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Mothering Magazine Warns Parents About Mercury In Flu Vaccines
For Immediate Release: July 2004
Contact: Kathleen Chambers Steil, Marketing Director, Mothering Magazine, 505-984-6289.

Annual flu vaccinations for all infants and toddlers 6 through 23 months of age will be required in the United States, starting this fall, even though injected flu vaccines still contain mercury in the form of the preservative thimerosal. There is alarming evidence of a possible connection between the mercury found in vaccines and the spiraling rate of autism in children.

The EPA, the FDA, the US Public Health Service (USPHS), and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have all called for the elimination of mercury content in childhood vaccines and yet, no ban has been enacted and thimerosal remains in vaccines five years after the EPA warning.

Fluzone, the only flu vaccine licensed for infants 6 to 23 months of age, comes in two versions. One contains less than 0.3 micrograms of mercury and is considered by the manufacturer to be thimerosal-free. The second version contains 25 micrograms of mercury, which could be as much as 25 times the safe level of mercury suggested by the EPA. Infants are expected to get two flu shots a year the first year.

On May 18th, The Institute of Medicine (IOM) shocked independent researchers and parents of autistic children by concluding that there is no link between thimerosal in childhood vaccines and autism. Just two weeks later, however, the Office of Special Counsel asked the Congressional Oversight Committee for Health and Human Services to investigate allegations of possible vaccine conflicts of interest within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the FDA and the CDC, which sponsored the IOM hearings on thimerosal and autism.

Just three days after the IOM findings were released; Representatives Dave Weldon, MD (R-FL) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) introduced a bi-partisan bill (HB4169) that would remove vaccines that contain thimerosal from the market by January 2005. Also in May, Thomas J. Vilsack of Iowa became the first governor to sign into law a state bill banning the use of thimerosal in vaccines.

In June, Dr. Mady Hornig of Columbia University released the results of her "first of its kind" research study, which found that the administration of low-dose mercury-like that in childhood vaccines-can lead to behavioral and neurological changes in the developing brain.

Parents believe that mercury is out of vaccines and may not think to ask when they get flu vaccines for their families in the fall. While health organizations may be more concerned about pandemics than about thimerosal, parents must think twice.

Mothering Magazine recommends that parents who choose the flu vaccine request thimerosal-free vaccines and that they not combine the flu vaccine with other vaccines. Additionally, flu vaccines with thirmeosal are not prudent for pregnant women.

For more information, read the Featured Story in the July-August 2004 Mothering Magazine

THE FLU VACCINE AND YOU: What Parents Need to Know about the New Recommendations

A comprehensive look at the flu vaccine, thimerosal, and the dangers of mercury poisoning. (page 40)
Mercury Must Be Removed from Childhood Vaccines-NOW! By Peggy O'Mara (page 8)
If you decide to vaccinate, choose thimerosal-free vaccines. (List and link on page 45)
A compelling letter to the government written by the parents of mercury-injured children. (page 48)

Vitamin D Recommendation of The American Academy of Pediatrics Undermines Breastfeeding
For Immediate Release: April 16, 2003
Contact: Peggy O'Mara 505-984-6293.

The March/April issue of Mothering Magazine criticizes the American Academy of Pediatrics for eroding support for breastfeeding as the exclusive source of nutrition for infants.

On April 7, 2003 the AAP issued a clinical report recommending that all exclusively breastfed infants be supplemented with 200 IU of vitamin D every day. According to the report, Prevention of Rickets and Vitamin D Deficiency: New Guidelines for Vitamin D Intake, "It is recommended that all infants, including those who are exclusively breastfed, have a minimum intake of 200 International Units (IU) of vitamin D per day beginning during the first 2 months of life."

"It's ridiculous for the AAP to recommend a pill when good old sunlight will do," says Peggy O'Mara, Editor and Publisher of Mothering magazine. "If the AAP is really worried about sunlight deficiency, then tell us to get our babies out into the sun more. Suggesting instead that breastmilk is deficient is the last thing we need to hear as mothers. It undermines our individual confidence and it undermines the confidence of the public in breastfeeding. And what's worse, the evidence does not support this recommendation," says O'Mara, "All breastfed babies do not need to take a vitamin D supplement."

In fact, the AAP recommends 200 IU of vitamin D for everyone who drinks less than 17 ounces of vitamin D-fortified formula or vitamin D-fortified milk each day: "Any child who is not consuming at least a pint of Vitamin D-fortified milk should receive vitamin D. It is now recommended that even adults consume vitamin D in milk or vitamin pills."

The AAP recommends vitamin D supplementation because of what they call "continued reports of infants who have been diagnosed with rickets," and yet it fails to quantify an increase. In fact, there are so few cases of rickets in the US that there is no national database on its prevalence. While the AAP believes that rickets is on the increase, many experts doubt that vitamin D supplementation is the answer to sunlight deficiency? The AAP may be reluctant to recommend sun exposure because of its previous recommendation that everyone wear sunscreen "which prevents the skin from making vitamin D" but other health authorities are not.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Some UV radiation is essential to the body as it stimulates the production of Vitamin D. There is no doubt that a little sunlight is good for you! But, 5 to 15 minutes of casual sun exposure of hands, face and arms two to three times a week during the summer months is sufficient to keep your Vitamin D levels high. Closer to the equator, where UV levels are higher, even shorter periods of exposure suffice."

What about dark-skinned infants? According to neonatologist, Michael Young, MD, "'Dark-skinned' is a relative term given to far too many variations. Also, climate conditions, such as in cities with a lot of air pollution, can make sunlight a challenge for persons who are not as deeply pigmented."

Katerine Dettwyler, PhD, professor of anthropology and nutrition at Texas A&M University says that, "Most babies with light/medium skin tones need only a little outdoor time, while darker-skinned babies need more outdoor time. Let's get the kids outside more instead of giving them vitamin D."

The AAP's report does not contain enough information for breastfeeding mothers to make informed decisions about whether or not vitamin D supplementation is appropriate for their infants. Furthermore, media reports of the AAP's recommendation as well as formula advertising are already conveying the inaccurate message that human milk is "deficient" when sunlight deficiency is the real problem.

In fact, in the April 7th AAP news release, Nancy Krebs, M.D., FAAP, chair of the AAP Committee on Nutrition undermines breastfeeding, "The good news is that more babies are being breastfed, and we need to be reminded what extra considerations need to go with breastfeeding to best support the health of breastfed infants."

Unfortunately, there is no good news about breastfeeding. Exclusive breastfeeding initiation rates are down. When the 1997 AAP statement on breastfeeding was issued, one of its authors, Ruth Lawrence, MD, stated, "Increasing both the rates of breastfeeding initiation and duration is a national health objective. We now have about 60 percent of mothers breastfeeding their newborns. We'd like to see that number rise to 75 percent. Currently only 21 percent of 5-month-olds are getting any breastmilk at all."

Since 1997, however, breastfeeding has declined. The Executive Summary of Selling Out Mothers and Babies: Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes in the USA published in 2001 by the National Alliance for Breastfeeding Advocacy tells another story. Only 47% of mothers initiate exclusive breastfeeding in the US and less than 12% are still breastfeeding at six months. These rates are tragically lower than the Healthy People 2010 national health goals of 75% initiation, 50% continuation at six months, and 25% at one year. In their 1997 breastfeeding statement, the AAP recommended that all babies be breastfed for at least one year. The World Health Organization recommends two years.

The April 7th press release recommending universal vitamin D supplementation seriously undermines the public perception of the integrity of exclusive breastfeeding and contradicts previous AAP statements on breastfeeding as well. In the December 1997 AAP statement, "Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk," the AAP stated, "In the first 6 months, water, juice, and other foods are generally unnecessary for breastfed infants. Vitamin D may need to be given before 6 months of age in selected groups of infants (for infants whose mothers are vitamin D-deficient or those infants not exposed to adequate sunlight)"

Which AAP are we to believe?

In the March/April 2003 issue of Mothering, lactation consultant Cynthia Good Mojab examines the scientific research on vitamin D and rickets. Kathie Barber, Executive Director of the African American Breastfeeding Alliance, and Mishawn Purnell-O'Neal delve into the devastating politics of vitamin D and breastfeeding especially as they affect the black community where breastfeeding rates are already 20% lower than whites and Hispanics.

Mounting Evidence Links Toxic Vaccines to Soaring Autism Rates
For Immediate Release: November 1, 2002
Contact: Peggy O'Mara 505-984-6293.

The November/December issue of Mothering Magazine features evidence linking vaccines and autism from the research of J. Curtis Pendergrass, PhD and Boyd Haley, PhD of the University of Kentucky, leading experts on mercury poisoning. According to Dr. Haley, "To date, the data has been very consistent: the toxicity of vaccines is primarily dependent on the presence of thimerosal, and, in my opinion, thimerosal-containing vaccines would be classified as severely toxic to numerous brain proteins." Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative widely used until recently in childhood vaccines to prevent bacterial contamination.

The research of Perdergrass and Haley is part of a larger body of evidence connecting vaccine-induced mercury toxicity with a dramatic rise in US autism rates: from 1 in 2,000 10 years ago to 1 in 250 today. Boys are 4 to 10 times more likely to suffer from autism than girls. Since 1940, the number of required childhood vaccines has risen from three doses of Diptheria-Pertussis-Tetanus (DPT) to 40 doses of 12 different vaccines, some of them genetically engineered. The 62.4 mcg. of ethyl mercury that a 10 pound infant would receive from multiple vaccines administered at one visit could be up to 125 times the EPA "safe" level for ingested mercury. No safe levels for injected mercury have been established. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin; it inhibits brain function in a variety of ways. It also supresses the immune system.

In the late 1990s, the FDA recommended that thimerosal be removed from vaccines, but there was never a recall and vaccines that contain thimerosal are still in use. Only one brand of DPT is thimerosal-free and, despite evidence of toxicity, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has recently recommended thimerosal containing flu vaccines for infants. Vaccines are big business in the United States. Pharmaceutical company revenues from the sale of vaccines were estimated at more than $1 billion a year in 2000, twice what they were in 1990. The cost to fully vaccinate a child has risen from $107 in 1986 to $367 in 1996, a 243% increase. According to James Jeffrey Bradstreet, MD, director of the US division of the Intercontinental Case Control Study of Autism and Its Relationship to Vaccines, "By their very nature, mass vaccination programs are in effect an ongoing open-label experiment. No study can adequately predict the long-term and subtle effects of a vaccine prior to its introduction to a group as large as most of the population of our planet."

Stephanie Cave, MD and Amy Holmes, MD specialize in the metabolic treatment of patients in their Baton Rouge, Louisiana clinic and are currently treating more than 1900 children with autism spectrum disorders. In a study last year, they found that about 40 percent of the children they have treated showed marked improvement through normalizing biochemistry and using nutritional therapy.

Also in the November/December issue of Mothering, two parents, Lyn Redwood and Liz Birt, chronicle the regressive autism that developed in their perfectly normal babies immediately after receiving multiple vaccinations. They speak candidly about their struggles to understand what happened to their children and their resultant activism.

Mothering is a bimonthly magazine that reports on natural family living. Articles cover breastfeeding, drug-free childbirth, pregnancy, midwifery, educational alternatives, family health issues, and much more.

For additional information about the connection between vaccines and autism, look for the November/December issue of Mothering Magazine at bookstores, newsstands, and natural food grocery stores today.

Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Crib Campaign May Harm Babies
For Immediate Release: September 3, 2002
For More Information Contact: Peggy O'Mara 505-984-6293

In the September/October issue of Mothering, experts report that infants who sleep alone are at risk for SIDS. The research of twelve scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand unanimously supports the safety and benefits of a mother sleeping with or near her baby.

In contrast to these findings, this month the CPSC will launch the "Sweet Dreams" campaign in which it recommends only cribs and playpens as safe places for infants to sleep. Ironically, the CPSC has partnered in this venture with the Juvenile Products Manufacturing Association (JPMA), the trade association for manufacturers of cribs and playpens. CPSC brochures about adult beds will be distributed at retail outlets that sell these items.

In his article in the new issue of Mothering, the world's top expert on SIDS, professor and pediatrician Peter Fleming, describes the largest population-based, case-control study yet conducted, the Sudden Unexpected Deaths in Infancy study. This study included all unexpected deaths occuring over a three-year period from a population of 470,000 births in the United Kingdom. The study's conclusion: "For infants who shared a room with a parent, the risk of SIDS was approximately half that for infants who slept alone. In other words, putting a baby to sleep in a separate room doubled the risk of SIDS."

In another article in the September/October issue of Mothering, James Mckenna, PhD, professor of anthropology, department chairman, and director of the Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame, demonstrates that "because the human infant's body continues to be adapted only to the mother's body, co-sleeping with nighttime breastfeeding remains clinically significant and potentially lifesaving."

Tina Kimmel, MSW, MPH, a PhD candidate at the University of California-Berkeley, analyzed the CPSC's own data to show that "it was actually less than half (42%) as risky or more than twice as safe for an infant to be in an adult bed as in a crib." Her further analysis of the CDC' s Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) showed that between 1991 and 1999, approximately 68 percent of mothers in Alaska, Alabama, Colorado, Oregon and West Virginia slept with their babies.

The CPSC's recommendations are based on anecdotal data and are not consistent with international research. The agency's partnership with industry is inappropriate. Hundreds of doctors, scientists, journalists and consumers have joined with Mothering to appeal to the CPSC to stop their "Sweet Dreams" campaign and to disassociate with the campaigns of industry.

To find out more about the most current research on the benefits of co-sleeping look for the September/October 2002 issue of Mothering at bookstores, health food grocery stores and newsstands.

For interviews with editor Peggy O'Mara, or with any of the scientists whose research is published in this issue contact Peggy O'Mara at 505-984-6293 or peggyo@mothering.com

Breastfeeding Does Not Cause Early Childhood Caries
For Immediate Release: July 23, 2002
For More Information Contact: Peggy O'Mara (505) 984-6293.

The new July/August issue of Mothering Magazine features a ground-breaking article by Lisa Reagan providing conclusive evidence that breastfeeding does not cause cavities in infants. Mothers are often told to stop breastfeeding if their child has cavities. This comprehensive new article, compiled from three dozen studies, shows that breastfeeding has nothing to do with cavities.

It turns out that the culprit is not breastfeeding but ECC, Early Childhood Caries. ECC is an infectious disease caused by Streptococcus bacterium, which is transmitted from mother or caretaker to baby through saliva. Pediatric dentist Kevin Hale recommends that mothers, as the primary transmitters of the bacteria that causes ECC, get their own dental and overall health in top condition. Of course, daily dental hygiene for the baby is necessary as well as a healthy diet. The bacterium that causes baby cavities feeds on sucrose and produces acid as a byproduct. This acid dissolves enamel.

The article states that education is what is needed most. Lisa Reagan, author of the article Big Bad Cavities, lists these risk factors as contributing to ECC:
1. Family/genetic history of tooth decay
2. Mother's high fever during pregnancy
3. Mother's diet during pregnancy and lactation
4. Premature birth
5. Introducing solids too soon
6. Sweetened medicine, vitamins, or cough syrups

Also in the July/August issue of Mothering:

Solitary Sadness-the Need to Grieve Miscarriage by Wendy Ponte. Most people do not realize the depth of mourning that many women go through or how long recovery can take.

Hold Me Close, an article advising parents to throw out the plastic baby carrier and wear your baby in one of the many baby slings, hip carriers, vertical front carriers or baby backpacks. Parent's bodies will appreciate the better posture, and baby will love the body contact and relaxing body movement.

Mothering is a bimonthly magazine that supports and writes about natural family living. Articles cover breastfeeding, natural childbirth, midwifery, alternatives in education, pregnancy and much more.

To find out more about the early childhood cavities and its causes look for the July/August issue of Mothering Magazine at your local bookstore, health food store, or newsstand today.

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