Come Out of the Closet, Michelle!

Remember during the election when I wondered if the Obama kids were breastfed? Apparently, they were! Yes, Michelle Obama has always been on SuperMom status: gorgeous, smart, an attorney, and a breastfeeding mom! I don't know how anyone knows for sure that Michelle breastfed, but apparently it's a known fact that Michelle nursed both of her daughters and pumped for them at work.

You may have read that Michelle will be unveiling a new anti-obesity campaign, the details of which will be announced on Tuesday. So far Michelle has declined to speak about breastfeeding, but advocates are hoping she will change her mind, since we know that breastfeeding is part of a healthy lifestyle that does prevent obesity in children and helps moms lose the pregnancy weight easier.

"We have a dynamic role model in the White House, a black woman who gets the idea that she can go to work, be a lawyer and still provide milk for her baby," said Napiera Loveless, co-founder of MamaTotoMatema, a Cincinnati-based organization committed to educating and encouraging leaders and health care professionals to adopt different approaches to promoting breastfeeding in African American families. "She takes away the excuse."

Michelle is also such a beloved figure for African-American women, who knows how much influence she would have if she talked about the wonders of breastfeeding!  I'm constantly bemoaning the lack of breastfeeding role models in the black community, and I've been holding out hope for Beyonce to get pregnant and breastfeed. But if Michelle Obama has already breastfed, has pumped at work, understands the commitment it takes and can speak to the benefits of breastfeeding and how worth it it is to make some sacrifices for your baby, well, I think that would be a huge boon to the cause.

So come on, Michelle! Come out of the closet! Talk about breastfeeding! You have the power to make a difference in the number of our women who choose to nurse. We're counting on you. I'm counting on you!



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Scientists link serotonin deficit to SIDS

Despite the "back to sleep" campaign and increased awareness on how to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS, it's still the number one cause of death of babies in the US during their first year of life. A recent study may shed some light on why certain babies may be more susceptible to dying of SIDS.

According to Dr. Hannah Kinney, who conducted the research on the brain stems of 41 babies who had died of SIDS, serotonin levels in 35 of the SIDS babies were 26% lower than in all babies who had not died of SIDS. The article states:

Kinney had previously found differences related to serotonin receptors in SIDS babies' brain stems, but it was not clear whether there was too much or too little of the neurotransmitter that sends signals between nerve cells. An unanswered question was whether the serotonin was there and the babies' brains were unable to use it.

Marian Willinger, who is responsible for the SIDS research program at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, called Kinney's results on a serotonin deficit important.

"I think this is an important advance in our understanding of what's wrong with the brain stem of many babies who die from SIDS," she said in an interview. "It helps us ... to understand the pathophysiology, how the baby dies, because we don't really know."

Kinney said the goal is to identify the infants who have this problem.

"We are closer than we have been, but we still have quite a journey to go, to test and then identify it in the living infant and then to have a treatment for it," she said. "Those are long-term goals and we know we are years away from them."

So what does this have to do with breastfeeding? In a 1997 article, Dr. James Prescott talks about the role of breastfeeding and breast milk in brain development. He states:

"There is another neurobiological mechanism involved in the development of brain serotonin–tryptophan–a precursor amino acid essential for the development of brain serotonin which is richly present in colostrum and breastmilk but absent in formula milk. Thus, two distinct and different neurophysiological mechanisms have been identified that contributes to deficits in brain serotonin: a) failed physical affectional bonding in the maternal-infant/child relationship (sensory processes); and b) the amino acid tryptophan present in colostrum and breast milk but absent in formula milk (neurochemical processes)."

It's interesting stuff and definitely worth reading. I am always surprised that there are very few mentions of breastfeeding as a way to reduce the risk of SIDS, yet there seems to be a lot of research to suggest that breastfed babies die of SIDS at a much lower rate. I think this serotonin finding is just another example of that. I'd be curious to know how many of the 35 babies whose serotonin levels were much lower than normal were also being breastfed.

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Should You Buy Generic Formula?

If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know that I and other lactivists have a huge problem with the aggressive marketing employed by the formula companies. The three biggest brand names, Enfamil, Similac and Nestle, spend big bucks every year to get moms to choose and stick with their particular brand of formula. This includes, but is not limited to, advertising in parenting magazines as well as mainstream magazines like People, giving out freebies to pediatrician's offices and hospitals, sending samples to the homes of moms-to-be, sponsoring studies to tout the benefits of formula, and making shady if not outright outrageously false claims about how closely they approximate breast milk.

A few months ago, Enfamil lost a court case brought by PBM, the makers of the store-brand or "generic" formulas you'll find at drug stores and warehouse stores like Target and Sam's Club. A district court in Virginia ruled that Mead Johnson, makers of Enfamil, had mislead the public in its advertising that suggested that store brand formula was not as nutritious as their own. The text of one of their ads read, "It may be tempting to try a less expensive store brand, but only Enfamil LIPIL is clinically proven to improve brain and eye development," and "there are plenty of other ways to save on baby expenses without cutting back on nutrition" (like say, breastfeeding....heh). Anyway, Enfamil was ordered to pay PBN $13 million and is barred from making these types of claims again.

Of course there is not really any difference nutritionally between the expensive name-brand formulas and their store-brand counterparts. All of this is regulated by the FDA and all infant formula has to meet the same standards. You may find some variation in things like color or consistency, but nutritionally, it's the same.  In the past when I had friends who were weaning or needed to supplement with formula, I'd tell them to just buy the store brand. After all, it is the exact same ingredients and you'll save yourself a ton of money that could be better spent elsewhere. But I've begun to notice that PBM is working on several social media campaigns using mom bloggers to advertise its products and the fact that they will save you money over the name brands, and their marketing is beginning to make me uncomfortable.

I first noticed sponsored tweets that were linking to this YouTube video, where moms and dads on the street are asked to compare the ingredients on a can of Enfamil to those in PBM's formula. The tweets from people read "Save money, buy store brand formula." Then I noticed bloggers being paid or otherwise compensated to blog about how much money using store-brand formula saved them. Even breastfeeding moms have gotten in on the act, tweeting and blogging PMBs press releases for pay.  It has gotten so insidious that I see one of these tweets almost every single day in my Twitter stream and a simple Google search will lead you to a ton of blog posts sponsored by PBM.

Of course this is a WHO Code violation, and although PBM would like you to think they are more ethical than the brand name formula companies, they're not (in fact, PBM has paid for celebrity endorsements from Brooke Shields and Tori Spelling for their Bright Beginnings formula). They also recently announced they've hired a new Executive VP of Marketing to help them increase their sales and market share.

So what is next for PBM? Will they, too, begin mailing out freebies to new moms and creating "breastfeeding support bags" for moms to take home with them from the hospital? Will they expand their social media campaign?

What do you all think of these marketing tactics? Is PBM going too far or is this just a smart business move in this economy? And what of the bloggers being paid to advertise store brand formula? Do they need an education on all of the problems aggressive formula marketing can cause?

What do you think? Has PBM gone too far?

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Use of soy formula increases risk of fibroids

A new study shows that there may be another danger to artificial feeding your infant, particularly if you have a daughter and are giving her soy formula. A recent study of 20,000 white women found that those who had been fed soy formula rather than breastfed or given cow's milk based formula were 25% more likely to be diagnosed with early-onset fibroids. Although this is the first study of its kind and relies on women (and perhaps their mothers) to remember how they were fed as infants, I think the findings are interesting. We already know that soy can affect the reproductive system because of the level of estrogen found in soy products, so it makes sense that early introduction of soy might cause these benign uterine tumors.

So does this mean soy products are unsafe? Actually, no. Soy is a huge part of Asian diets, which are generally considered to be very healthy. However, as the study notes, in Asian countries, exposure to soy happens in the oppposite way as it does here in the US. Most babies in Asia are breastfed and then go on to consume tofu, soy sauce and other soy products throughout their lifetime. American babies are more likely to be fed soy formula during their first year of life, and only eat small quantities of soy products thereafter.

So why are soy formulas so popular in the US? Some people think soy formula is healthier for babies than milk-based formula, but that's actually untrue. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics only recommends soy formula for a small percentage of babies, including those whose parents are strict vegans, those with a rare disease called congenital galactosemia and another small group with a true lactose intolerance. Many parents switch their baby to soy formula if they appear colicky or gassy, when in reality, many babies who react poorly to cow's milk formula will also have trouble with soy protein. In those cases, a hypoallergenic formula is called for, not soy milk.

The truth of the matter is,  African-American women have higher rates of uterine fibroids than any other ethnic group. This study didn't look at the connection between black women and soy formula, but if you're a black woman and considering using soy formula, you may want to keep your eyes peeled for further studies.


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See's Candies Giveaway

I have a sweet giveaway, just in time for Valentine's Day over on Blacktating Reviews: a two-pound box of See's Candies chocolates. Enter now, the contest ends on Friday!




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Do antidepressants delay milk coming in?

A new study that will be published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that women taking the most commonly prescribed antidepressants (Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft) during pregnancy had a delay in their milk coming in. Because breasts are seratonin-regulated glands, the theory goes that these antidepressants, which are selective seratonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), can impact seratonin regulation in the breast. According to the study:

Researchers examined the effects of SSRI drugs on lactation using laboratory studies of human and animal cell lines and genetically modified mice. Furthermore, an observational study evaluated the impact of SSRI drugs on the onset of milk production in postpartum women. In this study of 431 postpartum women, median onset of lactation was 85.8 hours postpartum for the SSRI-treated mothers and 69.1 hours for mothers not treated with SSRI drugs. Researchers commonly define delayed secretory activation as occurring later than 72 hours postpartum.

I know that several people who read this blog are on SSRIs and were on them while pregnant and breastfeeding. Did you find this to be true? Did it take longer than the typical 3 days for your mature milk to come in? The only person I "know" who has openly discussed her use of an SSRI during pregnancy and breastfeeding is Rebecca Walker. In her book, Baby Love, Walker actually talks about how she made tons of milk, and while her son was in the NICU, she had pumped so much that she filled up their tiny refrigerator very quickly. Perhaps that is the difference, that because she was pumping from the beginning and so frequently, and without the expectation that her milk would come in quickly, she was able to successfully breastfeed. Is it possible this would need to be standard protocol for moms on antidepressants? Is the take away that moms should be informed of this possibility and be encouraged to pump? The authors of the study admit that more human research is necessary before any recommendations can be made for moms taking SSRIs.



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Review: Bravado's Allure Underwire Nursing Bra

Check out my review of one of Bravado!'s newest bras, the Allure Underwire Nursing Bra, over at Blacktating Reviews.


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