Soy-based infant formula - not all it’s cracked up to be? Good heavens what a surprise! But then where did anyone ever get the idea that a plant-based food for babies could be anything other than a meagre substitute for human milk - and now it seems it’s not even a meagre substitute but a potentially damaging one. The evidence has been mounting, but yet another study, published in The Society for the Study of Reproduction suggests that consumption of phyto-estrogens (hormone-like substances found in soy) at sensitive periods of development of the female foetus through to puberty, have a negative impact on later fertility. So now health and medical experts in NZ have called for a ban on soy-based infant formula... so it’s back to the drawing board and that particular drawing board suggests mum’s breast can’t be bettered. And the good news is, Time Magazine’s latest cover shows a very switched on mum breastfeeding a very sassy three year old. The interesting thing - more than 25% of readers in the Sydney Morning Herald informal poll considered breastfeeding at any age totally acceptable. YAY!
