The story highlights the plight of some ‘breast feed only’ babies (who’s numbers are rising in response to ‘breast is best’ campaign) who become badly dehydrated, and the plan to test how widespread this may be. However, it goes on to say that only 1% of mothers breastfeed exclusively for the first 6 months, and most have problems in the first few weeks, and supplement with formula.

My question is, why is this a priority to test, and can’t resources be better allocated on breastfeeding education and support for pregnant and nursing women, and advice on eating a better diet and drinking enough good quality water.

On the one hand, mothers are told ‘breast is best’, but if your baby is sick then formula is better, and if you do choose to breast feed exclusively then you better keep up with the weight chart (based on 1950 bottle fed babies!), or your baby will be classed as ‘not thriving’, and you will be hounded by the health visitor. I speak from my own experience with my son who is now 5 1/2 months, and very healthy.

Whilst breastfeeding is often difficult, for many reasons some physical, some emotional, looking after some of the foundations of a mothers health – nutrition and hydration can make a huge difference to the health of both mother and baby. 

For tips and advice on how to eat and drink water for you and your babies health please see http://dcintegratedhealth.com/2008/03/04/the-nutrition-connection-part-2/

Paul Chek in his book ‘Under The Veil of Deception’ cites 61 fertility studies. One study over 50 years, from 1938-1988, with 15 thousand male subjects in the USA, showed a drop of sperm count of 120 million sperm per ml in 1938, to 50 million sperm per ml in 1988. In Europe the same drop was shown in half the time period.

Another study looking at sperm count, showed that men eating an organic diet had a sperm count, of between 99-127 million sperm per ml, with those with 55% or more, organic diet having the highest count. A control group who didn’t have an organic diet had sperm counts of 55-69 million sperm per ml.

While there are other factors (like hormones in water supply, stress, environmental pollution etc) that can cause infertility, it is interesting that the men on an organic diet had similar or better sperm count than the men in 1938. Conventionally and commercially farmed meat, vegetable and fruit contain toxins and lower levels of nutrients to feed our 120 trillion cells, including those that control our fertility.

The food we eat is only as good as the soil it is grown in, the animals that eat it, so we need to support our local organic farmers and the soil association (and other organic organisations) to ensure that we can continue to reproduce, without tampering with nature.

To learn more about how you can eat to improve your fertility then please visit http://dcintegratedhealth.com/2008/02/26/the-nutrition-connection-part-1/