concerned - chemical nasties in breast milk? sagging boobs?

[asparagusaddict]

when i was expecting my son, i just assumed i would exclusively breast feed him - i never thought of feeding him any other way, i just thought it was natural and just what was done - i had no idea how controversial the whole subject actually was.

i've been breast feeding him exclusively now for 9 weeks, not had any problems at all.

now however, i'm wondering if i should stop. following on from the mother & baby article re the sagging (this wouldn't make me stop by the way, although my boobs do look horrendous now - they've gone from amazing to very droopy...), i decided to have a bit more of a look into it but have come across lots of stuff about chemicals in breast milk.

if there is a chance i am filling my baby full of toxic chemicals by breast feeding him, i could't ever forgive myself. (i used to smoke for about 10 years, i work in a smelly chemical laboratory, i used to use loads of fancy face creams and fake tans with god knows what in them etc)

i'm concerned that maybe breast isn't best after all.

if there are nasties in my milk then i can only see that formula must be safer? i know plenty of people who were formula fed as babies and there is absolutely nothing wrong with them at all, they've managed just fine without their mothers antibodies and none of them are obese.

and maybe if i stop now i'll still have a chance of minimising the damage to my boobs.

i'm having a real crisis of conscience now and i don't know what to do?

You're not damaging your boobs, you're keeping them healthy and reducing the chance of developing cancer. The sagging is caused by pregnancy anyway.

What research have you found about chemical in breast milk?

La Leche has some advice about reducing contaminents in breast milk. Apparently its things like pesticides and other environmental pollutants that end up in breast milk. I am ebf my 14 week old ds and try to eat an organic diet, stay away from cig smoke and not drink alcohol.

If there are toxins in your milk, there will be just as many in cow's milk, which will then be used to make formula!

this is one of the ones i was reading but there are many other articles listed in the margins:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17009213

there's stuff on the daily wail etc too, igoogled chemicals in breast milk

thanks for your replies. i think i'm worrying because of having smoked so much for so long (haven't had a cigarette for at least 2 years), and the work in the lab. as far as i'm aware, chemicals accumulate in our fat cells but it's the fat cells that make up the milk.

my baby already has a congenital genital deformity which is making me worry i may actually have these things in my body already.

i understand what you mean about cow milk chibi, but the cows haven't smoked 20 a day for 10 years. although if it is just pesticides that persist in cows milk then maybe i'm ok. i'm sure someone would have tested breast milk for contaminants from cigarette smoking by now.

Even if you were actually smoking now, your breast milk would still be better than formula.

Some chemicals accumulate in fat. Some don't

I don't know what kind of labwork you do but do you have access to cleapps or hazcards about the chemicals you deal with? I doubt you need to take any precautions but it might make you feel better. I also work with a variety of chemicals and never worried but can understand your concern

I wouldn't worry about toxins from cigarette smoke, either, wastingaway is right

Out of curiosity what kind of labwork do you do, medical? Industrial? Pharma?

Sagging boobs is due to pregnancy, not breastfeeding (published research).

You don't accumulate toxins in the body, apart from some very specific ones like heavy metals which get stored in your bones as part of the matrix. Certainly, toxins from smoking are removed from your body very quickly.

Remember - fat cells are not immortal, and die and are replaced just like every other cell in your body. Theres no mystical way that the toxin content could be transferred from one cell to another

The Daily Mail hates breastfeeding, I really wouldn't take anything they say as gospel. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me can reassure you about the rest

thanks for the reassurance. i think i still need to mull it all over a bit longer before i feel comfortable. i'm still feeling that i might prefer to formula feed just in case. i will give it some more thought, though.

it's industrial, although i haven't been there for about 10 months - hyperemesis, then maternity leave. one of the things we use is this: msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/DI/N,N-dimethylformamide.html

which is the one i was worried about. however other girls in the lab have had babies and i'm the only one who has a little boy with a problem with his bits.

I doubt anything you did or were exposed to caused this tbh

When something goes 'wrong' you do tend to look back and try to pinpoint what you did to cause it, v natural, I speak from (a different) experience

sometimes things just are how they are, don't second guess yourself

I don't think you need to exclude bf as a possibility but you have a lot of time yet to decide what you are happy doing, take it easy and be kind to yourself

good luck with the rest of your pregnancy + birth

asparagusaddict - there are known risks with formula feeding (the lack of protection for the immune system, for starters)and the contaminants in the powder (reduced by adding the powder to water no cooler than 70 deg C, which is what is advised). In addition, there are unknown risks associated with environmental pollutants that may be in the grass and the air ingested by the cows whose milk is used to make formula, and other aspects of the industrial process used to dry and package the milk. Just occasionally, batches of product are withdrawn from sale because of known industrial accidents with the formulation.

Formula is not without risks. Swapping to formula seems a shame - you are not 'filling your baby with toxic chemicals' by breastfeeding.

Perhaps there is a health and safety officer at your old work who could discuss things with you?

It has been clearly demonstrated that breasts sag because of pregnancy, not breastfeeding, and that it is better for a baby who has a mother who smokes to be breastfed rather than formula fed.

Is it hypospadias that your son has? It's very common (around 1 in 125 boys, I think) and often has a genetic component that is unrelated to anything you've done. Is dimethylformamide an endocrine disruptor? It's not mentioned on that safety sheet, which I would have expected it to be if it were.

i might stop drinking so much cows milk just in case.

it is hypospadias professor, i didn't realise as many as 1 in 125 boys have it.

DMF is only a suspected endocrine disruptor i think

i'm just going to have to stop thinking about it i guess and carry on with the bf