solids) will help excema, except in the case of babies who can't have non-human dairy, in which case breastmilk would be the only milk they could have.

Children with excema often also have other allergies and bf can protect against these (incl. asthma). It can also defer these allergies developing for some time. I don't think you can make a general rule about what bf women can eat and not, as I think this is individual. It is good if you continue to bf while weaning the child. This is especially true in a child prone to allergies.

I don't understand your point about EFA's robinw- I thought one of the big advantages of breatmilk is that it is naturally high in EFA's. Of course its wise to tell a bfeeding mother to take an EFA supplement, but until formula's were altered recently I thought they were much lower in EFA's.

robinw, nice to see that you don't use the term 'bf nazis' in this thread anymore - even though I'm not sure if 'bf mafia' is that much better. I really would like to know why you think bf supporters act the way they do - what sinister motives do you suspect? I really can't see what gain there is in supporting bf, other than promoting both the mother's and the child's health.

Do you all sometimes wonder if Robinw is heiress to whoever holds the patent for xylitol?

zebra

robinw - I am here right now looking for information.... but you never give any!!!

I, and everyone else keeps on providing masses of info to prove our points but you don't, you just sit there and criticise and NEVER give any valid backed up critical arguments in response.

Oh beg your pardon you have provided a website but no actual papers or proper references ...

You say "I'd certainly suggest any parent of a child with ear infections should be using xylitol - far more effective than breastfeeding in reducing the number of infections." PROOF????

Wonder what people in 3rd world countries would think of that - "just need to pop down to the local shop to get some xylitol... not going to bother breastfeeding my baby any more - don't think it is doing him much good.."

as someone who bf (thro a lot of hassle) 2 out of three boys there is no doubt that bf is the best.

No doubt - dont even argue it.

I didnt in Number 2 as that was best for me at the time and thats life - he is fine but here is no way anyone can persuade me that whet he had was as good as whatthe other 2 had - but there you are.

I think the reason that people get so carried away about bfeeding is because it can be bloody hard to begin with. I bfed ds1 for 13 months and ds2 is still going at 22 months. But in both cases I had problems in the beginning- and getting going with ds1 was very painful! If I hadn't heard about the health benefits to baby and me I would have given up. That's why it is important that the benefits are shouted about.

zebra -

"Otitis media is up to 3-4 times more prevalent in formula-fed infants".

Aniansson G, Alm B, Andersson B, et al. "A prospective cohort study on breast-feeding and otitis media in Swedish infants". Pediatr Infect Dis J. 1994; 13:183-188

Kovar MG, Serdula MK, Marks JS, et al. "Review of the epidemiologic evidence for an association between infant feeding and infant health." Pediatrics. 1984:74:S615-S638

Saarinen UM. "Prolonged Breast Feeding as prophylaxis for recurrent otitis media." Acta Paediatr Scand. 1982;71:567-571

22 months! I am impressed! I agree it is very important to shout about the benefits of bf, but we also need much support when we run into difficulties. I was really suprised how difficult and PAINFUL bf was. Noone told me