Every so often when I’m reading the newspaper I come across a headline something like this: Breast Milk Now Plagued with Poisons. It makes me cringe, because I believe strongly in the benefits of breastfeeding. I worry that headlines like these will cause women to doubt the safety of their own breast milk, or maybe even discourage them from breastfeeding altogether.
I tackled this question in Attack of the Toxic Breastmilk. I learned that there are higher levels of chemicals like DDT, PCBs and PDBEs in human milk than in formula. Most humans consume animal products. Anyone who’s ever been cautioned against eating tuna knows that many harmful chemicals accumulate in fatty tissue. When one animal eats another animal, they ingest more chemicals than if they ate plants. Humans are at the top of the food chain and so we generally accumulate more chemicals than grass-eating cows, from whose milk formula is manufactured. The fact that infant formula contains vegetable oil as its fat source (see one ingredient list) further reduces the levels of some toxic chemicals.
La Leche League has addressed the issue of toxins in breast milk, and they say that while it’s true that breastfed infants are exposed to higher levels of some chemicals than their formula-fed counterparts, not breastfeeding will not protect babies. Our infants are also exposed to chemicals in the womb, and so the entire chemical burden is not attributable to breastfeeding alone. But more to the point, breastfeeding appears to have a protective effect against toxins. Human milk contains high levels of antioxidants including substances like conjugated lineolic acid, which have anticarcinogenic effects.
Breastfeeding my daughter Hannah at 7 months old
In fact, breastfeeding appears to reduce cancer rates. Women who were breastfed as infants have lower breast cancer rates as adults. One study found that there is a lower rate of childhood cancers amongst infants who were breastfed for 6 months or longer, as compared to those who were not. And one Swedish researcher found that human milk can actually kill cancer cells.
In another breast milk as cancer fighter tidbit, I had to share this one. Human milk is sometimes used as a cancer therapy. Apparently, the milk can have healing properties for people who are ill. I’m not sure that it’s strictly applicable to this discussion, but how could I pass up a headline as juicy as that one? Answer: I could not.
My point here is actually not that breast is best. When it comes to feeding our babies we are all just doing the best we can, and I am not trying to cause guilt in moms who didn’t breastfeed. Instead, my point is that we are subjected to a very wide array of environmental toxins in our daily lives. They are in the air we breathe and the water we drink. These toxins accumulate in our bodies, and the World Health Organization believes that the worldwide increase in the cancer rate is related in some way. Many chemicals that we come into regular contact with are suspected carcinogens. One of the easiest ways to measure the chemical load in our bodies is through human milk. It’s painless and easy to collect, and so researchers collect it and juicy headlines that make us fear for our babies follow.
Breastfeeding my son Jacob at 8 months old
Knowing that there are toxins in breast milk should not discourage us from breastfeeding, but it should spur us to action. Because if these chemicals are in my breast milk, they are also in my body, and my husband’s body, and my neighbour across the street’s body. Organizations like Making Our Milk Safe are pushing for actions to reduce our chemical load and thereby reduce the toxins found in breast milk. They suggest taking steps, like eating organic fruits and veggies whenever possible, not smoking, choosing nontoxic cleaning and personal care products, eating fewer animal products, and most importantly advocating. If enough of us opt to buy products that aren’t doused in PDBEs, and let our politicians know about our concerns, change can happen.
No matter how you feed your baby, no matter what you feed your baby, my take-away message is that things don’t have to be the way they are. It can be discouraging to learn that our bodies are all harbouring heavy metals and flame retardants, and that we are passing that burden on to our children. But there is hope, and we can help that hope to grow into real progress. After all, no one should have to be afraid that their precious newborn is getting a dose of suspected carcinogens with their mother’s milk.
I wrote this post for the Green Moms Carnival, which is all about environmental links to cancer this month. To read some more thoughts on how toxins are increasing cancer rates visit Nature Moms on March 8.
This was a great post. Thanks for making me think more about this.
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Warning: long comment ahead!
First of all, the picture of you with Jacob made me weepy with nostalgic happiness. I LOVED how my boy’s little feet would point up like that while they were latching. So cute!
Secondly, I agree with you 100% on all points.
Thirdly, my mom chose not to breastfeed my sister and I. (To make it worse she didn’t even use formula, it was canned milk and corn syrup for us!) Amazingly we did survive, and are even healthy — no asthma, no allergies, not brain damage. But I still am a bit ANGRY and resentful at my mom for risking our health and future IQs just so she didn’t have to be home all the time to nurse. She never did get close to us, I don’t think she ever bonded, and I have issues with that — (there I said it).
I FIRMLY believe that nursing should always be the FIRST option and only if the baby does not thrive or the mother will suffer should formula be a consideration. My sister had issues with nursing that were personal space issues, she found the whole thing uncomfortable and felt it was hurting her relationship with her babies, but she still nursed for the first 6 weeks, and pumped to bottles until the were 3 months because she understood there were benefits to the milk and to the proximity to mommy. After the 3 months she switched to formula and never looked back, though I didn’t agree with her choice, it was hers to make and at least she did what she felt gave her babies their best start.
There is so much descrimination around this topic too. Breastfeeding advocates tend to look at women handing their babies bottles as neglecting or abusing their babes without knowing the whole story of how that decision was made or even what’s in the bottle!(I admit I am guilty of that very thing). And other people see nursing in public as obsene. You can’t please all the people all the time, so you really have to do what’s RIGHT for your baby and your own conscience.
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Excellent post with great links. Special thanks for this one.
I love seeing you breast feed your babies. It makes me a little weepy myself since my youngest is now 11.
I breast feed all four of my kids until I was pregnant with the next one. However (19 years ago) I did not know a lot what I was eating or using could have affected them.
(The last one weaned himself at 3 years old by the way.)
I am glad you wrote this post because so many mothers do not know what they use and eat can affect their kids.
Great post. Even though breastfeeding didn’t work out for me, I still strongly believe it is the first and best option for babies. It would be a shame if anyone choose not to try to breastfeed simply because of scary headlines about toxins in breast milk.
I soooo agree with your main point- we need to advocate to remove as many chemicals from our lives and possible. Every step we can take to live healthier, more natural lives is important.
But I always appreciate how you are able to make a very important point without being judgmental. One of the many reasons I love your blog.
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Very informative post. It makes my head spin to think about all the toxins. I think that is why I went so hardcore with “no plastic” and natural only for all baby stuff when my first was born. I feel strongly about organic food for the same reasons. Course I maintain a balance too and will eat my fair share of conventional junk food.
Headlines like “toxins in breastmilk” really really anger me. The more appropriate headline should be “toxins in all our food and environment…leads to toxins in breastmilk”. They make it sound as if breastmilk is the culprit, and like you, I worry that some women might misinterpret it.
I believe that each woman should make her own choices, and that the most inportant thing is that we can make sure she knows the true benefits or downfalls of either choice.
And I think it is appropriate to mention that I’m nursing my 4 month old right now as I type with one hand! Loved seeing those sweet pictures of you with your two little ones.
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It angers me that we have to work so hard to avoid the toxins in this world. Every time I see a pink plastic bracelet symbolizing breast cancer awareness, I cringe. Why more plastic? We are living in denial.
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Great post Amber. This is a topic I’ve been meaning to write about for a long time, but haven’t had a chance yet. I cringe too when I see those headlines.
Annie @ PhD in Parenting´s last post ..Are we using our brains when it comes to epidurals?
So glad to have found your blog! I like what you have to say. I am currently breastfeeding my second son and nursed my first for two and a half years.
I have heard of this issue before, and sometimes I think about a study I read about involving dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico. Researchers discovered many firstborn dolphins were dying. They thought it was perhaps the firstborn dolphins were bearing the brunt of getting the toxins from their mothers’ milk, and that because Gulf waters don’t circulate as well as the oceans’ water, perhaps the fish they eat were more contaminated. Subsequent offspring didn’t have milk as contaminated as the first did, supposedly because the mother unloaded a lot of her toxins into her first through her milk, so to speak. Anyway, not to get too egghead on you here, but it does make me wonder, especially now that I am nursing my second baby.
Holly at Tropic of Mom´s last post ..A Disney/Nickelodeon weekend
What kind of world is ours where breastmilk contains toxins?! It’s the kind of world where the issue is addressed by suggesting to switch to formula, instead of pushing into taking steps to reduce the toxins we end up ingesting! This is the leaf blower mentality: the noisy machine that will blow leaves around without solving the problem of removing them. It’s a great topic to bring up, Amber. A very sad and disquieting one that needs to be addresses just like you did.
Francesca´s last post ..From the mountains to the sea
Great work! Headlines like that are purely about stirring up trouble and not about using common sense. Yes, unfortunately there are toxins in breastmilk. But like you said it is the same set of toxins that babies may be exposed to while in the womb. If we just took steps to reduce our exposure to unneeded chemicals that can be greatly reduced. Even with a few toxins I’d still choose the protections offered by breastmilk over formula any day.
Love the nursing pictures too! Such sweet times.
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Shouldn’t they be attacking the root causes of the increased toxicity of the enviroment/animals/humans rather than breastfeeding. It’s a bit like saying stay inside, it’s polluted outside. Or stop walking, you might get hit by a car.
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It’d be interesting to see which woman are being tested for these toxins. What is their daily diet like in that toxins would appear in their breast milk?
My mother didn’t breastfeed me, to spite her mother-in-law. I stil cannot get over that, so she fed me canned milk/formula. Who’s to say that was the healthiest way to raise a baby. I even read in my baby book that she was feeding me grilled cheese and peanut butter and jelly when I was only a few months old! Granted, times have changed, but it’s amazing that I don’t have any allergies and rarely get sick.
I do believe in breastfeeding babies and I hope articles like the one you found don’t scare future mothers away from it.
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Beautiful photos! What I love most about your blog is how you can tackle such a wide range of topics with such a calm, non-judgmental voice. Such a skill and a gift.
coffeewithjulie´s last post ..Forgiveness
Great post, Amber! I highly recommend Sandra Steingraber’s book “Having Faith” for anyone interested in the topic of environmental effects on breastfeeding (and on babies in the womb). Steingraber is an ecologist who studies environmental effects on cancer rates, and the book is about the research she did on the environment of her womb when she was pregnant, and also through breastfeeding. She makes the same statement you do that breastmilk is the most toxic-laden food on the planet, but she still came to the conclusion that it is (by far) the best food for her child, for many reasons.
Anyway, I am passionate about that book. It really changed my life and opened my eyes to what is really going on in the world around me. Very inspiring. (And a little worrisome, I guess.)
Molly´s last post ..When Eden Cries
Great post! And don’t forget, women who breast feed reduce their own chance of breast cancer.
Lisa @Retro Housewife Goes Green´s last post ..Cement Plants and Cancer
Lovely photo of you nursing your child. I nursed my first child 1 year, my second child 2 years, and my 3rd child 3 years. It’s a good thing I did not have a 4th child! Breastfeeding is such a smart choice. Now that my boys are grown, I feel great that I did my best to provide good nutrition when they were growing.
Linda A
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I so wish I would have tried to capture the joy of nursing my two w/ photography – true maternal bliss. I am glad you reinforced the all powerful properties of breast milk such as the value of conjugated lineolic acid and the benefits of nursing for the mom and reducing breast cancer. Excellant post
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http://www.nrdc.org/breastmilk/lead.asp
Per this study, formula does have higher counts of everything. But breastmilk does have some, but not more than formula. Of course the goal of this is to get rid of all these contaminents. So many refuse to breastfeed or come back with the fact that there are these contaminents as a reason or excuse, which is sad, since they didn’t even get accurate information. Most are just trying to explain why they formula feed and it is “better” for them than the breatfeeders. At the moment, I am breastfeeding my gorgeous little 7 month old. We love it, and the only thing I hate, is that she is the first child I have breastfed, my other is an angel who we lost at 10 weeks, and I am sad that she gets most of the contaminents…. We are also deciding whether we want to continue delaying her vaccinations, or just not getting them at all. Vaccinations have so many contaminants, SO much more than either formula or breastmilk….