Beyond melamine: more reasons not to use animal milk in infant feeding.

摘要

The widespread panic caused by the discovery that melamine was commonly added to milk in China was justified. Treatment of the resulting renal damage has been challenging, and the causal mechanism is unknown. But the underlying cause of this phenomenon is receiving little attention. Wherever quality control procedures are inadequate, milk can be and probably often is sold with unknown amounts of water added to increase profits of either dairy farmers or middlemen, or both. If it is challenging for large infant formula manufacturers to prevent dilution or other adulteration of the milk they buy, then animal milk, still more widely used as a breast milk substitute than infant formula in low-income countries, should be more widely acknowledged as dangerous for infant feeding. Meanwhile, governments around the world continue to undervalue breastfeeding and fail to take the steps needed to protect, support, and promote it.