Breastfeeding can expose babies to toxic chemicals

He also said that people should be aware of PFAS levels in their local drinking water, which can fluctuate.

Breastfeeding is a personal choice for each mother to make under the guidance of a physician. But, like many other compounds created to improve people’s lives in some way or another, these chemicals stick around for a really long time in the environment and in animals’ bodies, including those of humans.

“We found that for each doubling in exposure to PFAS, the child has an increased risk that the vaccination will not take”, he said.

They found that, in children who were exclusively breastfed, PFAS concentrations in the blood increased by roughly 20 to 30 per cent each month, with lower increases among children who were partially breastfed.

It has been known of their mild presence within breast milk, but studies have shown that the build-ups grow the more the child is breastfed, according to Philippe Grandjean from Harvard Chan School of Public Health. From the waterproof mattress protector to Dad’s stain-resistant shirt to Mom’s new paint supplies and even in the kitchen as food packaging, PFAS are everywhere and bioaccumulate in food chains.

Nearing the end of their breastfeeding, some infants had higher PFAS concentrations than their mothers! “And now we’re finding that there are contaminants in the milk that have the opposite effect of breast milk that are decreasing the impact of childhood immunizations”.

The dangers are 100 times higher for infants, who do not have fully developed immune systems to protect them.

But the U.S. does not regulate the amount of transfer of PFAS to infants and does not perform chemical testings. It’s still a crucial factor for the health and well being of newborn babies, and are more aiming at showing the risks of PFASs uses among products shipped worldwide.

The study included 81 children born in the Faroe Islands, a nation in the North Atlantic, situated about midway between Norway and Iceland.

The study concluded that breast milk was a significant source of PFAS exposure for infants; however, the researchers did not discredit or condemn breastfeeding. Researchers monitored five types of PFASs in their blood at birth and ages 11 months, 18 months, and 5 years and also looked at PFAS levels in mothers of the children at week 32 of pregnancy.

However, a study by Harvard University researchers suggests that the accumulation of potentially toxic chemicals in human breast milk might actually prove risky to babies.