Breastfeeding (topic continued from CUJSTDCNT thread)

Discussion in 'Your Living Room' started by Taximom5, Dec 29, 2010.

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  1. Taximom5

    Taximom5 New Member

    We were kinda straying off topic over in the other thread, so I thought I'd continue the stray-away topic over here!


    Nobody wants to shoot you, except maybe some photographers!

    The majority of us in the US had mothers and grandmothers who never breastfed, and therefore couldn't help us.

    My grandmother bottle-fed her babies in the 1930s because that was what the doctor told her to do.

    My mother tried unsuccessfully to breastfeed my older brother, against doctor advice. Her doctor told her that formula was scientifically designed, and therefore better for her baby, and that she wouldn't have enough milk, anyway. And, since he told her to feed the baby only every 4 hours, and not to pick him up in between or she'd spoil him, she did not have enough milk.

    Incidentally, both a friend of mine and I were given the same rotten advice from our different pediatricians about not picking up our infants for fear of spoiling them. (We both ignored said rotten advice.)

    In the hospital where I gave birth, the lactation consultant would only come if you requested to see her (actually, one lactation consultant was a him!), and it took several hours to actually get to see her (or him). And nobody at the hospital told me that there was such a thing as a lactation consultant. I was lucky that my sister-in-law informed me beforehand, and suggested that I ask for the lactation consultant as soon as the baby was born, to avoid a long wait in case there were problems.

    I don't know why, but it does seem to be different in America than in Europe and South America. Breastfeeding is encouraged here, but the information given is usually incorrect (because it comes from the formula companies, I suppose). Companies can fire you here for taking breaks to pump milk for your baby at home.

    Children's Hospital is wonderful about supporting breastfeeding mothers of babies who are hospitalized--but the nurse assigned to my child told me that nurses there are not permitted "lactation breaks."

    You asked where the pediatrician fits into this--the pediatrician gives feeding instructions (printed in a pamphlet written by the formula company, as mentioned above) to the new mum, and if the baby is not gaining weight appropriately, orders the mum to supplement with formula--which is the fastest way to decrease mum's milk supply. Not that the pediatricians know this--I'm not saying this is a conspiracy, just that the pediatricians simply don't know because they've never studied how lactation works. At least, none of the ones I know ever had a clue.
     
  2. dolfan

    dolfan Active Member

    I can only remember that breast milk had a terrible after taste. Sweet at first, but then...wow, a nasty lingering taste in your mouth that would take a piece of chocolate to get rid of. I bet there are some guys here that are saying..."he's right".
     
  3. dolfan

    dolfan Active Member

    from your wife...not your mother, you sicko's LOL
     
  4. earshurt

    earshurt New Member

    I believe breast milk is fairly crucial for developing babies. A good thing to illustrate in this thread would be the dangerous substances that have shown up in artificial baby formula, the endocrine disruptors that leach from plastic baby bottles, and their effects on the health of babies and very young children.
     
  5. earshurt

    earshurt New Member

    I "think" I also may still have a power point presentation I made about the effects on babies from the breast milk of nursing mothers who ingest the sweetener known as "aspartame" and its links to the newborn illness known as PKU.

    I presented it to a nutrition class at a local university.

    It is very interesting. I will see if I can find it. It may have gotten lost on the hard drive of my last computer. Hope not.
     
  6. Taximom5

    Taximom5 New Member

    Many breast-feeding working mums pump their milk--and reheat it in plastic baby bottles. So it's not just formula-fed babies who are at risk from the plastic bottles.
     
  7. earshurt

    earshurt New Member

    Reheating natural breast milk in plastic bottles is bad bad. The heat helps force out the endocrine disruptors in larger amounts. GLASS IS KING.

    Microwaves also explode the complex proteins in natural breast milk and render much of its nutrition useless.
     
  8. CGR

    CGR Guest

    Breastfeeding is really the only smart choice unless you just cant do it.
     
  9. CGR

    CGR Guest

    American doctors are strange. Even the tv shows promote that cruelty. If our son cried he needed food or diaper or loving. We could tell which cry it was after a week. We responded instantly to all three. Now hes confident and the most popular kid in his school.
     
  10. CGR

    CGR Guest

    And doctors make big bucks giving you drugs to stop the crying
     
  11. CGR

    CGR Guest

    Have you hugged your Big Pharma rep today? :D
     
  12. Taximom5

    Taximom5 New Member

    Nope, no doctor ever told me to drug them out of crying.

    I did have a young, female pediatrician tell me that it was time to teach my baby (who was less than a year at that point) that I was not going to come in every time he cried, and that I should just let him cry. When I pointed out that he vomited when he cried hard, she said (and I am repeating verbatim), "Then you should just go in like a robot, clean it up, don't say anything to him, and leave."

    I sure hope her perspective changed when she had babies of her own.
     
  13. vikinggal011

    vikinggal011 New Member

    Isn't PKU a genetic illness? It's something they test for at birth and something babies are born with. It's also VERY rare about 1/15000 people have that, and more than 0.00006% of a population eat artificial sugars.
     
  14. vikinggal011

    vikinggal011 New Member

    Thanks girl :). I learned that one by actually researching what that was on the back of a soda can; I was curious what that huge word was so I looked it up!
     
  15. vikinggal011

    vikinggal011 New Member

    Oh no I didn't know that! That's awesome! :) What's your major? Mine's child and family studies so I'm in the school of social work, a full time student, working 24+ hours a week as a CNA, and doing it all with a smile :).
     
  16. earshurt

    earshurt New Member

    Babies do have PKU at birth which is why it is considered genetic. According to the research I used to make the power point presentation the the genetic damage occurs while the baby is a fetus from exposure to aspartame.

    It has to do with the fact that aspartame has molecules that are an exact mirror image, backwards, to other naturally occurring molecules in the body. It cause an improper binding and bonding situation.

    This makes it difficult for Tyrosine to be properly excreted. (if my memory is correct but its been a while)

    This is what causes the baby to be born with very low tolerance to certain foods and the need for a special diet.

    There is more to it than that but I would have to find the power point presentation and refresh my memory on it. Basically same principle as a mother doing drugs or eating harmful things when pregnant that can cause a child to be born defective.
     
  17. earshurt

    earshurt New Member


    Sorry about that. I meant exposure to aspartame while in the womb from the mother ingesting aspartame.
     
  18. Ladysmokeater

    Ladysmokeater Peace be with you my friend

    Ok, I looked up the PKU and noted that it is caused by a mutated allele on the chromosome 12. It is recessive and it takes BOTH parents as carriers for an infant to develop this. The article went further to say that if you HAVE PKU you must avoid artificial sweetners because their bodies can not process phenylalanine and aspartic acid, which are main componants of aspertaime.

    If aspartame helps cause gene mutations as a baby develops, I have no idea. But I would imagine it might cause problems as it is toxic to many people (including myself) and if you read the history of the atrificial sweetner you would be shocked at the things that kept it from our shelves in the begining. But I digress. There are many chemicals that cause problems to developing babies that are okay to use as a child (with supervision) or as an adult. Many of the meds they perscribe for MM and MAV are NO-NO's for pregnant women because they cause known harm to a developing baby. The idea that aspertame could cause birth defects is not a new idea, but it is a scary one to say the least if it is something that is proven to be true.
     
  19. earshurt

    earshurt New Member

    This is not as good as the research I used for the paper but you'll get the jest. From what I can understand about the situation the opinion of some researchers is that PKU is genetic damage caused by elevated phenalalanine levels in the fetus from aspartame consumption by the mother because aspartame is high in phenylalanine. Essentially genetic damage cause by acute phenalalanine poisoning in the womb


    The other idea is that it is an autosomal recessive trait passed on by the mother which is what you are talking about I think.


    My head has room for either to be true but i'm suspicious of the fact that this has started showing up around the same time in history as aspartame came on the scene. That chicken or the egg thing.

    If I can find my original research i'll flip it in here for inspection. The following is just a blurb and these are easy to find but not very detailed.

    --------------------------------------------


    Aspartame - NutraSweet, Equal
    Introduction:

    In 1965, Jim Schlatter, a chemist at G.D. Searle was working on a on a project to discover new treatments for gastric
    ulcers. One of the steps in the research process was to make a dipeptide intermediate, aspartyl-phenylalanine methyl ester. He accidently and unknownly spilled some on his hand. Later he licked his finger as he reached for a piece of paper (unsanitary lab technique), and noticed the sweet taste. He and a friend decided to test some in coffee and confirmed the identify of the chemical with the sweet taste. The result was the sweetner, aspartame.

    Aspartame has a sweet taste with minimal bitterness. Its onset of sweetness may be slightly slower than sucrose, and the sweetness may linger. The sweetness potency relative to sucrose is about 180.

    Aspartame is metabolized in the body to its components: aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol. Like other amino acids, it provides 4 calories per gram. Since it is about 180 times as sweet as sugar, the amount of aspartame needed to achieve a given level of sweetness is less than 1% of the amount of sugar required. Thus 99.4% of the calories can be replaced.

    [​IMG]




    Synthesis: Two of the components of aspartame (phenylalanine and aspartic acid) are chiral, which means that they have two isomers that are non-superimposable mirror images. If the incorrect isomers are used, the aspartame molecule will not have the correct shape to fit the binding site of the 'sweetness' receptors on the tongue.
    See Receptor Site.

    In the synthesis of aspartame, the starting materials are a racemic mixture (equal quantities of both isomers) of phenylalanine, and aspartic acid. Only the L isomer of phenylalanine is deisred for use. This L isomer may be separated from the D isomer by a chemical pretreatment, followed by a reaction with the enzyme porcine kidney acylase. The final separation occurs with an acidic aqueous and organic extraction, where the L isomer is more soluble in the aqueous layer and the D isomer is more soluble in the organic layer.

    Ester Synthesis:

    Treatment of L-phenylalanine with methanol in the presence hydrochloric acid causes an ester reaction with the acid group on the phenylalanine. The product is the methyl ester of phenylalanine.

    [​IMG]




    Amide Synthesis:

    The final goal is to react the methyl ester of phenylalamine with aspartic acid to give the dipeptide amide structure. A series of reactions is required so that only the acid of the base amino acid is reacted. The acid group on the side chain is protected so that it does not react.

    Safety Concerns:

    Many years were spent testing the product as required by the FDA. In the almost two decades since first approval, testing continues and the use of NutraSweet remains a rather controversial issue. A search of the Internet will reveal many anecdotal but scientifically undocumented bulletins regarding health risks associated with the use of NutraSweet.

    Phenylalanine is one of the "essential" amino acids, meaning that humans must get it from their diet. It is a precursor for the synthesis of tyrosine and several neurotransmitters. Excess phenylalanine is broken down to fumarate and acetoacetate, both of which are part of normal energy metabolism.

    People who lack the enzyme to convert phenylalanine to tyrosine are not able to metabolize phenylalanine normally. This condition is called phenylketonuria, PKU, because excess phenylalanine is instead converted to phenylketones which appear in the urine. If it is not detected and treated, this condition can lead to mental retardation. This was the first genetic disease for which a routine screening test became available. Persons having this genetic defect must monitor their intake of phenylalanine. For this reason, products containing aspartame carry an information label for phenylketonurics.

    [​IMG]
     
  20. earshurt

    earshurt New Member

    I don't doubt it. There probably was some cases before 1965. Wonder if other artificial sweeteners that were on the market sooner could produce the same effect? I"ve never looked.
     

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