Breastfeeding protects from AIDS

[The Straight Story]

Breastfeeding protects from AIDS

Thursday, April 28, 2005

BALTIMORE, Apr 28, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- A Zimbabwean study finds HIV-positive mothers are less likely to transmit AIDS to their infants if they breast feed exclusively.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University, the University of Zimbabwe and the Harare City Health Department tracked more than 2,000 infants from birth to the age of 2, comparing diets and the rate of AIDS infection and death.

They found that babies fed a mixed diet including animal milk and solids were three times more likely to die of AIDS than those fed nothing but breast milk. Babies where breastfeeding was predominant were less likely to die.

Delaying the introduction of solid foods until at least the age of 3 months also contributed to a reduction in AIDS infection.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_24374.html

[PA Mamma]

1. Well, I'll say it again...

Maybe I should get a tattoo ?

I Lactate !
What's your Superpower ?

[TahitiNut]

14. Uhhh... where?

:rofl: :rofl: Viva los mammals! :patriot:

[lenidog]

2. It just doesn't seem logical but if that is what the evidence points to

then I guess it is.

[Maple]

3. A Zimbabwean study?

That country in the forefront of medicine??

[lenidog]

4. If it had just been the crew from Zimbabwe doing it I would more or less

say its BS. They had researchers from Johns Hopkins also doing it so I do give it a little credence because of them. Though it still seems rather fishy and illogical from what I know about HIV.

[PA Mamma]

5. It's not illogical when you ...

realize that we are the only species that consumes the milk of another species'

We are born to drink our own human milk.
The fact that so many of us do not is a result of the industrial revolution, corporate greed, mis-information and the oppression of women and children the world over. If formula was known for the health risks that it imposes and breastmilk for the benefits that it gives a lot of money would go bye-bye.

[lenidog]

7. I believe that your statements are correct but in this case I am not sure

Where I am thinking its illogical is that they are saying that an HIV infected woman can prevent her baby from catching the virus and later on getting AIDs if they breastfeed their children longer. But HIV is spread through bodily fluids which breast milk is one of them. So by breastfeeding your child you would be giving them the virus wouldn't you?

[benburch]

9. Actually...

I know of a number of cross species 'adoptions' where an orphaned animal was nursed by a lactating female of a different species.

[PA Mamma]

10. Yes, Ben

that is true. And I would probably be the one to nurse that little orphaned money ---I just can't help myself -- nursing right now !
:silly:

I should have said regularly --
By the way just enjoyed one of your archives- Thanks

[kimpossible]

6. All those antibodies

The mother's antibodies that get passed along in her milk are known to protect the baby against all sorts of diseases. Babies that are weaned early and given formula that's made with questionable water supplies are at much greater risk of catching any disease. So this makes perfect sense.

[PA Mamma]

8. You beat me to it..

Thanks.

[Maple]

11. Questionable water supplies

don't give you AIDS

[PA Mamma]

12. No. But what kills you ..

But what kills you when you have AIDS ?

Look, you got some hang-up about bottle feeding your kids?

It is a proven fact that Human Milk is better -- no question.
What Pharmaceutical companies are trying to do in Africa is appalling!

[Baconfoot]

13. The article indicates that there is a reduced likelihood of getting HIV

There is a DISTINCT question regarding whether an already HIV positive baby would benefit from breastmilk. The article seems to indicate that this is also the case. THAT'S not the surprising part though.

The at-least-somewhat surprising part is that the mothers are not passing on HIV through breastfeeding at the rate one apparently might have expected.


You were pretty harsh with the previous poster and for no good reason.
There ARE rare cases when breastfeeding is not recommended, such as when the mother is suffering from a DEADLY infection which might be passed through the breastmilk to the infant. Happily, it looks like HIV is a pretty tough bugger to catch from breastmilk. One would guess that it's present in far lower numbers in breastmilk than in blood or semen.

It's really great that nurses and other health professionals are succeeding in getting the word out regarding the advantages of breastfeeding. But it's not true that breastfeeding is ALWAYS to be preferred.

"Look, you got some hang-up about bottle feeding your kids?" was a bit harsh considering the content of the previous poster's message.

[PA Mamma]

18. Whoa! Just a minute there ...

Perhaps if you read the other posts in the thread that started this you would understand:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3577564&mesg_id=3577564

When I hear about yet another discovery about the benefits of breastfeeding I am happy. Not at all surprised, but happy that something that doesn't generate a profit and is therefore understudied gets a little news. And yeah, I’m proud - -It’s the hardest work I’ve ever done. What saddens me is that so many people are robbed of this right in the name of greed. And they seem to lash out with some sort of weird guilt driven defensive cockamamy off hand comment, like telling me when it's time to stop playing “earth mother.”
You don’t think that was a little rude ( and erroneous)?

Everyday, I see children in this country suffer with ear infections, asthma, obesity and diabetes, (great life-long customers of teh medical complex) but all directly linked and resulting from formula.
That is the truth. It is one that is, like many other truths, suppressed for profit. Attitudes like that are a symptom and part of the problem. Breastfeeding is presented as a personal choice and I believe that if it were addressed as a health issue like, smoking, things could change.
Here’s how an ad campaign that was trying to do just that, was stifled by the AAP and Formula Manufacturers:
The Milky Way of Doing Business
by Katie Allison Granju

“ According to the AAP’s own Breastfeeding Section, at least one thousand new scientific and medical papers on topics related to breast and bottle feeding have been published in just the past four years. Taken as a whole, this mounting body of research reveals dramatically different health outcomes for populations of breast and formula-fed babies, even when controlling for socioeconomic and other factors. The new ad campaign was designed to reflect this research and to catapult the issue of breastfeeding into the same category of public health concerns as smoking, carseat use, childhood vaccinations, and SIDS prevention.”
Please read on how the AAP was lobbied to stifle the campaign:
http://www.drjaygordon.com/bf/stories/milky.htm


And here’s what Nestle is doing in Africa:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/CEM/compseptoct01.html

And here’s what Right Wing hacks are getting paid by them to say about Breastfeeding “Extremists” like me:
“Nestle sells more infant formula in a healthy nation like Belgium than it does in all of Africa, which has 60 times Belgium's population. The best way to boost good health in Africa is to boost African economies. And time-saving technologies like infant formula can help.
This means that Africans should be able to choose, and not to be scared or shamed into breast-feeding. Radicals and their supporters at the WHO, however, want to keep African women, in effect, barefoot, denying them the choice, as they modernize, of a healthy, convenient product.”

Time for Congress to get serious about WHO's excesses
http://www.sitnews.us/Columns/0405/040405_james_glassman.html

So who is being harsh ?

[SarahB]

22. Yeah, another Nestle boycotter!

:yourock:

[kimpossible]

25. Absolutely!

Breastfed babies have a lower risk for allergies, asthma, and a whole host of diseases. They discover new ones every year. The pediatric society now recommends that solids not be introduced until at least 4 months of age, due to the benefits of a sole breastmilk diet until then.

Every once in a while, the formula makers add some newly discovered nutrient into their formulas with great hullaballoo. No wonder that a few scant decades of product development hasn't caught up to tens of thousands of years of evolution.

[kimpossible]

26. Breastfeeding mothers are put on the defensive

There is a huge amount of societal disdain and even outright hostility towards women who breastfeed and don't stay hidden like pariahs the whole time. It's something that you don't notice or realize the extent of, until you experience it. And once you've gone through it, you naturally feel a strong obligation to help defend and smooth the way for other women who will walk that path in the future.

So please excuse our defensiveness. But when a bear has been poked with a sharp stick too many times, you taunt it at your peril. :-)

[fleabert]

16. spit is a bodily fluid and doesn't pass on AIDS either.

It doesn't surprise me that breastmilk is a low transmitter, the antibodies contained in breastmilk haven't even been completely identified, it stands to reason that perhaps an HIV positive woman would produce some sort of antibodies that pass thru breastmilk and help protect the infant. I am not sure if that's why this is, but it makes sense to me.

some things are true even if they seem like they shouldn't be. something I was surprised by:

even smoking and drinking are not contraindicated for breastfeeding.

4. A mother who smokes is better not to breastfeed. Not true! A mother who cannot stop smoking should breastfeed. Breastfeeding has been shown to decrease the negative effects of cigarette smoke on the baby's lungs, for example. Breastfeeding confers great health benefits on both mother and baby. It would be better if the mother not smoke, but if she cannot stop or cut down, then it is better she smoke and breastfeed than smoke and formula feed.

5. A mother should not drink alcohol while breastfeeding. Not true! Reasonable alcohol intake should not be discouraged at all. As is the case with most drugs, very little alcohol comes out in the milk. The mother can take some alcohol and continue breastfeeding as she normally does. Prohibiting alcohol is another way we make life unnecessarily restrictive for nursing mothers.

-now, there are caveats to bf-ing and drinking or smoking, but are better than formula. It's the absolute perfect food for mammals.

http://www.promom.org/bf_info/myths.htm (click the links titled 'here' to find my quotes, at the bottom)

edited for spelling and really bad grammar.

[kimpossible]

27. Thanks for the link

That promom.org site is a great resource.

[fleabert]

17. edit:: dupe

whoops.

[TahitiNut]

15. Yes ... and the 'miracle' of mammaries, too, methinks.

It's been my impression/understanding that millions of years of evolution would certainly select for mammaries that were better Brita Filters ... inhibiting the passage of the various and sundry maladies that might afflict the mother who, with many years of opportunity, would have picked them up. I've got to believe that any propensity to pass along life-threatening biotics would be rapidly pruned from the evolutionary tree.

[HockeyMom]

21. Stomach virus and breast milk

My husband, 6 year old daughter, and my 10 month old daughter came down with an extremely bad stomach virus years ago - constant vomiting and diarrhea. It was so bad my 200 lb. husband would lay on the floor curled up with extreme stomach pains. Their doctors gave them medicine for it but said it would take several days to go away.

The problem was with my infant daughter who could not be given the medicine to (too young). Because she was so very young, the doctor was worried that she was dehydrating and would have to be hospitalized. She could not keep Pedialyte down.

My daughter was still nursing but had started to eat solid foods. The pediatrician had told me to stop solid foods and nursing her. However, she wanted to nurse. Against the doctor's advice and my family's, I would let her nurse. After she nursed, she would fall asleep; no vomiting, no diarrhea.

I called up LeLeche League and they gave me the name of another pediatrician. When I spoke with this new doctor, the first thing he asked me was if I was sick. I said I was the only one in my household who didn't have it. I told him that I remembered having had something very similar to this virus years ago. He said he suspected that I may have developed antibodies to this virus. In that case, he recommended that I nurse my daughter. It was the only substance that she could keep down and that any antibodies I had would be passed on to her. Well, she nursed like a newborn round the clock and within 48 hours she was completely fine. She had even gained weight.

I don't know about Aids and breast milk, but I can certainly attest to antibodies in mother's milk being passed on to the baby.

[SarahB]

24. It boggles my mind how many health professionals know so little...

about breastfeeding. Most physicians (pediatricians that is) received little to no training or information on breastfeeding in medical school. It's sad because so many people give up or otherwise have problems due to poor advice.

[MontageOfFreedom]

19. Now just wait....

Fox News and the fundamentalists will be ripping this one a new one, screaming down the press for breast feeding.

[PA Mamma]

20. Relax...

Formula is the Right Wing's Friend.
Breastmilk is FREE !
And Good for Humans.

Why would they want to encourage the consumption of anything that can't generate a profit and would benefit mankind?

They've been fighting this for a while. See my post above.

[SarahB]

23. Make it now 102 Reasons to breastfeed....

http://www.promom.org/101/ (great site for information on the benefits of breastfeeding and more importantly, the dangers of NOT breastfeeding)

Great news and nope, I'm not surprised. :)

[mzmolly]

28. I am ever amazed at the power of my boobs.

;)

I think EBF was the best thing I've done as a Momma.