Breastfeeding blamed for rickets

[QueeTheBean]

Anyone else see this on MSNBC?

Shedding Light on Vitamin D Deficiency Crisis

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28894095/

Rickets is a skeletal disease that most often results from a lack of vitamin D. In the baby’s case, the condition was most likely caused by breast-feeding. Mothers often do not pass enough vitamin D to their babies from breast milk, which is why most pediatricians suggest vitamin D supplements, especially for breast-fed infants.

emphasis, mine

[Ruthla]

Ugh. No mention of getting the baby in the sun, no mention of introducing vitamin D-rich foods when the baby started solids, no mention of supplements for infants in specific risk groups.

[formerluddite]

and despite the whole article being about the high rate of D deficiency among adults, they blame breastfeeding, instead of the likelihood that mom was probably deficient before and during pregnancy, as well as after (while breastfeeding). if vit D levels were treated like folic acid levels, there'd be no problem.

[QueeTheBean]

Originally Posted by Ruthla

Ugh. No mention of getting the baby in the sun, no mention of introducing vitamin D-rich foods when the baby started solids, no mention of supplements for infants in specific risk groups.

I was very displeased with this. :

Think of all the moms & dads who are going to read this article and stop BF, or never even start.

[QueeTheBean]

Originally Posted by formerluddite

and despite the whole article being about the high rate of D deficiency among adults, they blame breastfeeding, instead of the likelihood that mom was probably deficient before and during pregnancy, as well as after (while breastfeeding). if vit D levels were treated like folic acid levels, there'd be no problem.

Yeah that.

[2xy]

On a tangent....

I nursed both of my kids and was never told to supplement them with Vitamin D. Neither of them received any supplements of any kind as babies. Maybe the doctors just assumed the kids would get enough sunshine because we lived in the South at the time.

[lmj928]

That's too bad... :
And what about the safety of the Vit D supplement? How is it made, what chemicals does it have, is it actually absorbed like natural vitamin D?

[Arwyn]

[kriket]

why is it people keep fighting breastfeeding with things like this? Are they purposely trying to make mother FF but saying that breastfeeding isn't best? How on earth have so many mammals made it for so many years.

[llamalluv]

Originally Posted by lmj928

That's too bad... :
And what about the safety of the Vit D supplement? How is it made, what chemicals does it have, is it actually absorbed like natural vitamin D?

I thought Vit D supplements were mainly cod liver oil?

[lmj928]

I think cod liver oil is a good one, although there is some debate about the levels of vit A now, but lots of peds suggest (or maybe prescribe, I'm not sure if they are Rx only or what) Vit D drops which are coincidentally made by formula companies.

[spughy]

There are 2 forms of vit D - D2 and D3. D3 is naturally occurring, in food typically in cod liver oil, eggs, and seafood. It is destroyed by heat, so the eggs and seafood would have to be consumed raw to get the D3 out of them. D3 is also manufactured in your epidermis when exposed to sunlight of sufficient intensity.

D2 is an easily synthesized form that was proven effective in preventing rickets and is the most commonly used form in clinical trials, despite having been shown to be less efficacious in humans. D2 is added to pasteurized milk.

There is also an interaction effect with vit D and vit A, such that both are absorbed and used best by the body when they are taken in approximately a 1:10 ratio... but I need to go to bed now and I am not going to dig up that reference.

That article was poorly written and definitely on the scare-tactics side, BUT it's true that that baby might not have gotten rickets if his mother hadn't breastfed him. He would be more likely to have allergies, IBS, colic, stomach issues, immune system issues, require expensive dental work and have issues with obesity and god-knows-what-else, but not rickets. I don't think it's fair to say that breastfeeding was the cause - not sticking the poor kid outside for a few minutes with no clothes on is equally culpable, and a much cheaper fix than formula.

Anecdotally, my DD and I have been taking cod liver oil every day this winter, and we've had naught but a few days of sniffles, while everyone else we know has had 5-week nasty colds. We spend a lot of time at playgroups covered in other kids' germs. Make of that what you will, but I think it's worth getting over the gaggingly bad taste, and IME if you start kids on it early - like well before 1 year - they don't seem to mind the flavour.

ETA: Interestingly, the article I cited above has been referenced in a more recent study, which shows that the above posters who blamed maternal levels of vit D were totally right - all the studies showing vit D not in breastmilk seem to have been done on vit D-deficient women (ie, most of North America & Europe) and if supplemented to an acceptable level, women's breastmilk has just fine levels of vit D. Someone at MSNBC didn't do their homework, if I was able to determine that from study abstracts on the internet in 15 minutes. Pffft.

[CellarDoor]

Vitamin D deficiency IS a big problem these days (lacking diet, too much sunscreen, not enough time outside). Of course FF isn't the answer (ugh.)

Cod liver oil is an excellent source of D and A IF it isn't standardized by stripping all the vitamins out and then adding synthetics back in (synthetic vit A can be toxic). The only brand I will take is Blue Ice as it hasn't been messed with.

If you're interested in checking your levels (which would indicate how rich your BM is in D), you can join this study.

[QueeTheBean]

It was the specific wording of "caused by breastfeeding" that really irked me--not so much the concept that BF babies may need an additional source for Vit D. That makes it sound as though there is something in breastmilk that is harmful and causes rickets.

[applejuice]

Originally Posted by lmj928

That's too bad... :
And what about the safety of the Vit D supplement? How is it made, what chemicals does it have, is it actually absorbed like natural vitamin D?

The way vitamin D is added to milk is by shining an ultraviolet light on the milk.

Vitamin D is absorbed from the sun through the skin by a synthesis that is similar to the body manufacturing a hormone.

With all the hew an cry about global warming, I am sure there is plenty of sunlight out there for all of us. The only case of rickets I have known about is a friend who grew up in YellowKnife, Canada, where the sun shines half of the time.

[spughy]

Originally Posted by applejuice

The way vitamin D is added to milk is by shining an ultraviolet light on the milk.

Uh, no.

From a website authored by Dr. Anthony Norman, Biochemistry University of California Riverside:

The commercial production of vitamin D3 is completely dependent on the availability of either 7-dehydrocholesterol or cholesterol. 7-Dehydrocholesterol can be obtained via organic solvent extraction of animal skins (cow, pig or sheep) followed by an extensive purification. Cholesterol typically is extracted from the lanolin of sheep wool and after thorough purification and crystallization can be converted via a laborious chemical synthesis into 7-dehydrocholesterol. It should be appreciated that once chemically pure, crystalline 7-dehydrocholesterol has been obtained, it is impossible to use any chemical or biological tests or procedures to determine the original source (sheep lanolin, pig skin, cow skin, etc.) of the cholesterol or 7-dehydrocholesterol.
Next the crystalline 7-dehydrocholesterol is dissolved in an organic solvent and irradiated with ultraviolet light to carry out the transformation (similar to that which occurs in human and animal skin) to produce vitamin D3. This vitamin D3 is then purified and crystallized further before it is formulated for use in dairy milk and animal feed supplementation. The exact details of the chemical conversion of cholesterol to 7-dehydrocholesterol and the method of large-scale ultraviolet light conversion into vitamin D3 and subsequent purification are closely held topics for which there have been many patents issued

[applejuice]

Uh, that was what I was told and demonstrated to me when I worked at a dairy. We bought the milk, processed it and readied it for manufacturing into yogurt. That was the process.

[CellarDoor]

Originally Posted by QueeTheBean

It was the specific wording of "caused by breastfeeding" that really irked me--not so much the concept that BF babies may need an additional source for Vit D. That makes it sound as though there is something in breastmilk that is harmful and causes rickets.

:

Mom's diet or lifestyle may need to change, not the method of feeding!!!!!!

[spughy]

Originally Posted by applejuice

Uh, that was what I was told and demonstrated to me when I worked at a dairy. We bought the milk, processed it and readied it for manufacturing into yogurt. That was the process.

UV light is sometimes used to pasteurize milk, perhaps that's what you're thinking of? The cells that convert ultraviolet energy into Vit D are in the skin, not in milk. (What use would that facility be in milk? In nature, milk would never be exposed to sunshine.)

[calebsmommy25]

This is so upsetting.