REUTERS NEWS AGENCY
High costs, skepticism among doctors and other issues are preventing more babies from receiving human milk from special banks when their mothers have trouble breast-feeding, experts said Monday as federal officials consider whether to step in and regulate.
Although experts agree a mother’s milk is the best choice to feed infants, a huge gap exists when premature birth, illness or even maternal death make breast-feeding impossible. Parents must use infant formula or milk banks that screen and distribute donated breast milk.
The Food and Drug Administration is weighing whether to step in and regulate such banks, just as it does the $4 billion infant-formula industry. The banks are largely nonprofit.
Critics worry a greater government role could hamper an already difficult struggle to get breast milk to the growing number of premature infants and other babies who need it.
“We are trying to get more human milk into babies, not less,” said Susan Landers, who oversees lactation services for the Seton Family of Hospitals in central Texas.
At a meeting of FDA outside advisers, FDA Deputy Commissioner Dr. Josh Sharfstein said the agency backs breast-feeding, but is deciding whether to get involved.
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