Breast vs. Formula: Infant nutrition

Great Debates
1

Abundant evidence exists that breast milk is the food nature designed for human babies, and the food that they have a right to receive for the first year of their lives (at a minimum) and for as long thereafter as is mutually desired by mother and child.

Formula, on the other hand or artificial baby milk, is not only inferior to the normal food – it can actually be detrimental. Yet use of this subpar food remains the normal, barely questioned norm for American babies. Why?

First a few facts:

  • Breast milk contains immunities to diseases and aids in the development of baby’s immune system. Formula provides neither of these benefits.
  • Breast milk is more digestible than formula.
  • Breastfeeding protects baby against respiratory infections
  • Breast milk lowers risk of baby developing asthma
  • Formula feeding increases risk of baby developing type I (juvenile, insulin-dependent) diabetes.
  • Formula feeding increases chances of baby developing allergies.
  • Formula feeding increases baby’s risk of otitis media (ear infections)

Studies to back up these facts may be found at this site: http://www.promom.org/101/index.html

(I will be happy to expound upon any of them, and more, with follow-up posters.)

Why, then, do so few American mothers nurse their babies? The answer seems to have root in the shift in perception of our society beginning in the 1950s. It was then that we became convinced that man-made must be better. Formula was promoted as being superior than breast milk, the way “modern” mothers feed their babies, and that perception lingers today. An entire generation, perhaps two, has lost the experience of (to quote the La Leche League) “the womanly art of breastfeeding.”

This last point is important because, despite being natural, nursing is not necessarily easy. (Though after practice, it often is!) Nursing takes practice and an understanding of what to expect. Difficulties can arise which a mother, in isolation, may despair about and then turn to that convenient can of formula so “thoughtfully” provided by the OB at the first prenatal visit. A can, mind you, given free by formula companies in violation of the World Health Organization with this very thought in mind: to hook you.

Once given a bottle when breastfeeding is not established, babies easily forget. Bottles require no work: the milk slides on down. (Of course, this work helps breastfed babies develop facial muscles.) So once hooked, mothers and babies are committed to the purchase of formula for at least a year.

A shift in thinking in our society is the only way to return the feeding of humans to not the “best” or “superior” nutrition, but merely to the normal, good way that nature intended. It’s important for everyone to understand this, not just mothers.

Breastfeeding improves the health of our species. There are very few legitimate excuses for giving infants formula.

What are your thoughts on nursing? I’m eager to debate and explore perceptions and misconceptions and even to share my experiences as a nursing (and working) mother.

2

My momma is a family physician, formerly specifically an obstetrician (and still works in obstetrics from time to time). She is very firm in her support of breast-feeding. Breastfeeding is also the party line of the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Except where it’s impossible due to disease or such, I think it’s very important that women breastfeed, and I think it would be good if society were to progress to the point where people aren’t shocked to see a woman breastfeeding.

We’re still mammals, people…

This reminds me - Do they make garments for breastfeeding mothers that give access to the breast (rather than making the mother hike up her shirt?)

3

Yup, there are lots of places that sell these. http://www.motherwear.com is one of the best as well as http://www.onehotmama.com .

I am a volunteer breastfeeding counselor and the NUMBER ONE obstacles to successful breastfeeding is a) lack of support from partner/family/work and b) lack of correct info from doctors. For example, there are very few medications that are truly incompatible with breastfeeding - most antibiotics, antidepressants and painkillers are fine to take while nursing, but a LOT of women unneccesarily wean their babies because they think they have to in order to take medications.

As far as nursing in public, it is legal everywhere in the US that a mother is otherwise entitled to be with her baby and is NOT indecent exposure. My 2 have nursed just about everywhere discreetly - I doubt anyone knew what they were doing.

–ty

4

My pediatrician had an interesting insight. She had a patient who was having a lot of trouble nursing (due to flat nipples which made it very difficult for the baby to learn how to latch on). This woman was married to a very conservative Iranian man. She was considering giving it up–after all she was in America. Instead, her husband demanded that she return to Iran to be with his family. Apparently there a new mother is sequestered with her female relatives–especially those who already have babies. They basically give her a crash course in nursing. One technique is to let the mother nurse an older baby who already knows the ropes. This is especially good for problems like she had. (Nothing like a strapping six-month-old to straighten her out, so to speak.)

Anyway, my point is that even though a lot women in America now start out with the intention of breastfeeding, they don’t get the support that women used to get from more experienced women. Lacatation consultants are all very well, but they can’t be with you all the time, like your mother or sister can. I think that’s why so many women quit after just a few weeks or months.

5

Both our kids were breastfed. In fact, our youngest (just turned 1) is just beginning to wean (sp?) himself. At no time did we suplement our kids with formula while they were still nursing. There was no need to give them formula afterwards either because they simply progressed to regular food.

We read all the available material on bottle vs breast feeding long before we decided to have out first child and it just made sense to us that nature’s way was indeed superior to current alternatives. Not only is it best for the child but for any woman who gained significant weight during her pregnancy, you would be amazed how the excess weight slides off while your body is lactating. It took my wife no more than 5 or 6 months to slip right back into her size 6 miniskirts. (Damn, I’m a lucky guy!)

Anyway, out of all our friends who had children +/- 1 year of our’s being born, our kids were by far the least likely to come down with colds. Ear infections were unheard of for both our kids. Even when our kids did come down with colds, they seemed to fare much better during (they were rarely slowed down by the cold) and they got over them far quicker than our friends’ children. There were two chief differences to which I attributed those observations. The first was that our kids were breastfed longer and without formula supplementation. The second, we chose not to vaccinate the kids for the first two years of their life. I cannot say which of those did the majority of good but I believe that nursing them without supplementation went a long long way to their relative good health at such an early age.

As to why mothers don’t choose to nurse their children more often - well, I think that attitude is changing very rapidly. More and more mothers are realizing the benefits of nursing. But, the same generation who essentially stopped nursing their kids in North America is still playing a role in keeping the current generation of mothers from nursing. Let me explain from personal experience and observation. Firstly, my wife’s mother (who is a wonderful woman) simply said that in the 60’s and early 70’s, that kind of thing was simply not done. Formula was perceived as the best way to go. Secondly, that generation of women still often frowns on the practice of women nursing their infants in public places (i.e. parks, malls, etc…). I see it every once in a while on the face of a 50 something or 60 something woman who just happens to see my wife nursing our littlest one on a bench in a mall. It’s a look of shock and even disgust that crosses their face just before they look away. Ironically, their husbands are not even phazed by the site. They could care less and more often than not, they don’t even take notice. On one occassion, my wife, while discreetely nursing on a bench in a N.Va. mall, was asked to leave by the mall security guard. She told me that he asked her to “do that somewhere else - perhaps the car” (yeah, that’s a good idea, sit in the exhaust filled parking garage in the 90 degree heat while nursing your child. No wonder the bozo was a mall security guard! Anyway, the objection came from one of the mall’s shop keepers. My wife quickly realized that the late middle aged woman standing with her hands on her hips in the doorway to a store and watching the entire exchange between my wife and the guard was the woman who probably called security in the first place.

Infuriated by the entire incident, I called the mall management company and after repeated tries to speak to the actual mall manager, I got a half hearted appology from him and a reluctant assurance that this kind of thing would not happen again. He promised to advise security that nursing mothers should under no circumstance be asked to leave the mall or be discriminated against in the future.

Bottom line, to this long winded story is that this type of social peer pressure against nursing mothers is still alive and well in North America. Though it’s improving, we still have a long way to go to completely erase this rediculous taboo against a mother nursing her child in a public place.

6

Here’s one why:

My wife was in labor for approx. 23 hours–turns out she was unable to dilate fully because the baby was “sunny side up”. After all this time, with everyone in the hospital (or at least it seemed like it) stopping by to put their finger in her, she began to run a fever. So, they decided to do a C-section. As a result of the fever, my daughter was forced to spend five days in the N-ICU for a course of IV antibiotics. Over the course of the next 2 days, the wonderful doctors and nurses in the N-ICU told me of a new thing that might be wrong with her every time I visited (almost every feeding time).

Needless to say, my wife was exhausted and a bit disoriented, and the doctors and nurses were keeping us scared shitless, so we weren’t at our most self-reliant. No one said shit about breast-feeding, even though we had said from the outset that it was our goal–no nurses, no doctors. No lactation consultant came by. The day after the birth, I mentioned to the nurses that I thought my wife should be pumping, since she wasn’t able to breastfeed. They agreed. The day after that, they managed to scrounge up a pump. I think it was already too late. My wife never managed anything beyond a little colostrum.

After a week or so (making it two weeks after the birth), the lactation consultant said we should take the baby off formula and my wife should just try harder, as if the problem were a lack of effort. Nope, sorry. I agree that breastfeeding is best, but I’m not starving my daughter to establish this fact.

Maybe if we had better doctors and nurses, we would have had some support from the beginning when I think it would have mattered.

On the other hand, I’m a little more philosophical about the whole issue than most people. I agree that breastfeeding is best, particularly for the first few months. Then again, I was raised on formula. At least with formula, I don’t have to worry about what my wife is eating/drinking/taking–she’s very small and has difficulty, even after giving birth, maintaining her weight.

My daughter justed turned two and–get this–she has never been sick. Not once. The only time she has ever had a fever was after vaccinations. And she’s so smart it’s scary.

So, breastfeeding is best. But formula will do just fine. I do not understand people that feel the need to put all this pressure on mothers to breastfeed, as if giving a baby formula were some kind of abuse. Like many other things, it is a personal choice, albeit a choice we didn’t get to have.

-VM

7

It’s tragic the medical establishment let you down, SA, for there is nothing better for a premature infant than mother’s milk. Breastmilk is designed at every stage for baby and the milk produced by the mother of a premature infant is no different. It’s liquid gold produced especially for that baby’s needs.

This entrenched bias against breastfeeding extends, sadly, to the medical profession. No one should have made your wife feel as though she was failing for it was they who failed her. They give plenty of lip service to “breast is best” (a phrase coined by formula companies, incidentially) but in the end they’ve bought into the prevailing opinion that nursing is great “if you can do it,” otherwise formula is just as good.

What physicians should be doing is instructing mothers that they will breastfeed, because it is the most responsible thing to do for the well-being and nutrition of babies. No one questions doctors when they instruct pregnant women not to smoke: the evidence is well-established that it causes low birthweight and accompanying health problems. Guess what? Formula feeding can directly cause health problems, even disease. Nursing, on the other hand, prevents disease.

Anecdotal evidence abounds about children that are healthy despite being fed formula. My 5-year-old, in fact, who sadly was only nursed a few short weeks is quite healthy and a real smartie, too! :slight_smile:

You wonder why some (me?) feel the need to ‘pressure’ women to nurse. I’m concerned with the health of all children, and desire for other mothers the wonderful feeling of empowerment as well as the enhanced conncectedness nursing affords. Sure it’s a ‘choice’ but if society and the medical profession were firmly lined up behind breastfeeding, it’s one no responsible parent would want to make. Formula would then be reserved for emergency cases and other situations where it would be the exception. Now, however, it’s the rule.

I am glad to see initial support here for nursing. I’m interested in what younger posters here have to say, not just us grisled parents :wink:

8

I’d like to thank the rational posters here who attempted to answer the OP without laying some kind of guilt trip on the teeming millions of women who find breast feeding too difficult. It is true that many women, all of them certainly knowing that it is best, cannot breast feed because we have to work in jobs where it is just not feasible. I always had to go back to my job within 6/7 weeks after delivery. Many of us are also not instructed by anyone as to what we should expect. I know I was not. Then there are a few women who cannot. They may not produce enough milk or in my sister’s case develop “milk fever”. Had I been living near her at the time she became sick and ran a 103 degree temp I would have kicked the ass of that bitch from the Le Leche league that showed up on my sister’s door step and screamed at her for feeding my nephew a bottle.

While it is true that breast fed babies have fewer health problems there are other things a new mother can do to help ensure the health of their baby. Modern formula is also not the Carnation and Kayro stuff that many of us baby boomers were raised on either. So don’t even go there. The damned stuff wouldn’t be so expensive if it were.

Need2know

9

I think the front line has to be hospital nurses. They are the first people you have contact with and are usually the ones who provide feeding advice. Many have training in helping women to breastfeed, but many don’t.

My main complaint is that nurses really pressure you about the early feedings. When my daughter was born we had trouble getting her to go on the breast and there were a couple of nurses who almost accused us of trying to starve her to death.

With my son the nurses were better, but the basic policy seems to be that if the baby isn’t nursing like a pro within the first few feedings, out comes the formula.

I had a lot of trouble both times. With my daughter, we could not get her to latch on and ended up feeding her out of an eye dropper for a week to avoid the dreaded “nipple confusion” that breastfeeding instructors warn about. I tried pumping but never got more than a few drops and we finally gave up.

With my son it was also difficult and I went with a supplemental nursing system (which is a tube that tapes to the breast and supplements the milk with formula or pumped milk.) In retrospect I think I would have done this differently and braved having him nurse without the supplementer, but I was too scared. (This was right about the time that girl was brought to trial for starving her baby to death because she didn’t realize she wasn’t producing enough milk.) I got a lot of conflicting information from consultants, too. My doctor said wait until I could pump at least two ounces (I never could), another consultant said take him off the supplementer, a third said try herbs. We ended up with a combination of formula and pumped milk until there just wasn’t any more.

As I said before, there have been great strides in education and many hospitals have good staff and resources, but we just don’t have that round-the-clock network that women used to have.

10

Cher, I agree with you: it’s the female support that ensures a successful breastfeeding relationship! Kudos to you for using the SNS!

Needs, you make some statements that I feel I must balance: I too am a working mother who returned to fulltime employment 7-10 weeks following the birth of my children. I have an office and can pump – not true for every woman. Which is why I work for a policy whereby a private place, coupled with support from female coworkers who have or do nurse, is provided in each workplace.

Like every organization, La Leche is made up of individuals and no woman who sincerely supports breastfeeding would scream at another for providing a bottle. However, according to published studies and information I have read, truly “not having enough milk” is extremely rare. It’s cited as a common reason for quitting nursing when baby is around 6 weeks of age and experiences a growth spurt. Baby nurses seemingly around the clock. Mother feels she has no milk. Frustrated, she gives up and goes for the formula, feeling like a failure. If a network of nursing mothers were available to her she’d know this is common and the more baby nurses the more milk the mother produces. And so on.

Thankfully, interactive web sites and email loops can bring nursing mothers together, and new support systems can be fostered.

Last thing: by “milk fever” I assume you mean mastitis or a breast infection. While painful, and it is often accompanied by a high fever, it is not a death knell for a nursing relationship. It can be treated while the child continues to nurse. (So says a veteran of two of them :slight_smile:

I’m hoping to show that stories of nursing relationships gone bad – stuff you’ve heard about your sister’s cousin, etc., and the reason she “had” to stop nursing – are often fraught with misinformation about the mechanics of nursing. And, as always, lack of support from family and the medical community.

11

First: I breast-fed my daughter for 8 months until she started solid food. I think breast feeding is great. I enjoyed it. My daughter was fine but she had numerous ear infections even though breast fed only till she was 7 months.
But I think it is cruel to insist that every mother breastfeed. Not every mother can either due to physical causes or due to workplace limitations, or because her baby is in an incubator for 2 months and pumping milk is just one more added problem when your baby is sick.

In my father’s family, breastfeeding was the norm. One of my aunts had 5 children and breast fed them all because her doctor made her. It hurt every time. EVERY TIME. Her doctor and her family ridiculed her because breastfeeding was NORMAL. Finally, with her 5th child, the doctor actually checked to see what the baby was getting–and found it was both milk and blood. He promptly put the baby on formula and she did well. My aunt said that the only baby she actually enjoyed was her fifth child.

No one should be made to feel guilty if they can’t breastfeed. Just as no one should be made to feel guilty if they don’t have natural childbirth or if they adopt children rather than birthing them.

12

Ah, another breast milk thread… First of all, I agree that ‘breast is best.’ My older child was breast fed until he was 9 months old. By that time I was 5 months pregnant with my second child (‘Breast is NOT best’ for birth control :)) and my doctor made me stop nursing Nick. I loved nursing. I found it easy, it was tons cheaper than formula and Nicky thrived – although he DID have the occasional ear infection. Then my daughter was born – almost 3 months premature. She weighed 2 1/2 pounds and spent 7 weeks in the NICU. She couldn’t nurse (no sucking reflex and very little strength)and was very, very sick indeed. Knowing that breast milk is superior and remembering my positive experience nursing Nick, I asked for a pump. The La Leche League lent me one and I started in with a will, freezing the milk for future use. Dori had been born while we were on vacation in Wisconsin (we were living in Virginia at that time), so Nicky and I stayed with my in-laws while Dori was in the hospital and my husband returned to Norfolk alone. I was spending all morning at the hospital with Dori and then going back to my in-laws house to spend the afternoon with Nick – who was not yet 1 year old. Then, after Nick was down for the night, I went back to the hospital until bedtime. You can imagine the stress I was under. After a week or so my milk started to fail. The LLL suggested that I pump hourly to maintain my milk. A review of my schedule above will reveal that hourly pumping was just not going to work. So, I quit. I took the pump back to LLL, expecting support. After all, they ARE a support organization. Fat chance – the harpy at the LLL said (this is a direct quote, BTW, permanently etched on my memory), “Your baby is so sick – it’s too bad you aren’t willing to endure a little inconvenience to help her.” I told her to stuff her “support” AND her breast pump. Bitch.

Someone on the old board called the LLL “Milk Nazis” and I agree. Like so many zealots, they refuse to make allowance for variables. In my experience, the LLL was supportive only towards those who toed their line. Ridiculous! No one should be allowed to make parents feel guilty for choices within reason. Breast is best but formula is second best and choosing to formula feed is not child abuse.

13

Ellen said:

You say this, and you make some other statements about there being entrenched feelings against breast feeding, etc.

But I’d like some evidence for this.

I’m not talking about evidence that breast feeding is best – it certainly is. I’m talking about evidence for your statements about so few mothers doing it, the medical establishment being against it, etc.

Because when my wife was pregnant, all we heard were pro-breast feeding things.

14

I have three kids; my first and third were bottle-fed. I nursed the middle one.

First off, I come from a social environment where breastfeeding is a very, very, very private act, at least as private as sex. You would never call it “breastfeeding”; if you had to refer to it at all, you called it “nursing”. Not that you would refer to it at all. Many of my family members breastfed their babies, but it was all hush-hush, go in another room. When we had chicken for dinner, you had a choice of leg, wing, thigh, or white meat. It wasn’t until many years later that I realized that some people blatantly refer to the white meat as “chicken breast”. It even comes packaged this way: “CHICKEN BREASTS”. How shocking!

I wouldn’t nurse in public (public, meaning “where anyone else is nearby, even in my own home”) any more than I’d run down the median strip on Amarillo Boulevard naked. I’m one of those people that are horrified at the sight of breastfeeding mothers, though I realize that this is my own personal problem. Of course women should be allowed to breastfeed their babies wherever they like.

As I said, I nursed my second child. I hated every minute of it. After a few months I was a pro, but it was still very painful. It didn’t help that Jake had a contracture of his neck; his head was turned completely to the right and there was no way to get him to face the other way short of snapping his spine. This made nursing difficult, to say the least.

Also, breast-fed babies have to eat every two hours. It takes at least a half hour to feed the baby. When you nurse a baby, you’re basically attached to the kid day and night. When your social taboos prevent you from nursing in public, this means you spend all day and night alone with the baby. Go to the mall?!? That could never happen. I was lucky if I made it to the mailbox. I was lucky I didn’t shoot myself.

Now, aside from my personal problems with breastfeeding (which I freely admit are irrational, a product of a puritan childhood) there are a few legitimate reasons why I despised it.
For one thing, nowadays it’s considered good for the dad to take an active role in the child’s life. Dads should bond with their babies. Feeding the child is an important part of bonding. My husband never had a chance to get close to my son because he couldn’t feed him. Changing diapers just doesn’t lend itself to bonding the way feeding does.

Secondly, though many medicines may be taken while breastfeeding, birth control pills are out. As a result, my second and third children are 14 months apart. At that point, I had no choice but to get my tubes tied and get a decent-paying job, or we’d have all starved to death.

Thirdly, I couldn’t have breastfed my last child without extreme difficulty, which was a huge relief to me. Nursing school and working in the ICU are not conducive to breastfeeding. I did have one coworker who successfully managed to pump her breast milk at work and so continue to breastfeed. I was jealous of her because she was the only nurse who was allowed to take a potty break. (Of course, she had to pump her breast milk sitting on the toilet in the public rest room.) During that time, I suffered three urinary tract infections as a result of not having time to go pee.

I think part of the push to “pressure” women to breastfeed has to do with an attempt to put women back in the home, barefoot and pregnant, where they “belong”. I admit I may be paranoid about this because I live in the Bible belt.

My son that I breast-fed is sickly, underweight, and weak, while my other two are healthy as horses but I doubt breastfeeding had much if anything to do with that.

Yes, breastmilk is best. Yes, ideally every woman would have the opportunity, the determination, and the support needed to breastfeed successfully. Ideally, every woman would be a stay-at-home mom or work at a cush job where breastfeeding is possible. I hesitate to condemn any woman for choosing not to breastfeed.

15

I have to agree with Holly and the others who said that a woman isn’t a horrible person for choosing not to breastfeed. Also, I hate seeing these “correlations” between being smart and healthy because of being breast-fed, because that’s simply not true. I’m pretty smart, and rarely got sick as a child, but :::gasp::: I was formula fed.

I also have a thing or two to say about those LLLers. When I was a dietetic intern earlier this year, I was a very large children’s hospital doing my pediatric rotation. I was paired up with the lacatation consultant, as she was also a registered dietitian. I did not appreciate the snide little comments she made the entire day I followed her around. She asked, did any of my friends breastfeed their babies (after I told her that several of my girlfriends have kids now) and I said no, I didn’t think so. She looked at me as if i told her my friends beat their kids, and just shook her head. I asked if it was normal to be breastfeeding a three year old child, as one woman who we visited in the hospital said she was, and she just said to me “Well, that’s normal, you know”. I’m sorry, its NOT normal to breast feed a 3 year old child. Maybe it is in Africa where theres no food for the kids, but we don’t live in Africa or any other developing country.
Later, I got this woman’s evaluation of me (as I do from every dietitian I work with ) and she wrote, “Seemed only mildly interested in breastfeeding”. WTF??? Bitch.

Like I said before, I am a dietitian. I teach people what foods to eat, little tips on how to eat better, and teach their diet (say if they have kidney disease or diabetes). I don’t, however, force information down their throats and degrade them or make them feel guilty or stupid for not wanting my advice or any written information. Unlike some other people from other groups I know…

16

My wife breastfeeds our daughter. It was a pain at first. Within two weeks she had it down pat. THe positives are that it is supposed to be healthier than formula. It is certainly cheaper. You don’t have to mix or heat bottles, or worry about sanitary conditions or spoiling. I didn’t have to get up in the middle of the night to help. (heh. heh. heh.)

With a little planning my wife had no problem using the breastpump to gather enough milk so that she good have long mini-vacations away from the baby, a night out, shopping, dinner and a movie, etc.

The breastfeeding took a long time right off the bat, but within a month or two that baby could suck, and those breasts could shoot milk like a super soaker! I am still in awe of one night when we were watching tv, and a nipple popped free. A jet of milk shot across the room!

All in all, we are both very pleased with our choice. And no, my wife is not especially well-endowed. More like small to average.

17

My experience breastfeeding my first born and my set of twins born 11 months later was one of the best things that I have done in my life. It felt so wonderful when the milk was released and began to flow. It was fabulous to look into my child’s eyes, play with their fingers, sing song ditties and watch them smile. It was so relaxing as I took my time with each of them alone and by themselves. I felt so good about breastfeeding, it felt so physically good, the intimacy with each child was fantastic. I would tell other women that it was almost as good as sex with my husband.
In fact, it was the longest orgasm in my life.

Then, again, I took a sabbatical from work, I had help around the house, a very supportive husband and I was comfortable about breastfeeding anywhere and damn you if you tried to stop me [no one ever did make a comment]. I guess I was very lucky and so are my healthy and well-adjusted preteens.

18

You would think that the smartest creatures on planet earth would learn quickly wouldn’t you?

Every farmer that raises animals knows that an animal,Hey folks we’re mammals just like them, that is bottle fed
is not as healthy as a mother fed animal.

For instance,my daughter is a 4H-er and raises sheep, much to her brothers dismay.Her first lamb was a bottle lamb.When it was one month old we got three other lambs.The bottle baby has been sick since then. They all caught cold ,weather change I think.The three mother fed lambs were able to shake off the cold but not the bottle fed animal. She is now getting penicillin shots every day until she is over it.The vet gave her a shot of something too.

They also had a problem with matter in their eyes. The three were able to get rid of the problem with a little help from the vet but the bottle fed lamb still has the problem.She is getting salve put in her eye every day until she is cured.

In spite of her physical problems she eats well and when she builds up enough resistance I think she will be ok. Although she will not be as large as the others because she is fighting the cold while the others are using the energy to grow.

19

From David, moderator:

  • Ellen said:
    quote:
    Why, then, do so few American mothers nurse their babies?

                     You say this, and you make some other statements about there being entrenched feelings  against breast feeding, etc.

                 But I'd like some evidence for this.

                 I'm not talking about evidence that breast feeding is best -- it certainly is. I'm talking about evidence for your statements about so few mothers doing it, the medical establishment being against it, etc.

                 Because when my wife was pregnant, all we heard were pro-breast feeding things.*

Regarding the medical establishment – I’m sure you heard a lot of pro-breastfeeding statements, but unfortunately it’s a lot of lip service. When there’s formula handy (and provided free by formula company reps who spend a lot of time in doctor’s offices, pushing their product) doctors are reluctant to “push” a mother into doing what’s right for her baby. Some of my evidence is anecdotal. From moms I know all over the country through another web site for women – and, well, you can read it right here on this board. One hears over and over again about poor support from doctors and nurses in the hospital. Less frequently, you hear about dogmatic lactation consultants and overzealous La Leche leaders.

(As an aside, I’m dismayed by all the negative statements here regarding the organization. It’s popular to bash LLL right now (I saw an article online in Salon about it) and it has been taking a lot of heat, but the enormous good this group does should be remembered when you take the time to slam them! It’s mother to mother support: just what many on this board have been saying. My own experience: I attended about 4 meetings, but obtained a copy of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding as well as another LLL book for working mothers. These provided TONS of valuable information.)

Over and over again women say that at the first opportunity, they were encouraged to switch to formula. Physicians aren’t well-versed in breastfeeding and most often encourage patients with questions to contact La Leche. (Which requires another step on the part of the mother. She’s in contact with medical professionals! In this important area, shouldn’t they provide the mom with the best advice and care, as they do in all other realms of their practice?) But no. Again I submit that it’s the pressure of the formula companies. For more on this, see Milk, Money and Madness by Naomi Baumslag, Dia L. Michels, Richard Jolly. (Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0897894073/qid%3D960391843/104-5320266-6502321)

Further, in the hospital, nurses pressure mothers to feed their babies sugar water, which is absolutely not needed and confuses the baby. I’m here to tell you this happened to me. I saw the glass bottles lining the nursery. Other women say it’s happened to them. My hospital’s lactation consultant spent the better part of her day preaching against it. Her handout advised new moms to refuse it. Two hospital policies at war.

The AAP, in its statement on Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk (RE9729) http://www.aap.org/policy/re9729.html lists “disruptive hospital policies” as one impediment to breastfeeding. Further impediments include lack of broad societal support, media portrayal of bottle-feeding as normative, and commercial promotion of infant formula through distribution of hospital discharge packs, coupons for free or discounted formula, and television and general magazine advertising.

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Entrenched feelings against breastfeeding – I invite you to take a look around you. The norm is to see a baby with a bottle in its mouth. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, in 1995, “59.4 percent of women in the United States were breastfeeding either exclusively or in combination with formula feeding at the time of hospital discharge; only 21.6 percent of mothers were nursing at 6 months, and many of these were supplementing with formula.” The World Health Association (which by the way recommends standard of health for ALL humans, not just those in the Third World) says children are optimally nursed for two years. Yet by 6 months, nearly 80 percent of children in this country are receiving inferior food.

Jess says: * Someone on the old board called the LLL “Milk Nazis” and I agree. Like so many zealots, they refuse to make allowance for variables. In my experience, the LLL was supportive only towards those who toed their line. Ridiculous!*

I agree. (And I did a search and didn’t locate the old board. I apologize for those it annoys that I’ve brought this topic up again. But I wasn’t here for the old discussion, and perhaps others weren’t as well. This is a fluid community, remember.)

There should be allowances for variables. I’m totally sympathetic to you and your difficult birth away from home! Also I’m sensitive to Holly’s (as she puts it) puritanical upbringing that made nursing hard for her. These are variables that should be taken into consideration.

My concern is society’s complete acceptance that formula is just fine, it’s a choice (like maybe between paper or plastic?? :rolleyes: , that formula feeding is easier. I put forth the opinion that if we shift our paradigm, here, that these special cases like those that have been aired here would be the rare exception to a breastfeeding world. (And I don’t think these cases should be looked down upon! Formula is a godsend when it is needed!)

I’m not a LLL leader or member. However, I would like to see a world where LLL’s opinions are accepted as the norm, not some outfit where you have to toe their line. Nursing advocates must argue against entrenched, prevailing opinion. Case in point, Jess’s statement * Breast is best but formula is second best*. The truth is, breastfeeding is nothing more than normal.

"We hear breast milk is the “best possible, ideal, optimal, perfect.” But think of it this way: Are you the best possible parent? Is your home life ideal? Do you provide optimal meals? Of course not. Those are admirable goals, not minimum standards. Let’s rephrase. Is your parenting inadequate? Is your home life subnormal? Do you provide deficient meals? Now it hurts. You may not expect to be far above normal, but you certainly don’t want to be below normal.

“When we (and the artificial milk manufacturers) say that breastfeeding is the best possible way to feed babies because it provides their ideal food, perfectly balanced for optimal infant nutrition, the logical response is, “So what?” Our own experience tells us that optimal is not necessary. Normal is fine, and implied in this language is the absolute normalcy–and thus safety and adequacy–of artificial feeding. The truth is, breastfeeding is nothing more than normal. Artificial feeding, which is neither the same nor superior, is therefore deficient, incomplete, and inferior.” (from the Journal of Human Lactation, Vol. 12, No. 1, 1996)

So I say: Let’s have a world where it’s the normal, everyday thing. Exceptions arise, and we have formula to use because even though it’s not as good, it can do a serviceable job of providing nutrition to humans!