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  • Title: A better start.
    Author: Dupont J.
    Journal: IDRC Rep; 1982 Jul; 11(2):15-6. PubMed ID: 12264470.
    Abstract:
    In developing countries breastfeeding offers the kind of nourishment that can make a life and death difference, yet an increasing number of mothers in the 3rd world are abandoning breastfeeding for "modern" feeding with bottles and formula. Human milk is a unique food. It is rich in proteins, carbohydrates, fats, acids, hormones, minerals, and vitamins. Scientists recognize that the interactions between ingredients in human milk are as important as the nutrients themselves. The milk's immunological properties against allergies, bacterial, and viral attack also protect infants during the 1st weeks of life. Both nutritionally and immunologically milk substitutes are inferior products. Bottle feeding can produce healthy infants under the right conditions, but in the 3rd world many factors combine to turn nursing bottles and breast milk substitutes into dangerous products. For artificial feeding to be safe, the bottles must be sterilized and the water used to dilute the formulas must be clean. These conditions often cannot be met by poor families in developing countries. Due to the high cost of formulas, mothers often overdilute them. The mother's decision to breastfeed provides important psychological and emotional benefits as well as a transition for the baby on the nutritional level. Breast milk can adequately meet all the nutritional requirements of a baby to the age of 4-6 months, without any liquid or solid supplementation. Women with significant nutritional deficiencies have been shown to produce milk of almost the same quality as well nourished mothers. The World Health Organization (WHO) report also states that while breastfeeding is still prevalent in many countries, the length of time babies are completely breastfed is decreasing and varies greatly. The reasons for stopping breastfeeding are many and interdependent; reliance on substitutes is preferred. In 1981, the WHO Annual Assembly voted 118 to 1 (the U.S. being the only exception) in favor of a marketing code for breast milk substitutes that, once incorporated into national laws, would limit publicity campaigns and restrict sales tactics. The formula industry companies, Nestle's, Wyatt, Mead Johnson, and Ross Abbott, continue to make inroads into 3rd world markets wherever they can. Sales offices have been created in over 50 countries, and manufacturing plants are located in several developing countries. Countries should enact legislation to protect pregnant and lactating mothers from any influences that could disrupt breastfeeding.
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