And the stupid comment of the day award goes to....

[Heavenly]

My MIL! I was on the phone with her last night while I was brushing Olivia's teeth and I commented that her teeth where different shades of white and I hoped that was normal. So my MIL asked if she was getting enough calcium. I said she nurses at least 20 times a day and my MIL said well that doesn't mean anything! There's not enough calcium just in breastmilk, she needs cows milk! Arrrghh! I just politely changed the subject but when I called my mother and told her she died laughing!

[catlvr976]

That sounds like something that would come out of my MIL's mouth.

She said once that dd is "so pale because all she eats is breastmilk and her fat is only milk fat." I guess the fact that I'm pretty pale has NOTHING to do with the fact that dd has the same coloring. :

[Geofizz]

Ca in breastmilk

Here's the info you need:

(1) The bioavailability (the amount of a nutrient that the body can actually absorb) of the nutrients in each fluid differs markedly. For example, human babies can absorb 67% of the calcium in human milk compared to only 25% of the calcium in cow's milk.

(2) The calcium concentration of human milk is just 26 milligrams per 100 milliliters (~3 oz) compared to 113 mg per 100 mL in cow's milk.

(3) A 1 year old needs 800 mg of Ca per day, *assuming* it comes from cow's milk. That means the baby needs to be absorbing 200
mg per day (based on the fact that 25% is actually absorbed from cow's milk). That translates to about 20 oz of cow's milk.

(4) Since 67% of Ca is absorbed from breastmilk, a baby needs 3/2*200, or 300 mg of calcium from breastmilk souces. At 26 mg/ 100 mL calcium in breastmilk that means a baby needs to drink 1150 mL (~38 oz) of breastmilk a day to completely fulfill her calcium needs.

No cow ever has to enter the picture as long as babe is getting significant amounts of breastmilk.

[UlrikeDG]

Re: Ca in breastmilk

Originally posted by Geofizz
(3) A 1 year old needs 800 mg of Ca per day, *assuming* it comes from cow's milk.

Where'd you get that figure? Dr Sears lists 600 mg as the RDA Calcium for a 1 year old. http://askdrsears.com/html/0/T000100.asp#T031002

(Just curious, because we're discussing calcium supplements on another e-mail list right now, so I was just reading all the figures.)

[velveeta]

huh? I am confused. If Ca is more bioavailable in BM why would a babe need 38 oz as opposed to 20 oz of ABM? Did I read that wrong?


Jean

[Geofizz]

UlrikeDG -- I've actually read both 600 and 800 mg for 1 year. Though I thought I'd pulled the 800 mg numer from Dr Sears Baby Book. If you take 600 mg as the requirement, then the amount of breastmilk needed drops to 28 ounces. (I assembled my post from calculations I did for another list last summer).

Jeanvanzyl -- Ounce per ounce, there is less Ca in breastmilk than in cow's milk (26 vs 113 mg per 100 mL), but it's more absorbable (67% vs 25%). The lower concentrations of Ca in breastmilk is the reason that many docs tell you to introduce cow's milk, not realizing that the Ca in breastmilk is more absorbable.

Make sense?

[RachelGS]

This is also assuming there are no solids. Usually by the time somebody is considering straight cow's milk, the baby is eating solids. There are plenty of good calcium sources that don't involve drinking cow's milk, and if the baby is nursing, her needs are perfectly well covered.

[jeca]

Yep, that is pretty stupid considering your babe's not even a year old why would she need cow's milk yet:

Well my mother told me that DD is probably tired of sucking on teh same old nipples still: :

[Meiri]

She said once that dd is "so pale because all she eats is breastmilk and her fat is only milk fat."

And what, pray tell, kind of fat does she think is in cow MILK?:

[UlrikeDG]

Cow fat is apparently white with large black splotches!

[mom2tig99Nroo03]

Originally posted by UlrikeDG
Cow fat is apparently white with large black splotches!

[bananasmom]

Funny MIL. Doesn't know she is funny, eh?

~~~

Where'd you get that figure? Dr Sears lists 600 mg as the RDA Calcium for a 1 year old.

I was told 800, by my dd's nutritionist (on a milk allergy consult).

[TiredX2]

Well my mother told me that DD is probably tired of sucking on teh same old nipples still

Well, most moms don't have a cow around to be sucked on, so what does she suggest you do? LOL :LOL

[jeca]

She suggestions I do everything from put her on a bottle to just giving her "real milk":

Off topic kind of but my 6 year old told me that I should not give the baby so much milk from me. He heard someone say that choclate was bad for babies. I asked him what does that have to do with his sister and he replied "well you make choclate milk don't you?"(some kid told him that choclate milk comes from brown cows so you het the pic!)

[DreamerMama]

Oh Jeca, thanks for the hearty laugh. Read that outloud to the family sitting here, they all laughed so hard. Your son is way too cute!:LOL

[Momtwice]

It seems to me I read that the USA calcium recommendations from our govt. are higher than those elsewhere such as the WHO....dairy industry influence and all that....

[captain optimism]

Originally posted by Momtwice
It seems to me I read that the USA calcium recommendations from our govt. are higher than those elsewhere such as the WHO....dairy industry influence and all that....

Also because, as a culture, we eat so much protein, which affects bone density. If we got our calcium more from non-protein sources, we wouldn't need so much.