Need official quotes/studies for benefits past 1 year SMALL UPDATE

[Ophelia]

I'm putting together a letter for DS's MD/naturopathic doc who's printout I got at the 1 year appt said to stop BF and start on cow's milk!!

this is what I have so far:

•From the AAP: The official policy of the American Academy of Pediatrics is not to put any limit on the duration of lactation. Moreover, a recent review of biological versus cultural aspects of weaning suggested that, from an anthropologic standpoint based on primates studies, "breastfeeding a child for 2.5 to 7 years is normal for our species."
(http://pediatrics.aappublications.or...ull/116/3/e432)

•Mothers of 67 infants were questioned about the types and duration of illness episodes requiring medical care between 16 and 30 months of age. Breastfeeding was noted to decrease the number of infant illnesses and indirectly improve toddler health.
Gulick, E.E. "The Effects of Breastfeeding on the Toddler Health." Pediatric Nursing, 1986 Jan-Feb;12(1):51-4.

•The World Health Organization recommends that children continue to be breastfed until they are at least two years of age

•M. Morrow-Tlucak, et al. "Breastfeeding and Cognitive Development in the First Two Years of Life," Soc Sci Med 26, no. 6 (1998):635-639

•Journal of Family Practice: Although breastfeeding was not found to provide overall protection from developing rotavirus gastroenteritis, exclusive breastfeeding appeared to protect against severe rotavirus diarrhea for infants aged <2 years
(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...2/ai_109218206)


Dr. Katherine A. Dettwyler, PhD has done a lot of research on breastfeeding, and breastfeeding beyond infancy. I encourage you to read her findings and especially her book Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives: http://www.kathydettwyler.org

--Do you know how I can get the full text article for M. Morrow-Tlucak?
--Do you have an official link for the WHO quote?

And anything else you can shoot my way. I'm working on the fact sheet at Kellymom also. Thanks!

HELP: I'm having a hard time figuring out what to put in the letter from kellymom as it can go on for pages and pages: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/bfextended/ebf-benefits.html basically everything on there plus references. Not sure if I should point him to Kellymom or print it all out.

[PatioGardener]

I have several links to quotes here: http://www.mothering.com/discussions...&highlight=who

[DWAXSMOM]

Have you gone to the La Leche League website? They have amazing resources. I bet you could answer all of your questions there. You do not need to reinvent the wheel. http://www.llli.org

[smanore]

re: need studies

When we hear poor information, as you received from your doctor, our first instinct is to pull up as much information as possible and prove what we know to be right. Too much information will probably be ignored. Sadly, it might even block communication and land you with an unfair label.
Have you considered turning this back to the person making the recommendation and respectfully saying (or putting in writing) 'please provide me with research which supports your recommendation, so that I/we can make a more informed decision on this.' You could even say, 'in light of the AAP recommendation to breastfeed for at least a year, or more, and the WHO recommendation of breastfeeding for 2 years I was surprised to read your information to stop breastfeeding at a year. Please provide me with...' You don't need to do the work here honestly, your doctor does. Keeping it respectful and somewhat brief will be your best bet at educating your doctor and keeping communication open. Offering to provide info if he/she would like is a nice touch. Let us know how this turns out if you don't mind. Good luck

[Ophelia]

Thanks for your input. I had everything printed out, and tried faxing it yesterday but it kept saying the number was out of service. So I haven't actually sent it yet.

I thought I was being respectful and non-confrontational with what I wrote (I didn't post my own personal words here, just the studies I was trying to figure out). I'll have to think about it some more.

[menomena]

Originally Posted by smanore

When we hear poor information, as you received from your doctor, our first instinct is to pull up as much information as possible and prove what we know to be right. Too much information will probably be ignored. Sadly, it might even block communication and land you with an unfair label.
Have you considered turning this back to the person making the recommendation and respectfully saying (or putting in writing) 'please provide me with research which supports your recommendation, so that I/we can make a more informed decision on this.' You could even say, 'in light of the AAP recommendation to breastfeed for at least a year, or more, and the WHO recommendation of breastfeeding for 2 years I was surprised to read your information to stop breastfeeding at a year. Please provide me with...' You don't need to do the work here honestly, your doctor does. Keeping it respectful and somewhat brief will be your best bet at educating your doctor and keeping communication open. Offering to provide info if he/she would like is a nice touch. Let us know how this turns out if you don't mind. Good luck

I really like this approach and hadn't thought of it in this way before. Thanks for posting.

[smanore]

re: studies

Originally Posted by Ophelia

I thought I was being respectful and non-confrontational with what I wrote (I didn't post my own personal words here, just the studies I was trying to figure out). I'll have to think about it some more.

I am so sorry if I gave you the impression you were being anything but respectful. I didn't mean that at all, and I really hope I didn't offend you. That was not my intention. I just wanted to offer another idea or approach you might want to consider.

[slowgoing]

www.who.org

[formerluddite]

i'm glad you mentioned kathy dettwyler. this bit (from her commentary "A Natural Age of Weaning") sums it up well:
http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detwean.html

In terms of the benefits of extended breastfeeding, there have been a number of studies comparing breastfed and bottlefed babies in terms of the frequency of various diseases, and also IQ achievement. In every case, the breastfed babies had lower risk of disease and higher IQs than the bottle-fed babies. In those studies that divided breastfed babies into categories based on length of breastfeeding, the babies breastfed the longest did better in terms of both lower disease and higher IQ. In other words, if the categories were 0-6 months of breastfeeding, 6-12 months, 12-18 months and 18-24+ months, then the 18-24+ month babies did the best, and the 12-18 month babies did the next best, and the 6-12 months babies did the next best, and the 0-6 months babies did the worst of the breastfed groups, but still much better than the bottlefeeding group. This has been shown for gastrointestinal illness, upper respiratory illness, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, heart disease, and on and on and on. Likewise, the babies nursed the longest scored the highest on the IQ tests. One important point to notice is that none of these studies looked at children who had nursed longer than 2 years. Anyone 18-24 month or longer was lumped into big category. Presumably, the benefits continue to accrue, as your body doesn't *know* that the baby has bad a birth day and suddenly start producing nutritionally and immunologically worthless milk.

[pinky]

Ophelia, I have a handout that I've written specifically for moms to give to health care providers who need educating about nursing past infancy, discussing the benefits and some potential areas of concern. It has zillion references. PM me and I can email it to you.

[smeep]

Quick suggestions:

Don't speak of it as the benefits of nursing past the first year, but rather the risks of NOT nursing past the first year (IMO, it works the same after that "magical end-nursing 365 day deadline" just as it does before in regards to speaking of risks rather than benefits).

Oh, and the risks that comes with cow's milk...and that it's another mammal's milk...and that, well, why would we need it?? Cows don't need monkey milk after X days/months/years, do they?

Hope some of that helps. I'd go into it more but I gotta run. Good luck!

[SwanMom]

Originally Posted by smeep

Cows don't need monkey milk after X days/months/years, do they?

I'm going to remember that one!

[julie128]

Another way to do this would be to say, "I don't understand why cow milk is better for my human child than human milk." That usually does the trick when I'm in similar situations.

[Ophelia]

I may just ask him about it as I'm making an appt to have some allergy testing done, so I may just ask him while we are there, see what he says, and then have the studies printed out just in case. It wouldn't be until next Friday so I'll let you know how it goes. I'm going to add the other details to my printout. Thanks!

[Ophelia]

So, I showed the doc the sentence and asked him basically why it says that, and he replied "oh, that's old information, of course breastfeeding is best". Huh?!?

I'm just so confused by this. He is an MD AND ND AND trained in homeopathy and perhaps other alternative medicine. You would think he would not be giving out info that could sabatoge BF in a child who could still be BF.

After we left the appt. I asked DH if I understood his answer correctly and he said yep, he's basically saying it's just old information and they haven't bothered to change it. I asked the assistant if they were still handing the info out and she said yes. So I think I do need to send him the studies and encourage him to update the printout.