I must apologize for taking so long to reply to this. The day of the
post I retrieved my files on the topic and even put them in my backpack,
but did not find time until now to sit down and re-review the material
to reply. I suppose I suffer from the modern ailment of busy-ness. :-)

Norman Skrzypinski <[log in to unmask]>:
>Aside from the post-partum production of colostrum, how does the composition
>of breast milk from the same woman vary?

Breast milk composition changes dramatically at weaning, and can
change per diet and supplementation. For relevant studies, see:

Studies in human lactation: milk volume and nutrient composition
during weaning and lactogenesis.
Neville et al; AJCN, 1991; 54: 81-92

Changes in the nutrient composition of human milk during gradual weaning
Garza et al; AJCN, 1983; 37: 61-65

Changes in the composition of the mammary secretion of women after
abrupt termination of breast feeding
Hartmann et al; J. Physiol; 1978, 275: 1-11

Studies in human lactation: milk composition and daily secretion rates
of macronutrients in the first year of lactation
Allen et al; AJCN; 1991, 54:69-80

Postprandial changes in the content and composition of nonprotein
nitrogen in human milk
Donovan et al.; AJCN, 1991, 54:1017-1023

Changes in the concentration of carotenoids, vitamin A, alpha-tocopherol
and total lipids in human milk throughout early lactation
Macias et al; Ann Nutr Metab; 2001, 45:82-85.

(Many more studies can be found in PubMed/MedLine and BioSis.)

PS 1. Unlike the raw pseudoscience "experts" (who are fakes and almost never
visit university libraries), I spend a large amount of time in university
libraries and insist on reading the full text of relevant articles rather
than working from abstracts alone. (It is common practice for the raw
pseudoscience frauds to make claims about articles they have not
even read -- they instead rely too much on abstracts, which are
incomplete, sometimes inaccurate, and are not a reliable substitute
for full text.)
2. I have the full text of all the articles cited above, plus others,
in my files. I have read the full text as well, though it was some
time ago.
3. I'm *not* talking about Norm in #1 above.  :-)

>Many of the older studies on breast milk, funded by the likes of Nestle and
>Johnson & Johnson, are open to question.  Until recently, most of the study
>samples were stored for varying periods, in milk banks, and many of them
>were pasteurized.

I am skeptical of the claim that most (older) published milk studies were
funded by agro/food companies. Of course, if the funding cliams are true
and you seek to imply that such funding biased the results, the burden
of proof is on you. Ditto the claims re: handling of milk samples --
you would have to show that the handling had a significant effect on
the study results.

>My quibble is with your subject line, "another raw baby dies".  You seemed,
>to me, to be implying that a raw diet either directly or indirectly (the
>mother's raw diet) killed the baby.  I sought clarification on which raw
>diet(s) you might be implicating.

The term "another" comes from the fact that a child fed a raw vegan diet
died last year in the UK. Before that I know of multiple other
children who have suffered malnutrition on raw vegan diets, and
at least one other child (besides the recent Florida and UK cases)
who died.

In all these cases, I believe the available evidence suggests that
diet -- that of the child, and/or Mother, was a probable factor in the
illness (or deaths).

Thanks for your followup, and again apologies for the delay in my reply.

Tom Billings