there is a great quicktime video avaiblible on Dr.Jay Gordon’s Webpage about the Breastfeeding adds that have never been able o see the light because of the formula companies…
It aired on 20/20 and it is a bit long but worth the watch… and of course the site is a great resource too!!
I gave a Pre-natal last night and I got home at 10pm!… The nurse asked me if I could present some wraps and slings at the end of the class and I of course gladly accepted… We did the whole class, there was about 10 couples one of the biggest groups that I have had to date and also the most talkative. One mom in particular was very off the idea of breastfeeding and really had a head full of outdated info and tons of myths… she is having her second child 20 years after her first and I think is still dealing with guilt issues of her first parenting experience… Anyways I suffered through the stupid breastfeeding video from the 80’s that they have to show (I have seen it at least a dozen times now and it is just getting old!!) and then at the end of the class I showed the wrap and sling… everyone thought it was great and they all took my card… just as I was packing up a mom came up to me, asked about price, when she could call, where I live etc… and then asked if I always have some at home… I had brought the slings that I have left with me so I showed her what I had and she bought one right away…
The nurse came back in the room at that point and we started talking… the girl that bought the wrap is a local police officer and she and the nurse our friends… we started talking and something she said really surprised me… she HATES giving the classes because she doesn’t like what she has to say… she has to stick by the rules and they are the rules that she herself doesn’t adhere to… We talked about how hard it was to have to recommend things, teach things that we just don’t agree with. We have to put our own feelings and experiences aside and give the ‘blanket recommendation’ (Vit D supplements, co-sleeping etc)
We talked about how hard it was to talk about breastfeeding, talk about how important it is, talk about how easy it can be, talk about it being the best when you know very well that you are wasting your breath….
We both wished that we could stop talking about the importance of breastfeeding and could just focus on the dangers of Formula….
If Breastfeeding reduces the risks of :
Cancer (breast, ovarian, and uterine for mom and baby girls), obesity, asthma, Crohn’s disease, diabetes (and insulin requirements in diabetic mothers), Allergies, Helps prevent post-partum hemorrhage, Ear infections, diarrheal infections, bacterial meningitis, respiratory infections, rheumatoid arthritis, Hodgkins disease, protects baby against some vision defects, osteoporosis etc…etc…etc….
AND Breastfeeding is the NORMAL way to feed our child…
Then it can be easily concluded that Formula is a CAUSE of many of these diseases…
Again… I am Tired of talking about the benefits of breastfeeding when it is the dangers of Formula that we should be focusing on… but that will never happen because we don’t want to make moms feel ‘guilty’ and there is no money to be made by breastfeeding….
Anyways… it felt good to talk with someone that is in the same situation and it makes me feel good to know that there are more and more with the same ideas as me, people that I can share with and have great conversations with….
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
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!