Feeding the Children of HIV-Infected Mothers: The Arguments for Formula and Breastfeeding

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HIV-infected women in developing countries are faced with a difficult choice. Do they breastfeed their infant and potentially transmit the disease through breastmilk, or do they use supplemental feedings of expensive synthetic formula. Many women that desire to use supplemental feedings lack the financial means or necessary equipment to be able to provide adequate nutrition. There is the distinct risk that even if they are able to use supplemental formula unclean water could expose their child gastrointestinal infections or parasites. The official recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) is that if supplemental feeding is feasible and practical by the mother, then the mother should avoid breastfeeding. If supplemental feeding is not feasible, then the child should be exclusively breastfed for at least six months. Neither choice is a one hundred percent satisfactory solution, and ongoing research continues to argue the benefits of one method of feeding versus the other.

Supplemental feedings and replacement milks include commercial formula and animal milks prepared with sugar, water, and other nutrients. Some mothers choose to combine the commercial formula with the milk mixture to stretch their supplies of each. Because HIV is spread through contact with infected body fluids, the child that is fed with supplemental feedings is at a lower risk of becoming infected than a child that comes in contact with the HIV-positive mother’s breastmilk. Common replacement milk recipes that were studied by Papathakis & Rollins in 2004 included 39g of full cream powdered milk (PM), 30g of sugar, and 450ml of water, and 300 ml full cream milk (FM), 30g of sugar, and 150 ml water.

In the findings published by Papathakis & Rollins, th...

... middle of paper ...

...s that women face if they choose replacement feeding and had an overall depth to their research that Papathakis & Rollins lacked. Papathakis & Rollins glossed over the fact that commercial formula is simply not feasible for the majority of women, and looked at the situation quite clinically and impersonally as they advocated the use of commercial formula over replacement milks.

Works Cited

Papathakis, P.C., & Rollins, N.C. (2003). Are WHO/UNAIDS/UNICEF-recommended replacement milks for infants of HIV-infected mothers appropriate in the South African context? Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 82(3), 164-171.

Bland, R.M., Rollins, N.C., Coovadia, H.M., Coutsoudis, A., & Newell, M.L. (2007). Infant feeding counseling for HIV-infected and uninfected women: appropriateness of choice and practice. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 85(4), 289-296.

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