Actress Says Breastfeeding Could Be Poisoning Babies

breastfeeding Fran Drescher certainly isn't an actress who is afraid of getting her hands dirty. The cackly star of The Nanny and the new flick Hotel Transylvania has entered the mommy wars, and boy did she come out swinging. She wants breastfeeding moms to know there's poison in their breast milk ... and they're passing that right on to their babies. Yikes!

So is Drescher crazy? It's scary, but the uterine cancer survivor may have a bit of a point.


A big advocate of product safety since beating cancer, Drescher was talking about the chemicals floating around in grown women's bodies, many of which leach into breast milk and are thereby passed on to baby. Her big fear is flame retardants:

American women have the highest amount of flame retardant in their breast milk ... We’re selling these women that breast milk is the second coming.

Like it or not, she's sort of right. Scientists have found flame retardants in human breast milk, and they have been warning American moms that they are dangerous. What's more, breasts and breast milk have been found to have scary levels of toxic nasties like lead and DDT over the years because toxins like to land in the fatty cells of our body ... and breasts have plenty of those. So all those toxins that they warn could be causing cancer to us because they're in our bodies are passed right into helpless little babies.

OK, so it's not "poisoning" babies, but kids are definitely getting the raw end of the stick here.

Drescher lost me a little when she said what moms really need do is to take a three-day test that involves peeing into a tank to ensure you aren't passing along crap to your kids. Suuuuure. Because we busy moms all have time for that, right? Sign me right up! Uh huh ...

If you have the energy and time for that, OK. But doctors still say that breast is best, even when you consider the risks of what is passing from Mom to baby. Babies are still getting immunities and plenty of other good stuff from mom.

Breast milk is still the best you can get, and -- I say this as a mom who ended up having to formula feed in the end -- at least you can control what you're taking in and sending out to some extent. You can try to avoid these chemicals as much as possible. You can make it a point to wash your hands after touching things, eat nutritious meals that counteract the toxins, etc.

We don't like to hear what Fran Drescher is saying here. We want a clear world where either formula or breastfeeding is perfect for our kids. But it doesn't work that way. So we have to do the best with what we have.

Do you worry about what's in your breast milk? Is it enough to make you stop breastfeeding?


Image via Daquella Minera/Flickr

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