What the WHO (World Health Organization) says:

“because of the hazards associated with using breast-milk substitutes, infant formula was no ordinary consumer product, but that, up to the age of four to six months, it should be treated more as a nutritional medicine that should be used with the advice and under the supervision of health workers. The report also noted that, even seen from the viewpoint of fostering competition, direct advertising to mothers with infants in the first four to six months of life was singularly inappropriate because:
· advertising infant formula as a substitute for breast milk competes unfairly with normal,
healthy breastfeeding, which is not subject to advertising, yet which is the safest and lowestcost method of nourishing an infant; and
· advertising infant formula as a substitute for breast milk favours uninformed decisionmaking, bypassing the necessary advice and supervision of the mother’s physician or health worker.
In this respect, the report concluded, it can be considered that advertising of infant formula fails to achieve the objectives of ensuring best quality and the lowest cost and creating an informed public, which are among the benefits assumed to be a result of direct advertising.”
“Those who suggest that direct advertising has no negative effect on breastfeeding should be asked to demonstrate that such advertising fails to influence a mother’s decision about how to feed her infant.”
“Proper use of infant formula should rather be the result of informed decision-making based on objective and consistent advice, and appropriate supervision. This message is implicit in the final paragraph of the preamble to the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, which states:
Believing that, in the light of the foregoing considerations, and in view of the vulnerability of infants in the early months of life and the risks involved in inappropriate feeding practices, including the unnecessary and improper use of breast-milk substitutes, the marketing of breast-milk substitutes requires special treatment, which makes usual marketing practices unsuitable for these products.
No breast-milk substitute, not even the most sophisticated and nutritionally balanced formula, can begin to offer the numerous unique health advantages that breast milk provides for babies.
Nor can artificial feeding do more than approximate the act of breastfeeding, in physiological and emotional significance, for babies and mothers alike. And no matter how appropriate infant formula may be from a nutritional standpoint, when infants are not breastfed or are breastfed only partially, feeding with formula remains a deviation from the biological norm for virtually all infants.”
http://www.who.int/nut/documents/infant_formula_trade_issues_eng.pdf”
18. The vast majority of mothers can and should breastfeed, just as the vast majority of infants can and should be breastfed. Only under exceptional circumstances can a mother’s milk be considered unsuitable for her infant. For those few health situations where infants cannot, or should not, be breastfed, the choice of the best alternative “ expressed breast milk from an infant’s own mother, breast milk from a healthy wet-nurse or a human-milk bank, or a breast-milk substitute fed with a cup, which is a safer method than a feeding bottle and teat” “ depends on individual circumstances.19. For infants who do not receive breast milk, feeding with a suitable breast-milk substitute… for example an infant formula prepared in home-prepared formula with micronutrient supplements  should be demonstrated only by health workers, or other community workers if necessary, and only to the mothers and other family members who need to use it; and the information given should include adequate of inappropriate preparation and use. Infants who are not breastfed, for whatever reason, should receive special attention from accordance with applicable Codex Alimentarius standards, or a instructions for appropriate preparation and the health hazards the health and social welfare system since they constitute a risk group.”

Other interesting articles:
The Deadly Influence of Formula in America Linda Folden Palmer, DC

http://www.babyreference.com/InfantDeaths.htm

Dangers of Formula
http://www.lactivist.com/dangform.html

Government Pressured by Formula Companies to ‘Water Down’Breast-feeding Ads

http://www.organicconsumers.org/school/milk061004.cfm

Sometimes I just check out what is happening in the news when it comes to one of my more passionate topics… breastfeeding…

Africa…
Anti-HIV agent found in breastmilk… this agent could also help prevent infection in adults

Canada
Mothers milk is high in Transfats… it is one of the highest sources of transfats found… Solution? A change in mothers diet can cut it out within days…

UK
A Hospital dealing with preemies is running low on their supply of donated breastmilk…

India
Hospital in Mumbai has set up a “Breast Milk Bank”

Norway
Experts now recommend that children be breastfed up to the age of two or three because of a range of health benefits

USA
Breastmilk causes more cavities then Cow milk… Tests in Rats… using Cola, honey etc… no saliva in rats… all of the substances left to “pool” in mouth… Breastmilk comes in second best after Cow milk… somewhere in the article it mentions that formula is equalto/less then breastmilk.. but of course breastmilk remains the culprit…
(don’t they know that breastmilk DOESN’T pool in the mouth when baby falls asleep?!?!)

Breast feeding is often in the news… however… where are all the stories about the dangers of Formula…
I will never understand why someone would CHOOSE to give such a horrible substance to their child, something that clearly causes Cancer, Allergies, Digestive problems, Obesity, Diabeties and even Death… the WHO even states that Formula is only to be used as a last resort and is the 5th and last choice to Infant feeding…
I am tired of talking about how Breast is Best… Breast is the norm and the rest is inferior and dangerous and should only be used as a last resort after all other possibilies have been tried…
It is time that Formula gets into the news… It is time that the companies pay for all the crimes they have commited and all of the children they have killed….

I got word the other day that everything was OK to give a babywearing class at a local org…. I talked with the director the other day about when I was available and we set a date… I thought she was just going to put an add up in the center but she will be doing that and she sent out a newsletter with all the fall activities and such and it was on it too… I can’t believe that it is so official (in writing and everything LOL) Anyways.. There needs to be a minimum of 5 inscriptions for it to go ahead so it is not certain yet but it is pretty close!

The whole Katrina disaster makes me mad…. I can understand the storm but it is what happened after that makes me mad….I can’t believe how much disregard for human life is being seen… even now.. a week later… The stories are heart wrenching and I really can’t imagine what it was like to be in those conditions…
I also can’t imagine what reasons could be good enough to explain why it took so long for help to come to those people… Why did people go so long without food and Water?
There are so many things that tick me off… One thing is that the whole thing seems to have such a harsh underlying racial aspect that I just can’t ignore and to what I have seen the media can’t even ignore…
Of course breastfeeding came to my mind… I may be looked down upon for thinking this but why the heck where babies starving to death and dying of thirst… I can’t help but put the blame on the Formula companies and society in general for this… People in our culture feel like they are so immune to not having the basics like drinking water that they don’t even give a second thought… There were children born during the days after the hurricane or during the hurricane and they were talking about how scared they were of running out of formula… not even desperate times can make them change their views…
I cried when I saw a small 10 day old baby limp and needing nourishment… For sure the mom still had a bit of milk or could relactate… did she try?
Of course the Formula companies come off as heroes when they send trucks of baby formula… but they are the reason why the babies where starving in the first place…
A woman can make milk even in dire situations and though it is true that she needs to replenish herself the amount of water that it takes to feed two (her and the baby) can be given to her alone and both would survive and even better, the baby will have a clean source of milk complete with antibodies and even agents that work against diarrhoea (therefore they run less risk of getting even more dehydrated)
I really don’t want to come off as sending an “I told you so” message I just think that in the light of such disasters I really hope that in the future people can see that there are further risks to Formula feeding and that this is the exact reason why Nestle is seen as such evil in parts of the world that have children dying everyday because formula was brought in but there is no clean water supply…

Wow… I can’t beleive it!
Xavier turned 3 yesterday… 3 years ago I knew that I would nurse past a year but never thought about nursing to age 3… now that I am here though I wouldn’t have it any different… I still love nursing Xavier and I hope that his brother will nurse for at least the same amount of time…