MercuryNews.com | 12/28/2004 | Mothers' milk may hold promise for ill adults
SOME FIND BENEFITS FOR CANCER, OTHER SERIOUS DISEASES
By Barbara Feder Ostrov, Mercury News
"Breast milk isn't just for babies at the Mothers' Milk Bank in San Jose, which quietly offers it to adults with cancer and other serious illnesses to ease their symptoms. The milk bank is one of just six in the United States. It distributes donated breast milk primarily to premature and low-birth-weight babies. However, it also will provide breast milk to adults with a doctor's prescription. Adult use of breast milk is rare, according to Pauline Sakamoto of the milk bank in San Jose, which has served 28 adult patients in the past four years. Adults with cancer, digestive disorders and immune disorders may drink several ounces of milk daily or weekly to ease the ravages of chemotherapy, bolster their immune systems and improve their digestion, she said. No national figures exist for adult use of breast milk, but an informal survey of the nation's milk banks suggest that they currently serve dozens of adult patients...."

CBS News | How To Train Baby To Fall Asleep | December 27, 2004?11:31:55
How To Train Baby To Fall Asleep
NEW YORK, Dec. 27, 2004
("CBS) Parents of infants know all too well how frustrating it can be when their babies can't drift off to sleep without wailing. Multiply the impact by the number of times infants naturally wake up during the night, and you wind up with parents whose nerves need a break. But you can actually train your newborn to go to sleep, and Parents magazine Senior Editor Diane Debrovner offered tips on how. ..."
[This is one of those horrifying articles that recommends: - letting babies as young as 3 months old cry for 30 -40 minutes, and warns that if you give in at that time, it "will only teach him to continue crying." If the infant vomits after crying so much, you're told to clean up the mess, kiss the child, and keep trying the "sleep training." The only breastfeeding mention is to note that breastfed babies wake up more during the night because they are hungrier. What's alarming is the article is written by a senior editor of "Parent" magazine. - JC]

244 grams baby endures
"CHICAGO (AP) — A premature infant believed to be the smallest baby ever to survive was called “a great blessing” by her mother, who is preparing to take the little girl and her twin sister home from the hospital.
The baby, named Rumaisa, weighed 244 grams — less than a can of soda — when she was delivered by Caesarean section September 19 at Loyola University Medical Center. That is 37 grams smaller than the previous record holder, who was born at the same hospital in 1989, according to hospital spokeswoman Sandra Martinez. ...
Dr. Jonathan Muraskas, a professor of neonatal-perinatal medicine, said several factors may have improved the babies’ chances of survival. Babies born before 23 weeks do not have fully developed lungs and are usually not viable, but those born before the 25th week can survive. Muraskas said girls are also more likely to survive than boys when born at less than 368.5 grams , and the twins could have been helped by their mother’s health problems. “Sometimes, when babies are stressed in utero, that can accelerate maturity,” he said. Muraskas said the twins were placed on ventilators for a few weeks and fed intravenously for a week or two until nurses could give them breast milk through feeding tubes..."

Infant formula powder recalled
December 23, 2004
Food safety
"Government departments are closely monitoring an incident of intestinal infection, noting that Mead Johnson has initiated a recall of all Pregestimil infant formula powder from international markets including Hong Kong as a precautionary measure following the incident. Initial information Mead Johnson  provided to the Food & Environmental Hygiene Department showed that four premature infants in France had become ill with Enterobacter sakazakii - a bacterial infection - between October and December. ..."
 

Release of Two Revised Infant Feeding Recommendations
November 2004
"Health Canada has released revised recommendations related to the duration of exclusive breastfeeding and vitamin D supplementation for breastfed infants. These recommendations will serve as updates to the statements found in Nutrition for Healthy Term Infants published in 1998. An updated version of the document Nutrition for Healthy Term Infants reflecting these two revised recommendations will be posted on our web site in the coming months. The recommendation on vitamin D supplementation for breastfed infants is based on the advice of the Dietary Reference Intake Expert Advisory Committee and input from leading Canadian vitamin D experts. The recommendation on duration of exclusive breastfeeding was informed by the Expert Advisory Panel on Exclusive Breastfeeding. Stakeholders also provided valuable input on both recommendations through a comment period held in early 2004." [The good news is, Health Canada has boosted its exclusive breastfeeding recommendations to be in line with the WHO - six months exclusive. The bad news is, the Vitamin D supplement recommendation remains for all breastfed babies. - JC]

Research studies effects of soy baby formula on intestinal development
Public release date: 16-Dec-2004
Contact: Phyllis Picklesimer, Media/Communications Specialist
p-pickle@uiuc.edu
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
"URBANA, Ill. -- Two studies by University of Illinois food science and human nutrition professor Sharon Donovan show that the soy isoflavone genistein, in amounts present in commercial soy infant formulas, may inhibit intestinal cell growth in babies. So what are we to think about soy in a baby's diet? Donovan said it's an important question to ask because almost 25 percent of formula-fed babies in the United States consume soy formula. Although babies on soy formula appear to grow normally, these formulas contain very high concentrations of genistein, from 32 to 45 milligrams, which is higher than the amount found to affect menstrual cycles in women, she said. 'I'm struck by the fact that these babies are receiving isoflavones at such high concentrations,' Donovan said. 'Formula is the sole source of nutrition for these infants for the first four to six months of life, when so many important organ systems are developing.' ..."

allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Killer Baby Food Floods Markets - NAFDAC Raises Alarm
Daily Champion (Lagos)
December 8, 2004
"NATIONAL Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) yesterday alerted the public to a fake, killer SMA infant baby formula in the market, saying the product is stuffed with cassava flour. Already, a suspect, Mr. Sixtus Agbaegbon, has been dragged before a Federal High Court, Abuja charged with being in possession of dangerous products that could kill children and for illegal manufacture and faking of SMA baby milk. Speaking at a training programme for NAFDAC Monitoring Officers on Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes (BMS) in Abuja, the Director General of the agency, Dr (Mrs) Dora Akunyili, said the infant formula did not comply with international safety standards...."

Jailed Ghanaian woman moved closer to baby: "
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Kentucky Post
By Stephenie Steitzer
Post staff reporter
"A woman from Ghana, Africa, who was arrested last month on charges of falsely claiming to be an American citizen was moved to the Boone County jail last week to be closer to her newborn son. Authorities moved Yaa Boateng, who was arrested Nov. 19, from the Grant County jail so her public defender, Lisa Bushelman, could transport Boateng's breast milk to her baby's foster care residence in Florence. Boateng, who was in the country on a student visa to attend Northern Kentucky University, is suspected of altering her Social Security card and attesting to being a U.S. citizen on an I-9 form to obtain a job at DHL Express in Erlanger.... "

AP Wire | 12/07/2004 | Nestle China Defends Its Infant Formula
Posted on Tue, Dec. 07, 2004
BEIJING - Swiss food conglomerate Nestle SA is disputing a Chinese consumer's lawsuit alleging that its infant formula is fake because it is not made from whole milk. Contents of infant formula in China are a sensitive topic because of a nationwide scandal that erupted in April following the deaths at least 12 babies from malnutrition attributed to fake milk powder. None of the cases involved Nestle products, and the company said Tuesday that the new lawsuit appeared aimed at damaging its reputation...."

Scotsman.com News - Health - MSP enjoys breast ever month
Dec 06, 2004
RUTH ARMSTRONG
HEALTH REPORTER
"IT’S the most natural thing in the world but has sparked outrage and even seen a law passed protecting the right of women to do it. Now, in a bid to rid the activity of its stigma, an MSP has joined nursing mums in posing for a calendar featuring them breastfeeding their babies. Fiona Hyslop has been photographed breastfeeding five-month-old son Paul for the calendar, which aims to persuade women that breast is best. The calendar was created by health workers in West Lothian who were concerned about low levels of breastfeeding. It features nursing mums in everyday places, including McArthur Glen shopping centre and Almondvale Stadium. The tasteful shots are designed to show breastfeeding in public can be done discreetly. Ms Hyslop said: "I was asked if I would support the initiative and I was delighted to do so. Improving breastfeeding rates in the Lothians is a key public health issue. I was surprised to be asked - I never thought I would be a calendar girl. "I am now going back to parliament after maternity leave and I am trying to combine breastfeeding with my work as a parliamentarian," added the SNP Lothians list MSP, who has two other children...."

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | White gold: "White gold

Breast-milk banks save the lives of many tiny babies, says Jane Hutchinson - but we need more

Wednesday December 1, 2004
The Guardian

Camilla Kingdon has cause to celebrate. As a consultant on the neonatal intensive care unit at Guy's and St Thomas' in London, she has been instrumental in setting up the hospital's new human milk bank. Breast milk is particularly important for premature babies: it is much better tolerated than formula milk and contains vital antibodies that help them fight infections. But until now if a mother of a baby on the unit could not get her milk going - something fairly common after a traumatic early birth - there was no option but to put the baby on to formula unless breast milk could be shipped in from somewhere else in time. "