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The question of toxins
in breastmilk is being addressed in a patient
handout because the issue comes up every
few months, as regular as clockwork, in
the media and frightens many pregnant women
out of breastfeeding their babies and many
women who are already breastfeeding into
stopping. Journalists do not seem to know
how to handle this question very well. It
is likely that some have an ulterior motive
(“my baby wasn’t breastfed and
he’s okay”), and are carrying
some baggage of their own, thus finding
a way of getting back at breastfeeding advocates
and justifying their “choice of infant
feeding”. It is, of course, unprofessional
to do this, but that doesn’t stop them.
Others are merely trying to get out the
news, but without understanding, often,
what they are doing. They don’t understand,
for example, that by talking about toxins
in breastmilk and considering formula as
an almost as good alternative, they are
striking a blow against breastfeeding.
Why are there all these
studies that look at toxins in breastmilk?
One gets the impression that there is panic
about the state of breastmilk in the modern
world, that it is so polluted that everyone
is trying to study it. But the reason that
breastmilk is being studied so often is
that it is easily available, and gives us
an easily obtained sample of human fluid.
That’s the reason, not because scientists
are worried about breastmilk in particular.
Is formula almost the
same as breastmilk?
No, and not by a long
shot. Just because every few years the formula
manufacturers add something to their formulas
that we knew was in breastmilk for years,
but the manufacturers denied were of any
importance, doesn’t mean that the “new
and improved” formula is just like
breastmilk. In some cases, the formula is
improved, but remember, they were telling
us that the formula before the “new
and improved” version was also “almost
like breastmilk”. This is true, for
example, of the long chained polyunsaturated
fatty acids (DHA and AA) that are supposed
to make your baby smarter (one company even
calls their formula A+, but it deserves
a C- at best). We’ve known how important
these fats are for many years, but for many
years (before they were added to formula,
of course), the manufacturers, echoed by
many health professionals, just kept saying
that it didn’t matter, and that there
was no proof that these fats were of any
importance at all (this is still in the
Canadian Paediatric Society’s 1995
statement on the nutrient needs of premature
babies). This cycle of “our milk is
just like breastmilk” followed by “we
have now added x to our milk so that it
is even more like breastmilk” has been
going on since the 19th century.
The truth of the matter
is this:
1. Just adding something
to formula, even if it is in the same
amounts as in breastmilk, does not mean
that the baby will get the amount or the
best sort he needs of this particular
something. The example of iron helps us
understand this. Breastmilk contains enough
iron (with the stores the baby has during
pregnancy), to keep the baby iron sufficient
for at least 6 months. To maintain iron
sufficiency in formula fed babies, formula
needs to contain at least 6 times more
iron than breastmilk, just because iron
does not get absorbed from the baby’s
gut as well from formula as it does from
breastmilk.
2. There are still hundreds
of components of breastmilk that are still
not added to formulas.
3. Breastmilk varies
in what it contains, from morning to evening,
from day to day, from beginning of the
feeding to the end, from day 1 to day
4 to day 10 to day 100, so there is no
way we can know what breastmilk really
contains. This means that there is no
way to duplicate breastmilk because there
is no such thing as a standard breastmilk.
In fact, since every woman produces somewhat
different breastmilk, the notion of a
standard breastmilk becomes an absurdity.
Breastmilk is a living, dynamic fluid.
Formula is a chemical soup.
So what does this mean?
This means that we should
consider formula a drug, which, if one thinks
about it, is exactly what it is. It replaces
a normal fluid (breastmilk). It is only
very superficially like that fluid it replaces.
There are known side effects of formula,
in the short term, medium term and long
term, some quite serious and irreversible.
Formula may, occasionally, be necessary,
but so are drugs. In rare cases, formula
can be lifesaving, but so can some drugs.
A drug is, as my pharmacology
professor said to us in medical school,
a poison or toxin with beneficial side effects.
There is much wisdom in that statement.
So when a mother decides to feed her baby
artificial milk instead of breastfeeding,
she is not avoiding the problem of giving
toxins to her baby.
In fact, it is amazing
how indulgent we are towards formulas. In
none of the articles or television programmes
that bring us the news of toxins in breastmilk,
do they ever, in any I have read or heard,
talk about toxins in formula. There are
toxins in formula. Why would everything
on earth be polluted, even the far reaches
of the Arctic, but not formula? Formula
is full of heavy metals, including lead,
for example, in quantities much higher than
breastmilk. And why would pesticides not
be present in formula? After all, the cows
do grow up in the countryside where the
fields are sprayed. And soybeans grow there
too. Interesting you never read about this
in the newspapers.
But toxins are not good
are they?
No they are not, but breastfeeding
helps to diminish their bad effects. Here
are some facts:
1. Toxins increase the
risk of developing some cancers. True,
but the evidence shows that breastfeeding
babies have a lower risk of some cancers
than artificially fed babies.
2. Toxins may interfere
with neurological function and learning
abilities. True, but the evidence shows
that children who were breastfed do better
on neurological and intelligence tests
than artificially fed children, and the
longer they are breastfed, the better
they do.
3. Toxins may interfere
with immunity. True, but the evidence
shows that infants who are breastfed have
better and more mature immunity than artificially
fed infants, and that this better immunity
carries on much longer than the length
of time the infant or child is breastfed.
What should you do?
If you breastfeed your
baby, you are doing the best for your baby,
and for the world, for that matter. Breastfeeding
is a very environmentally friendly thing
to do. Formula feeding pollutes the environment.
The fact that there are pollutants in breastmilk
can be likened to the situation of the canary
in the coal mine. We should be worried about
what we are doing to our planet, but this
should not lead us to encourage mothers
to feed their babies artificially.
Handout #28 Toxins and Infant
Feeding January 2005
Written by Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC ©2005
This handout may be copied
and distributed without further permission,
on the condition that it is not used in
any context in which the WHO code on the
marketing of breastmilk substitutes is violated
1. Breastfeeding:
Starting out right
a) The
importance of Skin-to-Skin contact
2. Colic in the Breastfed Baby
3. a) Sore Nipples
b) Treatments
for Sore Nipple and Sore Breasts
4. Is my baby getting enough?
5. Using a Lactation Aid
6. Using Gentian Violet
7. Breastfeeding and Jaundice
8. Finger Feeding
9. a) You should continue breastfeeding
(Medications and breastfeeding)
b) You
should continue breastfeeding (Illness in the mother or baby)
10. Breastfeeding and other foods
11. Some breastfeeding myths
12. More breastfeeding myths
13. Still more breastfeeding
myths
14. More and more breastfeeding
myths
15. Breast compression
16. Starting solid foods
17. What to feed the baby when
the mother is working outside the home
18. How to know a health professional
is not supportive of breastfeeding
19. a) Domperidone 1
b) Domperidone
2
20. Fluconazole
21. Breastfeed a toddler –
Why on earth?
22. Blocked ducts and
mastitis
23. Breastfeeding your adopted baby
24. Miscellaneous treatments for problems
25. Slow weight gain after
the first few months
26. When the Baby refuses to
latch on
27. Expressing Milk
28. Toxins and Infant Feeding
How breastmilk protects Newborns
Risks of formula feeding
Breastfeeding and guilt
Candida protocol
Protocol to increase the intake
of Breastmilk by the Baby ("Not enough milk")
When latching
Protocols for Induced Lactation
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