COW'S MILK UNSAFE IN FIRST YEAR OF LIFE: MDS

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COW'S MILK UNSAFE IN FIRST YEAR OF LIFE: MDS

CTV, Oct. 12 2003

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1065812412616_61221612/?hub=\

Health

 

A group of Canadian doctors is worried that too many mothers may be causing iron

deficiency anemia in their children. The deficiency can occur when babies are

fed cow's milk in the first year of life, instead of breast milk or formula.

 

Children with iron deficiency anemia are pale and lack energy, and they don't

have enough iron in their system to help their brains grow. They often suffer

permanent neurological and developmental problems.

 

In some parts of Canada, up to one-quarter of one-year-old children are low in

iron because they are fed cow's milk too early. The iron from store-bought milk

can't be as readily absorbed by their growing brains.

Dr. Robert Issenman of the McMaster Medical Centre says, " This is bad nutrition

and the message is -- we should not feed store milk to children under nine

months of age. "

 

Dr. Reginald Sauve of the University of Calgary says there are studies

suggesting that babies who have marked iron deficiency have abnormalities in

their development and behavioural status that may not be totally reversible,

even when the iron level is normalized.

 

Dr. Sauve and his team have made what's become a controversial suggestion, in

the Canadian Pediatric Journal, asking Canada to join the United States and

England in warning mothers who don't breast feed to use infant formula for the

entire first year of their baby's life.

 

It sounds like a simple suggestion, but Dr. Issenman said the prevalence of

anemia " is almost entirely due to poverty and the fact is, poor families can't

even afford formula in the first six months. "

 

He says the recommendation would add more than $150 a month per family in

formula costs.

 

The United States solved that dilemma by offering free formula to low income

women. Anemia rates went down, and so too did the number of women who breast

fed.

 

Critics of the Canadian suggestion say it's wrong to promote formula, and we

should be pushing breast feeding.

 

" If we want to do the best possible particularly for low income women, "

nutritionist Elizabeth Sterken says. " We need to put better support programs in

place. "

 

Sterken leads The Infant Feeding Action Coalition (INFACT) Canada, a

non-governmental, non-profit organization working to promote and support

breastfeeding for new mothers.

 

But while agencies work on promoting breastfeeding, some doctors worry that

children will keep getting caught in the nutritional gap, and may pay the price

later in life.