Articles labeled: breastfeeding

A restaurateur in Switzerland (where else?) has announced that all of his menu items will be prepared with human breast milk. Han Locher is paying a pretty penny for the milk maids donations.

I can see it now, woman lined up in stalls with breast pumps hooked up to their nipples while hay lay at their feet.

Blech.

Mr Locher attracted the attention of the leading media of the German-speaking world this week after he posted ads looking for women donors, who will receive just over three pounds for 14 ounces of their milk.

He said: “I first experimented with breast milk when my daughter was born.

“One can cook really delicious things with it. However, it always needs to be mixed with a bit of whipped cream, in order to keep the consistency.”

Ladies, looks like a bottlefeeding sit in is in order. Who’s with us? No one? :crickets chirping:

Samantha Corbridge, 24, was thrown out of the Jobcentre Plus office after being told she was breaking the ‘food and drink policy’ by giving her daughter a bottle of milk.

The mother-of-two was left feeding Robyn, two, on the steps of the office in Hove, East Sussex.

She had gone to the office to search for information on an apprenticeship in childcare, but as she searched through files her daughter began to cry.

Miss Corbridge said: “I could tell it was frustrating some of the workers so I decided to give her a bottle because she was hungry.

“The next thing I knew a woman was marching over to me saying I was breaching their food and drink policy and that no one is allowed to drink inside the Jobcentre.”

Two North Carolina birthing centers are being applauded by breastfeeding advocates for refusing to accept free infant formula to pass on to their patients.

UNC Health Care stopped distributing the bags in late June. The Women’s Birth and Wellness Center in Chapel Hill never gave away the bags.

The Golden Bow Awards are from the nonprofit N.C. Breast-feeding Coalition, a group of lactation consultants, nurses and other women’s health professionals.

Coalition members started the campaign, a version of a national effort to ban the bags, in February. Four other hospitals in North Carolina received the award earlier this year.

Studies show that the free bags make it easier for new moms to stop breast-feeding.

Emily Taylor of the the Center for Infant and Young Child Feeding and Care at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said mothers perceive the free bags and formula as an endorsement of a particular brand from the hospital.

Edwina Froehlich, one of the seven founders of La Leche League International has died at the age of 93.

Edwina Froehlich was living in Franklin Park in 1956 when she and six friends began talking about ways to promote natural childbirth and breast feeding.

Her own inspiration was watching the childbirth experiences of her older sister, Pauline, who’s still living at 96, Paul Froehlich said.

Mrs. Froehlich was shaken at mothers anesthetized for childbirth, fathers excluded from the delivery room and the lack of respect doctors showed for the nurses assisting them.

She was determined to make changes, first for herself and then for others.

“She became an advocate of natural childbirth and breast feeding,” Paul Froehlich said. “There’s very few people in my age group who can say their father was in the delivery room when they were born.”

A new study out of Buenos Aires reports that in one aspect — respiratory infections — girls benefit from breastfeeding more than boys.

They found that infant girls who were breast-fed were far less likely than baby boys who were breast-fed to develop serious respiratory infections requiring hospitalization.

A lot of research has shown that breast-fed babies enjoy a range of health benefits compared to those given baby formula beyond combating respiratory infections.

These include fewer ear, stomach or intestinal infections, digestive problems, skin diseases and allergies, and less risk of developing high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. And some research has shown breast-fed babies are smarter, too.

“There are many, many different diseases that are protected against by breast-feeding. It’s a great source of nutrition. It’s important for development. Everyone benefits from breast-feeding,” Dr. Fernando Polack of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, one of the researchers, said in a telephone interview.

Research in Canada seems to prove the long asserted notion that breastfed infants have higher IQs — but only for those with certain genetics.

Scientists have identified a specific gene implicated in the link between breastfeeding and higher IQ in children, suggesting that biology — and not just socio-economics — is involved.

A study published Nov. 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found that a variant of a gene involved in metabolizing the fatty acids in breast milk determines whether children get an IQ boost from breastfeeding — on average as much as seven points.

Previous research has shown that breastfed children have higher IQs than those who were bottle-fed. But it wasn’t clear if the advantage was partly the result of other factors such as the mother’s own IQ or socio-economic status, said study author Avshalom Caspi. In Western countries, women from higher socio-economic groups are more likely to breastfeed, he explained.

His study controlled for the mother’s intelligence and social class, as well as for the children’s birth weight and gestational age (other factors known to influence intelligence).

Well this ought to make for some interesting fodder on the feeding choices debate boards. Researchers in London found that premature infants that were fed enriched formula consistently outperformed other preemies on IQ tests. The other infants were fed either regular formula, “bank” breast milk, or a mix of the breast milk and formula.

Their latest study, published in Pediatric Research, shows the benefits continue into the teenage years.

It also found a particular part of the brain is better developed in those given the enriched milk.

The team from Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the UCL Institute of Child Health note that while nutrition has been linked with behaviour, their findings are among the first to show how early feeding may even alter brain structure.

Lead researcher Dr Elizabeth Isaacs said: “It is not clear whether this just relates to preterm infants, who have very specific development issues.

“But obviously a next question would be if there are any wider implications, both for feeding beyond those first few weeks, and for babies who are born at term.”

While infant formula will never replicate breastmilk, Martek has released new studies that suggest that certain fortifications will reduce infections in formula fed babies:

22/10/2007 - Inclusion of prebiotic fibres in infant formula may cut the recurrence of infection during the first six-months of life by about 10 per cent, suggests new research.

Healthy term infants fed formula containing short chain galactooligosaccharides and long chain fructooligosaccharides (scGOS/lcFOS) also had a 6.5 per cent lower incidence of recurring respiratory infections than placebo-fed infants, according to a prospective, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

The study, published in the new issue of the Journal of Nutrition, adds to an ever-growing body of research reporting benefits fo the inclusion of prebiotics or probiotics in infant formula.

Hopefully the government will confirm the studies and politics and over-zealous breastfeeding advocates won’t get in the way of potentially making formula better.

Irene Skurr of Canterbury, New Zealand died when a blood clot traveled from a recent leg injury up into her lung. In a sad turn of fate, Ms. Skurr was breastfeeding her 10-month-old son Cameron at the time, and he suffocated and died when she collapsed on top of him:

The Lincoln woman was an ardent supporter of breastfeeding and she and Cameron appeared in The Press in August in support of breastfeeding rights.

Sergeant Danny Harker, of the Selwyn police, said the deaths were an “absolute tragedy”.

“It’s deeply traumatising for the family and the police staff that attended,” he said on Monday. “It’s a total accident and our thoughts go out to the family for their loss.”

Friends of Skurr yesterday recalled a “people person” who was excited about being a new mother.

The co-ordinator of a Lincoln breastfeeding support group, Tui Wagstaff, said Skurr had been very committed to the group and had attended before and after giving birth. “She was very pleasant, a nice lady – always happy to stop and have a chat. She was pleased to be having her first baby and looking after it. It was a shock to everyone.”

Wagstaff said the tragedy of Skurr dying while breastfeeding was simply a freak occurrence. “I’ve spoken to a number of mothers and we’ve all said she could have been doing anything – driving, for example.”

The story seems to be pushing the irony of a breastfeeding advocate killing her baby while breastfeeding, but obviously the same bad ending could have happened even if she had been merely holding the infant. But I guess that doesn’t make for a good story angle…

I’m gonna start calling breastfeeding a “disability” since some lactating women feel they deserve special concessions. I think formula feeding moms should be given extra time to take board tests too. What if the formula fed baby feels slighted and emotionally damaged from someone else giving them a bottle? It just isn’t right. The injustice of it all!

Breastfeeding mothers must be so fragile and physically limited since they cannot even take an exam, so a Judge and an opportunist decided.

Honestly, if Ms. Currier is afforded extra time, so should everybody else, in my opinion:

In overturning a ruling that denied Ms. Currier the additional 60 minutes of break time she requested, Judge Gary Katzmann said yesterday that she needed the extra time so she could be on “equal footing” with men and nonlactating women taking the test.

The medical examining board said that although it planned to appeal, it would give Ms. Currier the additional time if Judge Katzmann’s order is still in effect when she takes the exam, set for next week. She must pass the exam, which tests clinical knowledge, to receive her medical degree. Without it, she cannot start her residency at Massachusetts General Hospital.

In the 26-page ruling, Judge Katzmann said refusing to allow additional time meant that Ms. Currier must choose to either “use her break time to incompletely express breast milk and ignore her bodily functions, or abdicate her decision to express breast milk, resulting in significant pain.”

Sophie Currier, the mom that sued for extra time on a medical exam to pump breast milk, won her case on appeal today:

A Harvard student must be allowed extra break time during her nine-hour medical licensing exam so she can pump breast milk to feed her 4-month-old daughter, a Massachusetts appeals court judge ruled Wednesday.

Sophie Currier, 33, sued after the National Board of Medical Examiners turned down her request to take more than the standard 45 minutes in breaks during the exam.

Currier said she risks medical complications if she does not nurse her daughter, Lea, or pump breast milk every two to three hours.

Personally, I don’t see how an extra 15 minutes added to her break makes so much difference that it’s worth taxpayer dollars to go to court, but I’m sure it will be held up as a major victory amongst the breastfeeding crowd.

Medical student and professional whiner and entitlement seeker, Sophie Currier sued to make sure she is found exceptional because she breastfeeds. She wanted the board to allow her extra break times so that she can nurse her baby. The student is already granted allowances under the disability act because she has ADHD and learning disabilities, so she gets to take the exam over 2 days, instead of the 9 hour requirement.

Truthfully, a doctor needing this many allowances to get their license, makes me a little nervous. Lucky for us she’s wanting to go into research and not surgery.

BOSTON: A new mother cannot have extra break time during her nine-hour medical licensing exam so she can pump breast milk to feed her 4-month-old daughter, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Sophie Currier, 33, sued after the National Board of Medical Examiners turned down her request to take more than the standard 45 minutes in breaks during the exam. She said that if she does not nurse her daughter, Lea, or pump breast milk every two to three hours, she risks medical complications.

Well, he did host “Politically Incorrect” for many years. It’s not as if he’s being hypocritical…

On Friday’s episode of Real Time, Bill Maher introduced one of his “new rules,” “Lactate Intolerant,” in which he argues against breastfeeding in public. As he explained, he doesn’t want women showing their tits in public unless they are appropriately packaged for heterosexual male consumption. (Revealing what he thinks is appropriate, he made a snide reference to Britney Spears’ body in one of the other new rules, drawing a good laugh.

Interesting.

The Lactivist community must be reeling from this news. I wonder how they’re gonna spin it.

TORONTO (CP) — The first ever randomized trial to look at the much debated question of whether breastfeeding protects an infant from developing asthma and allergies found that children who were breastfed as babies were not at a lower risk of developing these conditions.

In fact, children whose mothers were in the group urged to continue to breastfeed their children exclusively were more likely to test positive later for five common allergies - dust mites, cat dander, birch and grass pollens and fungi.

Sophie Currier, a nursing mother and a medical student at Harvard Medical School, has asked a Massachusetts Superior Court judge to require additional break time and a private room so she can express breastmilk during the National Board of Medical Examiners nine hour exam on clinical knowledge:

The case, to be heard on Wednesday, is a harbinger of what could be a growing problem. More women than ever are studying medicine, and they must take three exams to become doctors. At the same time, groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics strongly encourage breast-feeding for its health and developmental benefits.

Ms. Currier, 33, of Brookline, Mass., wrote to the medical examiners’ board in June to request the extra time, saying she needed to pump milk to avoid painful breast engorgement and mastitis, an infection stemming from blocked milk ducts.

In a letter dated July 11, Catherine Farmer, the board’s manager of disability services, responded that it could accommodate only conditions covered by the Americans With Disabilities Act. She added that Ms. Currier could spend some of her break time pumping breast milk in another testing room. Testing rooms are monitored and have glass walls.