Toxins in Breastmilk: Don’t Add Silicone

Beauty and the Breast
Published March 9, 2008

Libby MacDonald at The Toxic Sandbox, who wrote a book of the same name about environmental toxins and children’s health, looked at a 2002 study that showed PBDEs in mother’s milk to be 10-100 times higher in the United States than in Europe, where PBDEs are used less. She began to wonder if it is wise for American moms to breastfeed their babies. This issue also concerned Tanya, who blogs at The Motherwear Breastfeeding blog. Over at BlogHer, Amy Gates very usefully reviews some of the findings regarding toxins in breast milk and some of the efforts to do something about it. For example, Mary Brune, got together with other new mothers and launched a nationwide effort to get toxic chemicals out of breast milk, called Making Our Milk Safe (MOMS). Still, experts recommend that women continue to breastfeed their babies in the belief that the benefits of breastfeeding outweigh the risks. In fact, The Environmental Working Group tell us it may be even more important for moms exposed to environmental toxins to breastfeed. “Several long-term studies have followed groups of babies exposed to PCBs in-utero and found that the breastfed babies appear to be less impacted by the chemical exposures than their bottle-fed counterparts.” I am a mother, and I know first-hand how important the quality of breast milk is. I had silicone implants when I breastfed my infant daughter 15 years ago, and since then, she has suffered all sorts of strange illnesses, with some symptoms very similar to my own from my silicone poisoning. To women with breast implants or who are considering getting them, if you plan on breastfeeding, consider these points: + Silicone breast implants eventually leak. No one definitely knows the impact on breast milk. Many children breastfed on breasts with implants display no harmful effects, but some do and the effects can be very bad indeed. There’s a whole community of families dealing with the effects of implants on their kids’ health. + Studies have found dangerously high levels of platinum salts in the breast milk of women with silicone gel breast implants. That’s because platinum is used to make the shells of those implants (not for saline implants). The platinum can cause severe allergic or toxic reactions. In the case of silicone in breast milk, it is by no means clear that the benefits outweigh the risks. Yet, doctors continue to tell mothers with implants to go ahead and nurse, and La Leche hasn’t even issued a caution. Our children are so precious. We need to weigh all risks carefully. Click here to read this post.