Infant Formula companies claim: make babies smarter

[katty]

more:
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/143369/dangerous_hype%3A_infant_formula_companies_claim_they_can_make_babies_%27smarter%27

If you believed a certain baby formula would make your child smarter, would you buy it?

Infant formula manufacturers are banking that you would. That's why, since 2002, several companies have fortified their products with synthetic versions of DHA and ARA, long-chain fatty acids that occur naturally in breast milk and have been associated with brain development.

The oils are produced by Martek Biosciences Corp. from lab-grown algae and fungus and extracted with hexane, according to the company's patent application. Hexane is a neurotoxin.

A growing number of parents and medical professional believe these additives are causing severe reactions in some babies, and it has been repeatedly shown that taking affected babies off DHA/ARA formula makes the problems go away almost immediately. The FDA has received hundreds of letters to this effect by upset parents, even as products containing the additives are being marketed as better than breast milk.

[Kceres]

1. This makes my blood boil!

How is breast milk supposed to come up with the resources to counter this fraudulent claim? How is breast milk going to hire a advertising firm, etc., etc.? Is it a Nestles' company doing this? Wonder if they're back up to their old tricks and how many babies will die this time. :grr:

[Igel]

2. Does it need to?

The canisters of baby formula that we used with our kid explicitly stated that they put these chemicals into their formula because they were found in breast milk, even though nobody realized how important they were for years or what purpose they served

Numbed-brain inference: Breast milk is good, formula is an attempt at mimicking it--an attempt that might not yet be right.

[Hestia]

3. Are people really that stupid to believe that chemicals are better for babies than breast milk?

If a mother honestly believes that, I guess let her feed the child that brand. The rest of us will really have brilliant children. Dang...