Category: Allergies

  • Allergy Inquiry Submission November 2019

    HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Standing Committee on Health Aged Care and Sport : Inquiry into Allergies and Anaphylaxis submission by Maureen Minchin, Milk Matters Pty Ltd Summary Since 1976 I have lived and worked with allergy, published about it since 1980, and taught health professionals and others about it. I have worked with international bodies such…

  • Human or microbial? deception in marketing

    Over the years, many sad stories, but were there happy endings? I often wonder about outcomes long term. One in particular.  Were you the midwife who attended both my infant feeding and allergy and IBLCE exam prep workshops with your newborn baby more than 20 years ago? Workshops were held in Armadale around three weeks…

  • The visual Milk Hypothesis

    ‘what we feed them now matters forever’…… www.infantfeedingmatters.com

  • Infant Feeding History revised

    Chapter 14 of Breastfeeding and Breast Milk: from Biochemistry to Impact. What follows is the Content (but not the lovely formatting) of the entire chapter and references, pp. 219-239, as from my galley proofs of the above-titled book, published by Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart in September 2018. Reproduced here with the consent of the publisher,…

  • IBFAN Asia Presentations Reading List

    Basic resource: Milk Matters: infant feeding and immune disorder, is also available as two inexpensive e-books, Infant formula and Modern Epidemics (the science and reality of artificial feeding) and Crying Babies and Food in the Early Years.No other book contains what this does. You need access to this. My Milk Hypothesis is available online in shorter…

  • Evidence streams in infant feeding: ex-debate

    Breastfeeding has become the centrepiece of public health programmes, endorsed by the health industry and the infant formula industry and philanthropic groups and national governments alike. How did the world arrive at that global consensus about the importance of breastfeeding? It developed from three related, but independent, streams of evidence. 1. The first stream flows…

  • Tuteur debate: Minchin 2

    Tuteur debate: Minchin 2  is a two part reply for the historical record. It is in two parts. The first annotates what  Amy Tuteur posted online on her Facebook page.  The second part is a  critique of her reply (Tuteur 1)  to Minchin 1.   Get a cuppa or a glass of wine and read…

  • what happens in pregnancy pre-disposes to food allergy…

    By birth, babies that will be diagnosed as food allergic are already different in immune function. Click on the link to read abstract, and then read my commentary below… https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/8/321/321ra8 “Now, Zhang et al. report that infants who later developed food allergy had altered immunity at birth. Cord blood from these infants had more monocytes…

  • MILK: THE BIOLOGY OF LACTATION

    MILK: THE BIOLOGY OF LACTATION by Michael L Power and Jay Schulkin (Johns Hopkins Press, 2016) This relatively small book aims to inform, stimulate and even challenge thought about milk and lactation, its evolution, and its importance to modern life. It achieves those aims. The structure is clear, the authors adhere to it, and summarise…

  • What 3-4 months means…

    There should be no recommendation for change to the age of introduction of other foods to breastfed infants. For formula fed infants, there may be a case for widening the diet from 3-4 months onwards, as total dependence on a single dehydrated industrial powder is inherently risky; moderation and variety are the keys to dietary…

  • ELF Feeds: a fairy story analysed: part 1

    EARLY LIMITED FORMULA FEEDS: A FAIRY STORY ANALYSED (from Milk Matters, p.113-6) [Another post will comment on this group’s newest published research asap.]  … a tiny study of just forty mothers336 may have persuaded some (who didn’t read it carefully) that infant formula is harmless, even beneficial, because it supports maternal breastfeeding…. The study authors’…

  • Milk Fats and Fantasies: MFGMs

    In some ways formula has come full circle. The 1980s banishing of “animal fats” is now seen by some scientists as a mistake. Companies are likely to reintroduce processed milk fat in formulas where it presently does not exist.  Of course bovine and human milk fats are not identical[ii], as calves have different needs from…

  • Milk Matters review by Joy Anderson, expert dietitian

    ” New Book! ‘Milk Matters’ by Maureen Minchin Maureen Minchin’s new book Milk Matters: Infant Feeding & Immune Disorder is now available. It is the culmination of many years of hard work and studying the scientific literature by Maureen. I highly recommend this book to parents, health professionals, really everyone! It focuses on the profound…

  • UNDOING THE MYTH THAT SUSTAINS FORMULA FEEDING

    Food in general has never been more extensively and intensively investigated, and recently three books have added to my knowledge of the reality of food processing. I commend them to anyone interested in the politics and science of food. And I hope the authors of all three books will in future address the topic of…

  • Amazon reviews of Milk Matters!

    An eye opening lightbulb moment read that should be essential reading for health professionals By Amy Brown   (Author Of Breastfeeding Uncovered) on 27 September 2017 We all know that ‘Breast is best’ right? Posters tell us, health professionals tell us, even the tin of formula says it (albeit in tiny writing). That message doesn’t work though,…

  • Intolerant Bodies: a history of immune research

    Intolerant bodies: a history of auto immunity. Anderson W, Mackay IR. (Johns Hopkins Press 2014) A focussed partial review and commentary.. This readable and illuminating text by an historian and an immunologist outlines the historical process of uncovering the workings of the immune system. Finding this book was for me finding a missing piece of…

  • Mixed messages mislead mothers: Danone does it.

    Some time ago I checked the Amazon page for my book Milk Matters: infant feeding and immune disorder, curious to see what sponsored advertisements might turn up. I was not very surprised to find advertisements for three infant formula companies. A Danone link listed what seemed like 10 positive facts about breastmilk. How factual where…

  • Research shows what parents have known for decades

    OK, here’s what’s been in the news. https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/8/321/321ra8 “Now, Zhang et al. report that infants who later developed food allergy had altered immunity at birth. Cord blood from these infants had more monocytes compared with CD4+ T cells and decreased numbers of regulatory T cells. Moreover, the monocytes from food-allergic infants secreted more inflammatory cytokines than…

  • I’m going nuts about peanuts: or are other people?

    The LEAP trial looking at prevention pf peanut allergy in Jewish children in the UK and Israel is interesting, but is being widely misquoted in the media and by health professionals as justification for 4 rather than 6 months for the introduction of solid food. Why is this inappropriate? Where to start… Inclusion criteria were…

  • FOUR MONTHS OR SIX OR NEITHER? when to widen the milk diet.

    What follows is an excerpt from my latest book, Milk matters: infant feeding and immune disorder. It is much easier to read in the book itself, which also deals with practical matters related to this issue. Copying the text from an In Design file to this version has been a time-wasting nightmare, and there will be…