Category: Commentary

  • FLRF/Medela Post

    My previous post, Friends of the WHO Code? set out the facts re the Family Larsson Rosenquist Foundation as I understand them, and I have had no contradictions or corrections. (I will report any, of course, in public posts, as I believe strongly that private groups discussing this issue misleads good people, and creates needless confusion…

  • Friends of the WHO Code?

    I sometimes wonder why good sense is called common sense, when it seems to be relatively rare in some places.  Take for example some of that minority who insist that no one should, for example,   read literature created or published by commercial interests (other than their own, or their friends); attend or speak at conferences…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Tuteur-Minchin Debate Outline

    WHY A TIMELINE? In my opinion, in an era of fake news and online hatred, Amy Tuteur (AT), the so-called Skeptical Obstetrician, and author of Push Back: Guilt in the Age of Natural Parenting, is undermining public health efforts, and I suspect, profiting from doing so. Personally, as a result of her behaviour, I consider…

  • Tuteur Push Back: Minchin Review

    Push Back. Guilt in the Age of Natural Parenting by Amy Tuteur. (HarperCollins NY 2016) INTRODUCTION I find it extraordinary for any medical doctor to have written a book containing such sweeping generalisations, allegations of vile motives by other health professionals, and minimally researched, provably untrue, and defamatory, assertions. Sadly, it is no longer rare…

  • About altered fats in some formulas

    I wrote to an author of a couple of articles on this topic. My email: Your 2014 Am J Clin Nutr and 2015 JPGN articles are being used to promote infant formulas in Asia and Australia. The marketing message is that your results show that the formulas are now closer than ever to breastmilk, as…

  • Tuteur debate: Minchin 3

    TUTEUR MINCHIN DEBATE  MINCHIN 3: A REPLY TO TUTEUR 2  Thanks to an onlooker, I received a copy of Amy Tuteur MD’s latest reply, which I discovered online at 12.30pm today June 21. It is not a reply addressed to me, but to her supporters. It is they who matter.    And to them I say that…

  • 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…

  • Tuteur debate: Minchin 1

    PREAMBLE FOR ANY SPECTATORS It is because infant feeding is such a powerful issue, and so important to global health, that I agreed to spend the time on this question set by Amy Tuteur, and to create a time-stamped secure permanent record on a dedicated website for future reference by historians of the “the Mommy…

  • Tuteur/Minchin debate procedure

    Debate procedure Maureen Minchin will follow This process has been independently designed after consulting tech experts to maximise accountability, minimise pointless emotive conflict, clearly delineate what is included and what is not, and create an independent record of all contributions. I am satisfied that the time spent on specialist consultation should achieve the end result of a…

  • Tuteur Debate Update: Progress?

    An Update: The Skeptical Obstetrician, and her challenge to ‘debate’. What has happened so far. March 3,  2019.  Dr Amy Tuteur intruded rudely on my Facebook page to challenge me to a debate – as she has challenged other breastfeeding advocates, individuals and groups. (Who sensibly refuse to engage with her.)  I agreed to consider…

  • 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…

  • The Bottle, the Breast and the State: Oakley review

     The Bottle the Breast and the State. The politics of infant feeding in the United States.  By Maureen Rand Oakley. (Lexington Books 2015) I like this book, which should be  read by those in mother support, breastfeeding advocacy and feminist academia with the time to do so. I  support Oakley’s approach, as I welcome any book…

  • 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’…

  • Formula Perfection and Additives: Forever Imperfect

    Formula Perfection and Additives: Forever Imperfect

    Milk Fats and Fictions  Forever Imperfect Formula  Protected by the ignorance or silence of health professionals, gullible and trusting parents have always believed infant formula to be perfect, a totally safe replacement for women’s milk. Why? Because infant formula has always been marketed as perfect. One company still claims to have “the perfect mix 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,…

  • 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…

  • NATIONAL STRATEGY ON INFANT AND YOUNG CHILD FEEDING: SOME THOUGHTS

    “At the COAG Health Ministers meeting in September 2016, it was agreed that an enduring Australian National Breastfeeding Strategy (the Strategy) be developed, incorporating two components: development of a high level enduring strategy to support breastfeeding in Australia, with no end date; and national agreement on how data is collected nationally to measure progress on…

  • Overselling infant formula: Lactivism

    Definitely Overselling Infant Formula:                                                  Lactivism by Courtney Jung           An overdue  review Professor Courtney Jung’s Lactivism is sensationally subtitled: how feminists and fundamentalists, hippies and yuppies, and…

  • 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…

  • Recent study: milk fat or vegetable?

    Milk Matters argues that industry knows its infant formula products are deeply flawed, which helps explain the pressure to try to improve them. This is confirmed by two recent pieces reported in Splash!, the newsletter of the Milk Genomics Consortium, an industry-funded group. Its April 2015 issue tells of an experimental formula with decreased protein and…