Julie T said:"Debbie Cusick" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
Quoted message said:
My son's pediatrician recommended low-fat milk when my son was
little. He said you definitely don't want to give your kids skim
milk, but that the 1% or 2% milk is far closer to the fat
composition of human breast milk.Rubbish - more than half of the calories in breast milk come from
fat.
Well, not utter rubbish as far as I've been able to google up. For example
at:
http://www.gpnotebook.co.uk/cache/-583729150.htm it says:
"Fat content in human breast milk is variable during the feed. Initially the
fat content of human milk is low and this rises to about 3% by the end of
the feed."
so it seem that my doctor was correct when he said that whole cow's milk,
which averages about 3.5% fat, has more fat than human breast milk. Back in
those pre-home-computer days I essentially just took his word for it, and 2%
milk does seem to be a fair average for the percentage of fat in breast
milk, since, interestingly enough. it starts out low and then rises up to 3%
by the end of the feed, but never reaches the fat content of whole cow's
milk, which would be uniform throughout, not just at the end of the feed.
Another one of the web sites I saw suggested that this rise to 3% fat at the
end of the feed was a way to induce a sense of satiety in the infant, which
the lower fat milk earlier on did not do, to trigger the end of the feeding.
Based on what I've been reading the charge of "rubbish" seems a bit harsh
and over the top.
But back in 1979 I had no easy way to research the composition of breast
milk, or reason to doubt my doctor. I stopped breastfeeding my son when he
was 10 months old, and then switched him to 2% milk. He is now 25 and in law
school, and drinking 2% milk certainly does not seem to have hurt him any.
:-)
--
Debbie