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Mama's milk ice cream cone, anyone?
"The Virginia-based nonprofit group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream to consider making human breast milk instead of cow's milk in their products. A letter to the company Tuesday Sept. 23, 2008, PETA says the health of consumers and cows would benefit from the switch."
I'm all for fair treatment of animals, but isn't this a little overboard? "The Virginia-based nonprofit group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream t... more -
The Topic of the Week 9/26/08
picture: Flickr photo- Cherry ice-cream http://www.flickr.com/photos/elena777/124359368/
As a member of the Online Community Team, I spend more time than you can ever imagine on Current, reading through items, comments and going through topics. There’s always something new being added to the Politics topic or the Sex and Relationships, but there was one topic I came across that had few stories and was rarely added to—milk.
Milk. A fairly random and sparsely populated topic on Current, and for obvious reasons- it’s milk. Milk in itself is not that newsworthy and probably not something that many people search for on the site. That is, until recently. In the last two weeks with China’s scandal of melamine-tainted milk and infant formula as well as PETA asking Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream to use human milk instead of cow’s, milk has, surprisingly, become a highly discussed on Current.com, at least for the time being.
Of all the possible stories about milk, these were not what I would have imagined showing up on the Milk topic. Who would have thought PETA would ask any company to use human milk? And for that reason, this item has generated a lot of entertaining discussion, ranging from people’s disgust at the idea of using human milk, to arguments over whether human milk could even make ice cream.
Some of the best things about these unique and sometimes bizarre stories are the ones emerging as a result of these events. For example, a mother in Chegdu posted an ad to breastfeed another child as a result of the melamine-tainted formula. I could make some joke about milk money, but I’ll refrain. However, I’m going to go ahead and guess that posting an ad for breastfeeding just isn’t that common, so while melamine-tainted milk and infant formula is an awful thing, peoples’ reactions to it are very interesting.
In any case, I’ve enjoyed these unique additions to the Milk topic and the interesting discussions as a result. Check them out, add to the discussion if you’re so inclined, and if you come across a story that’s related to these milky events or is lactosely-inclined (yes, I made that word up), tag it!
Milky Stories:
http://current.com/items/89334976_peta_urges_ben_jerry_...
http://current.com/items/89327119_entrepreneurial_cheng...
http://current.com/items/89336475_tainted_milk_scandal_...
http://current.com/items/89321417_milk_from_china_isn_t... picture: Flickr photo- Cherry ice-cream http://www.flickr.com/photos/elena777/124359368/ ... more -
Breast fed babies live longer: Road show seeks to promote breast feeding
Children born in Switzerland have better odds of fighting cancer, obesity and depression than those in many other countries thanks to a high breastfeeding rate.
But health officials say mothers need to breastfeed for longer if their children are to reap the benefits. They have launched an information road show touring the country until September 29.
The first road show of its kind is stopping off at Basel, Zug, St Gallen and Lugano and offers contests and games for children as well as information for mothers on how to breastfeed and overcome potential problems.
"The number of women who breastfeed from the start is already high in Switzerland, and it's still increasing, though slowly," Marianne Rüttimann, head of Zürich's La Leche League, told swissinfo.
"What we need to do now is tell them how important it is that they do it longer."
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends women breastfeed exclusively for at least six months, since compounds in the milk lower a child's risk of developing high blood pressure, diabetes and certain types of cancers.
The WHO estimates that the death rate among children worldwide who die under the age of five could be reduced significantly if they are breastfed.
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My mother breast fed me and my body has fought off many assaults, most of them deadly, so I believe this is true. What is it that breast milk has to do this? Children born in Switzerland have better odds of fighting cancer, obesity and depression than those in many other countries thanks to ... more -
Tainted milk scandal revives China's 'wet nurses'
A scandal over tainted infant formula and milk sweeping across China has revived business opportunities for a once-condemned practice: the hiring of wet nurses.
Ads from nursing mothers who want to earn money feeding other infants have popped up on Web sites, and urban agencies that offer household help say inquiries about wet nurses have soared from new mothers worried about contaminated infant formula.
Just a few decades ago, Mao Zedong denounced the practice of paying for wet nurses as decadent. And for decades after modern China's founding in 1949, nearly all women breastfed because they were too poor to buy infant formula.
But as China has grown more prosperous, many urban women have shunned breastfeeding for fear it would hurt their figures, or because they were seduced by rampant advertising that infant formula is nutritious, or even because grandparents of new infants clamor to take part in feeding rituals.
In the two weeks since a scandal erupted over adulterated infant formula and milk, tens of thousands of children have sought medical care, nearly 13,000 have been hospitalized and four infants have died.
Zhan Liying, a 28-year-old mother who gave birth in early August, sat in a household employment agency Wednesday waiting for clients who might hire her to breastfeed their infant.
"With the infant formula issue, there is demand for wet nurses," Zhan said. "It's a way to make money."
Only prosperous Chinese families can afford it, though. Wet nurses often live with employers and charge anywhere from $1,100 to $2,700 a month.
Chinese law gives working mothers four to six months of maternity leave, although some career-oriented women prefer not to take such a leave.
Some Chinese mothers believe they are unable to produce enough milk to feed their children. Others worry that breastfeeding will cause sagging.
Wet nurses were a staple of the imperial era. China's last emperor, Pu Yi, is known to have suckled the breast of his wet nurse into his teens.
On a wet nurse user forum on QQ, China's leading online social network, a man going by the nickname "blue forever," said he would block his wife from offering the service.
"Who likes other people's babies to suckle on the breasts of one's own wife?" he wrote. A scandal over tainted infant formula and milk sweeping across China has revived business opportunities for a once-condemned practice:... more -
Breast feeding doll
So many dolls' sets come with a plastic feeding bottle, so it's nice to see some dolls that expressly (no pun intended) drink their mothers' milk. If you breastfeed yourself, it'll be good to have a toy around that echoes your behaviour, and perhaps even allows you to explain what's going on to an older sibling.
The dolls contain magnets, allowing for a variety of positionings, and the clothes of both infant and mother can be removed, adding both extra play potential for the child, and proper explanations from you, the parent, if you feel so inclined.
From UK company Boobie Buddies So many dolls' sets come with a plastic feeding bottle, so it's nice to see some dolls that expressly (no pun intended) drin... more -
Milk on Tap - First Human Milk Bank Opens in Philippines
200 hundred mothers donated at least 5 ounces of milk each at the Guadalupe Nuevo Barangay Hall in Makati City Philippines during the opening ceremony of the very first community milk bank, the commencement of which was scheduled with the World Breastfeeding Month this August.
The launch was led by Sen. Pia S. Cayetano, a very strong promoter of breastfeeding with the sole aim of stimulating the fading ritual of breastfeeding.
This community milk bank is the brain child of the Compañero Rene Cayetano Foundation in harmonization with the Makati City Health Department and Makati Rep. Abigail Binay and has been christened after Cayetano’s late father.
n an interview to the reporters, Cayetano, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography said, “The idea of this project is to tell moms who are breastfeeding to take it a step forward, to help other moms who cannot immediately breastfeed.”
The breast milk which was donated by various mothers was accumulated in an uncontaminated container and later relocated in a cooler. It was then sent to the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital in Sta. Cruz, Manila.
This hospital sustains a milk bank with a pasteurizing apparatus. It also has three freezers which can preserve the milk for almost half a year.
This milk comes to the aid of weak and premature babies with an under developed sucking reflex or those suffering from congenital ailments. It is also given to those newborns whose mothers are unable to feed because of impediments such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
In fact now onwards it will be mandatory for hospitals bestowing maternity services to set up a human milk bank in their hospitals. This provision is in accordance with Cayetano's Senate Bill No. 1698, also known as the "Expanded Breastfeeding Act," which has already passed its third reading in the Senate.
The bill also calls for the setting up of lactation stations in public places and in all offices so as to allow mother’s to continue with breastfeeding once they return to work upon the completion of their maternity 200 hundred mothers donated at least 5 ounces of milk each at the Guadalupe Nuevo Barangay Hall in Makati City Philippines during the ... more -
Perfumed Mother’s Milk
Mothers pass many things on to their babies — including chemicals from soaps and personal care products. A new study of Swedish moms finds that those who used scented laundry detergent or lots of perfume had elevated amounts of synthetic musks in their breast milk.
How these synthetic musks act in the body still isn’t clear, says study coauthor Anders Glynn of the Swedish National Food Administration and Uppsala University in Sweden. Scientists have found other fat-loving compounds in breast milk, including PCBs and certain pesticides with clearly detrimental health effects. While finding chemicals in breast milk raises concern about childhood exposure, most experts agree that the benefits of nursing still far outweigh the risks.
The new study, published online in Environmental Science & Technology, looked for trends in the amounts of seven synthetic musks in new moms’ breast milk over a seven-year period. These artificial compounds give scent to many products and also act as longevity enhancers, or “carriers,” for other smells. Manufacturers favor synthetics over natural musks, which are expensive and often come from endangered animals.
Previous research has documented synthetic musks in breast milk in women from the United States, Denmark and Germany, but this new work is the first to correlate quantities of musks with the women’s product use. The team found that women who used a lot of perfume during pregnancy had high amounts of the musk HHCB in their milk. Levels of the musk AHTN were elevated in the milk of women who used perfumed laundry detergent. Mothers pass many things on to their babies — including chemicals from soaps and personal care products. A new study of Swedish moms f... more -
Health: Breastfed is best fed!
Scientists have discovered another reason why breast is best. Already associated with increased intelligence, greater social mobility and protection against ill health, breastfeeding may also help babies develop a more sophisticated palate.
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen conducted tests on breast milk to see how the flavour changed with the mother's diet. They found that different foods caused subtle shifts in the flavour of breast milk, which appear to prime babies for the wide range of foods they are likely to encounter once they are weaned.
"It seems that breastfeeding itself does prime the infants to be more accepting of new flavours when they start to eat solid food," she added.
Last year, researchers at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess medical centre in the US reported that people who were breastfed as babies went on to have a lower risk of heart disease, while a team at King's College London found that breastfeeding raised the IQ of children by an average of seven points, if they had a particular version of a gene.
The studies followed other research which found breastfed babies had a better chance of climbing the social ladder than those raised on formula Scientists have discovered another reason why breast is best. Already associated with increased intelligence, greater social mobility ... more -
McDonald's apologises after group of mothers stage sit-in over breast-feeding...
A McDonald's manager who told a young woman to stop breastfeeding found himself faced with a demonstration of Mum Power.
Maddie Reynolds returned with five friends she had met at ante-natal classes and they staged a mass feed-in at the restaurant.
'We all walked in to McDonald's together and sat around one table right by the counter,' said 27-year-old Miss Reynolds, a nursery nurse from Bournemouth. We began breastfeeding our babies all at the same time to make a point. We caused a bit of a stir among customers but none of the staff looked our way. Someone told a manager what we were doing but he just muttered that he couldn't comment.'
The incident happened at the McDonald's branch inside an Asda supermarket in the resort. Miss Reynolds was feeding ten-week-old Sophie when the staff member intervened.
'I had a proper maternity top on which is designed for breastfeeding so no one could see anything,' she said. 'I was angry when the man told me to leave but knew I wasn't doing anything wrong so I carried on. But he just stood there and watched me for a few minutes. I felt so humiliated but put my head down and didn't stop and eventually he walked off. I felt so cross and upset.'
Miss Reynolds lives with partner Karl Brackenborough, 29, who works as a television fitter and repairer.
She added: 'I choose to breastfeed Sophie because I know it's healthy and the best thing for her. I remember reading about a similar incident a while back where a woman was thrown out of a coffee shop for breastfeeding. She was so upset by it that she started using bottles instead. I wasn't prepared to let something like that happen to anyone else again.'
Fellow protester Catherine Davis, 19, took her seven-week-old daughter Amelia along to the sit-in. She said: 'I just thought the way Maddie was treated was disgusting. It's the most natural thing to feed your baby and there's nothing wrong with it. Everyone says breast is best. I have breastfed in public and no one ever has ever said anything to me. I think it's fine as long as you are discreet.'
Alison Purves, spokesman for McDonald's, said the company was 'disappointed' by the junior manager's actions. Breastfeeding mothers were welcomed in all its restaurants.
'This manager was working unilaterally and not following company policy at all. If another customer ever expressed their discomfort about breastfeeding we would encourage them to move rather than the mum. What we don't want to do is to make mums feel as if they have to hide away.'
She said the manager involved had been told he had made a mistake.
'We are confident he will make the right decision in future.' A McDonald's manager who told a young woman to stop breastfeeding found himself faced with a demonstration of Mum Power. ... more -
I'll breastfeed till they're EIGHT!
Stella is proud that her children are acknowledged to be among the eldest to be breastfed. Indeed, she is campaigning for other women to follow her example.
'As a mother, you are totally responsible for the health of your baby, and I consider part of that duty to be breastfeeding - it might not be best for every woman, but it is best for every baby. My children don't strictly need breast milk now, but they are still getting benefits,' says Stella, from Ludlow in Shropshire.
'Of course, some people are squeamish - they don't like three-month- olds feeding in public, let alone three-year-olds sitting on your knee - but you wouldn't throw a blanket over a sheep feeding a lamb in a field, would you? It's what nature intended.
-- I wonder how the children will feel about this when they are older. Breast feeding is totally natural, but until they are 8? Hmmmm, not convinced myself. Stella is proud that her children are acknowledged to be among the eldest to be breastfed. Indeed, she is campaigning for other women ... more -
Being breast-fed may lower breast cancer risk
Adult women who were breast-fed as infants may have a lower risk of developing breast cancer than those who were not breast-fed, unless they were first-born, study findings suggest.
"As a general group, women who reported they had been breast-fed in infancy had a 17 percent decrease in breast cancer risk," Hazel B. Nichols, who was involved in the study, told Reuters Health.
"However, we did not observe this reduction when we looked specifically among first-born women," said Nichols, of the University of Wisconsin, in Madison.
A woman's age at childbirth helps predict the levels of environmental contaminants in her breast milk, and studies have suggested a possible link between increased breast cancer risk and the accumulation of these contaminants, Nichols and colleagues note in the medical journal Epidemiology. Adult women who were breast-fed as infants may have a lower risk of developing breast cancer than those who were not breast-fed, unles... more -
Breastfeeding Increases Intelligence
Scientists suggest.
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The Business of Being Born
Birth: it's a miracle. A rite of passage. A natural part of life. But more than anything, birth is a business. Compelled to find answers after a disappointing birth experience with her first child, actress Ricki Lake recruits filmmaker Abby Epstein to examine and question the way American women have babies. The film interlaces intimate birth stories with surprising historical, political and scientific insights and shocking statistics about the current maternity care system. When director Epstein discovers she is pregnant during the making of the film, the journey becomes even more personal. Should most births be viewed as a natural life process, or should every delivery be treated as a potentially catastrophic medical emergency? Birth: it's a miracle. A rite of passage. A natural part of life. But more than anything, birth is a business. Compelled to find ... more
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Breast Feeding Can Increase A Baby's IQ
A new Yale study finds that breastfeeding can increase a baby's IQ but only if they are a able to metabolise the fatty acids neccessary. Human breast milk is full of polyunsaturated fatty acids that can help an infants brain develop. A new Yale study finds that breastfeeding can increase a baby's IQ but only if they are a able to metabolise the fatty acids necc... more
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Breast-Feeding cuts food allergy risk
Study says: Breast-feeding during the first 3 months of life can shield children from developing food allergies.
If you have food allergies, you may need to ask yo' mama some questions. Study says: Breast-feeding during the first 3 months of life can shield children from developing food allergies. ... more -
Breast-Feed or Else
Warning: Public health officials have determined that not breast-feeding may be hazardous to your baby's health.
"Just like it's risky to smoke during pregnancy, it's risky not to breast-feed after," said Suzanne Haynes, senior scientific adviser to the Office on Women's Health in the Department of Health and Human Services. "The whole notion of talking about risk is new in this field, but it's the only field of public health, except perhaps physical activity, where there is never talk about the risk."
"You wouldn't take risks before your baby's born," the advertisement says. "Why start after?" Warning: Public health officials have determined that not breast-feeding may be hazardous to your baby's health. ... more -
Will Breastfeeding Create Brainiacs? It Depends
A single gene influences whether breastfeeding improves a child's intelligence, say London researchers.
Children with one version of the FADS2 gene scored seven points higher in IQ tests if they were breastfed. A single gene influences whether breastfeeding improves a child's intelligence, say London researchers. ... more -
When did it go so tits up?
"Facebook, the social networking website with over 39 million users, has started removing breastfeeding photographs posted by its users. Why? Apparently they contravene its obscenity policy." "Facebook, the social networking website with over 39 million users, has started removing breastfeeding photographs posted by its... more
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Terrible Twos in Action
Dr. Harvey Karp helps Evan and Melissa communicate with their daughter Zoe, gives advice on breastfeeding and getting Zoe out of their room, and into her own bed so that they can finally live as man and wife again. Dr. Harvey Karp helps Evan and Melissa communicate with their daughter Zoe, gives advice on breastfeeding and getting Zoe out of their... more
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I wish my mom had worn this t-shirt
Breastfeeding babies could become smarter thanks to a scientifically designed 'clever baby' t-shirt revealed by the University of Portsmouth this week. Breastfeeding babies could become smarter thanks to a scientifically designed 'clever baby' t-shirt revealed by the Universi... more
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Breast Feeding
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Breast Feeding
