premastication

[wolfter]

I was watching a program this morning and they were discussing Alicia Silverstone pre chewing her child's food.  The "experts" gave all the reasons not to do this including the possibility of passing HIV to their child.

I thought I heard it all from the Am I section, but this is a new means of transmission? 

I found several different links, including this one.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/30/us-prechewed-food-hiv-idUSTRE77T57620110830

Wolfie

[Miss Philicia]

Are you implying that Memphis doctor Dr. Aditya Gaur doesn't know what he(she) is talking about?

[wolfter]

Are you implying that Memphis doctor Dr. Aditya Gaur doesn't know what he(she) is talking about?

Nope, didn't imply anything.  Just never heard of this means of tranmission before. 

[Hellraiser]

I think the real issue we should be confronting here is how sad it is that former film star Alicia Silverstone no longer has even enough money to buy her child baby food.  Discuss.

[Matty the Damned]

I think the real issue we should be confronting here is how sad it is that former film star Alicia Silverstone no longer has even enough money to buy her child baby food.  Discuss.

You'd think so, right? ^.^

Anyhoo we had a chat out the back and it'd greatly appreciated if you could let us know about your views on suicide.

Not because we want you to do it, but just in case we're asked.

Viva la Choice!

MtD

[Oceanbeach]

I was watching a program this morning and they were discussing Alicia Silverstone pre chewing her child's food.  The "experts" gave all the reasons not to do this including the possibility of passing HIV to their child.

I thought I heard it all from the Am I section, but this is a new means of transmission? 

I found several different links, including this one.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/30/us-prechewed-food-hiv-idUSTRE77T57620110830

Wolfie

A video of her feeding her child was on the news tonight on CBS5 San Francisco.  If nothing else, it is gross     Have the best day
Michael

[emeraldize]

This is an abstract I located that might be worth doubters' reading. If you wish, I'll get the article, but I think this is sufficient.

Matern Child Nutr. 2010 Jan;6(1):4-18.
Premastication: the second arm of infant and young child feeding for health and survival?
Pelto GH, Zhang Y, Habicht JP.
SourceDivision of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. Gp32@cornell.edu

Abstract
Premastication of foods for infants was a crucial behavioural adaptation to neoteny that ensured nutritional adequacy during the period of complementary feeding throughout the course of human evolution until recent times.While the paps and gruels of agricultural systems provided an alternative and modern food technology appears to make it unnecessary, we argue that, in addition to its role in nutrition, premastication also played a crucial role in supporting infant health. Its abandonment, particularly in poor communities, has placed children at increased risk of inadequate nutrition and decreased ability to confront infections associated with the introduction of complementary foods.We present two empirical studies. Section I is a cross-cultural study of the ethnographic literature in order to estimate prevalence in non-Western societies.One-third of ethnographies in the worldwide sample with data on infant feeding report premastication. Section II presents the results of a qualitative study in China, conducted in order to provide data on the likelihood that this percent is incorrect due to under-reporting.The finding that 63% of Chinese university students received premasticated food as infants, whereas none of eight ethnographic studies performed in Han China identified premastication in their reports, provides support for the conclusion that the cross-cultural study grossly underestimates its prevalence in non-Western societies. Section III is a discussion of potential benefits and risks of infant exposure to maternal saliva.We conclude with the argument for a concerted research effort to determine whether premastication can solve not only the 'weanling dilemma' in poor countries but also some of the health problems among the better-off.

Comment in
Matern Child Nutr. 2010 Jan;6(1):2-3.
Matern Child Nutr. 2010 Jan;6(1):19-26.
Matern Child Nutr. 2011 Jan;7(1):104; author reply 105-6.

[mecch]

Those kooky celebrities! January Jones is eating her placenta in gel capsules.

[skeebo1969]

   I heard this discussed the other morning on the radio during my drive to work.  They seemed grossed out by it too.  I, on the otherhand, thought this was the norm.  I've done it for my daughters...  how else are they suppose to enjoy a T-bone?

   I did play it safe with the 4 year old though and chose not to breastfeed.

[GSOgymrat]

Those kooky celebrities! January Jones is eating her placenta in gel capsules.

Carrie on My Strange Addiction finds comfort in drinking her own urine. She also enjoys bathing in it. Fortunately Carrie doesn't drink the urine she has bathed in because that would just be gross.*



*Stolen from Entertainment Weekly.

[Ann]

This is old news - like a year or two at least.

I think there were a couple isolated cases in Africa where this was thought to be the likely transmission vector (the operative word there being thought), but I don't believe it was ever conclusively proven.

It's a highly unlikely transmission vector for several reasons - for one, there would have to be an awful lot of the chewer's blood in their mouth and I can't really imagine anyone giving their child pre-chewed food that was soaked in blood.

Saliva isn't infectious, so obviously it couldn't have been the saliva. Another reason would be the anti-hiv properties of saliva. Also, the types of cells hiv can latch onto and infect are not found in abundance in the mouth.

I think a very likely explanation for this is that the mothers breastfed at some point in the child's life and they refused to admit to it - because all hiv positive mothers are explicitly told to not breastfeed.

In places like Africa where breastfeeding is the norm, societal pressures can be great and mothers who do not breastfeed are questioned, harassed and assumed to be hiv positive. For hiv positive mothers who do not want their hiv status to be common knowledge, the pressure to breastfeed would be enormous.

But they're unlikely to admit that to medical professionals who are trying to ascertain how the child came to be hiv positive. It would be easier to let it be assumed it was through a theoretical transmission vector they weren't warned about.

If you ask me, it's just another case of an isolated (and unproven) situation being blown all out of proportion and used to frighten people and once again vilify people living with hiv.