For Amy Forstadt, the first six weeks of breast-feeding were a nightmare.
"I have pretty sensitive skin, and my baby was just a chomper," said Forstadt, a 37-year-old writer from Beachwood Canyon. Lactation consultants and a pediatric orthopedist were unable to detect a problem with Benjamin's "latch," so she wound up pumping milk to feed him from a bottle for the first month and half -- a cumbersome but, for her, less painful approach. That solution collapsed one night when the family dog devoured part of her breast pump, forcing her to nurse while her tears of agony splashed on Benjie's face.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, December 06, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 25 words Type of Material: Correction
Breast-feeding: An article in Monday's Health section said a mother had consulted a pediatric orthopedist about her difficulties breast-feeding. She consulted a pediatric occupational therapist.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Monday, December 10, 2007 Home Edition Health Part F Page 8 Features Desk 1 inches; 28 words Type of Material: Correction
Breast-feeding: An article in the Dec. 3 Health section stated that a mother had consulted a pediatric orthopedist about her difficulties breast-feeding. She consulted a pediatric occupational therapist.
Forstadt stuck with the nursing -- with the help of a different lactation consultant -- in large part so that her son could get the health benefits of breast milk. He's now 6 months old, and Forstadt loves breast-feeding him.
But the truth about the health benefits of breast-feeding is more complicated than most people realize.
This spring, the federal Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ) published a report that evaluated the research on breast-feeding and children's health. Assembling the data involved a year and a half of combing through more than 9,000 studies and reviews, selecting those that met strict quality criteria.
Dr. Ruth Lawrence, who chairs the breast-feeding task force of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), said the result is the "most comprehensive, all-inclusive" document on breast-feeding in developed countries. "It's an excellent report," she said.
The report didn't address the role of breast-feeding in developing countries, where infant formula mixed with tainted water is often deadly. It focused instead on countries such as the United States, where the effects are less dramatic -- and more difficult to measure.
The researchers found that breast-fed babies had fewer ear, gastrointestinal tract, and severe lower respiratory tract infections than formula-fed ones and were less prone to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), obesity, Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, childhood leukemia, early-childhood asthma and atopic dermatitis (a skin disorder that causes eczema).
Though the reductions were as large as 72% (for severe lower respiratory tract infections), the report states that none of its findings imply causality.
