"The fact is, babies get sick" says Martek

[annettemarie]

No need to ban DHA and ARA, says Martek

"There has been no statistical rise in the number of adverse events since our ingredients were introduced into infant formulas in 2002," France-Kelly said. "The fact is babies get sick, some react to infant formula yes, but that could be milk proteins or other ingredients. To link these ailments with the presence of omega-3s and omega-6s is spurious at best."

She said the health benefits of omega-3s and omega-6s for infants were well documented and spoke for themselves. These included heart, ocular and cognitive benefits.

Never mind the fact that chemically-extracted DHA/ARA isn't the same as that which naturally occurs in breastmilk. Never mind that side effects of vomiting and diarrhea have been reported to the FDA. The lack of concern about infant health just disgusts me.

I wasn't sure if this belonged in Lactivism or not. I decided to put it here because the formula industry continually tries to link itself with breastmilk's benefits while at the same time working to undermine women who breastfeed.

[Da WIC Lady]

And most mainstream people look at me funny when I tell them I won't buy the DHA/ARA dairy products for my kids since the formula companies have done such a great job at getting people to believe that it's promoting good health. I get the "You're one of those" look when I point out the health dangers of said additives. Ok, so we do give the 6 year old flaxseed oil capsules because his neurologist said it may help his condition, but it's nothing close to the synthetic nonsence that goes into formula or these other "enriched" dairy products. Thanks for posting this article.

Anna

[acannon]

My little guy got sick the other day when I gave him some Nestle Good Starts formula (I went out to pick up some groceries and didn't have any milk pumped) so I'm irked at this. It's even marketed as being easy for digestion. Yeah, right. Tell me that while I'm cleaning up formula throw up. I wanted to call and complain because it really upset me, but then I realized that they wouldn't care. They would just say, "Oh, he just had a reaction to it. Some babies do that." So I wasted money buying your formula that he can't eat. Ugh. I'm never buying formula again. It'll be pumped milk from now on.

[bobbirs]

what they are bad? darn it why didn't I know that when I had to substitute!!!! thank you for posting!

Bobbi

[HappyFox05]

Sounds like what the vaccine ppl say after a baby gets hurt by one - 'Oh, well, he had an underlying condition which was going to show up eventually'.