Invite for National Infant Diet and Health Study

[tara277]

Hi,

I'd really appreciate anyone's thoughts on this or experiences if anyone has participated in something like this before.

www.mrc-hnr.cam.ac.uk/working-with-us/national-infant-diet-and-health-study.html

I received a letter to take part today as my baby boy is just four months and so within the age range. The letter is a lot lighter on info than the website (no mention of blood tests/ measuring breastmilk and urine output there!)and my first thought was that I might do it thinking it would involve a quick chat with someone and given that my baby is so young he's only on breastmilk so it would all be pretty painless.

That is clearly not the case from the website but the measurment of breastmilk output thing bothered me - I've emailed them to ask how they propose to collate this but as far as I'm aware there is no possible way to accurately establishing this (even if they got someone to express it wouldn't necessarily be a true indication of milk transfer). I also think it could have very negative consequences for some mothers if breastfeeding.

The more I've read the more I think I say No Thanks after all but I'd really like to hear anyone's thoughts about it.

Thanks!

Tara.

Hello - from reading that link it says they will use 'tracer water' to assess breastmilk intake. This would mean that the mother would be given a drink of water which has an isotope label (which is safe) and allows this water to be detected later.

So they would estimate how much water is in your body and your babies body, they know how much of the tracer water they gave you to drink, and when they take a sample of blood from your baby later on they can see how much of the tracer water you drank has passed onto the baby, and use that to calculate how much of your milk the baby has drunk.

I hope that makes sense, it is a bit difficult to write clearly! This is just my interpretation from their website, you should still contact them to ask for more details if you are unsure about doing the study. HTH

Hi Milkjetmum,

Thanks for that - I'd missed that as I'd never heard of the tracer water before. Thank you for explaining it - it makes things a bit clearer.

I still have an uneasy feeling about the whole thing but it's more to do with the fact that IMO the letter misrepresents the study and methods so it's more to do with their ethics I suppose.

My mind was boggling about how on earth they were proposing to measure milk transfer so I appreciate your help explaining that side of it!

All the best!

Tara.

My Mum once measured milk intake by weighing her baby (me) before and after a feed. Simple enough, and non-invasive, but it does require your own baby scales.