Articles

[Guest guest]

I found some cool articles on breastfeeding at salon.com

I apologize if I'm repeating any of this...as I was on 'no mail' for three

weeks.

Here's one article I liked...and here's the URL to an index of other's.

http://www.salon.com/mwt/index.html

Formula for Disaster

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By Granju

July 19, 1999 | When Tabitha Walrond's 7-week-old infant died of starvation

last year, the fact that this young New York mother had attempted to

breast-feed her baby -- albeit with obvious lack of success -- was widely

blamed for the complex and haunting tragedy. The national headlines regarding

the Walrond case were ongoing and sensational. " Nursed to Death " read one.

" Breast-feeding can kill? " inquired another.

During the same period, the similar death of the 6-week-old breast-fed baby

of another New York mother, Tatiana Cheeks, raised further breast-feeding

concerns in the press and with the public. This time one headline read

" Nursing Death? " In 1995, a widely-circulated Wall Street Journal article

detailing dehydration in several middle-class breast-fed babies whose mothers

had experienced breast-feeding difficulties led to a surge in phone calls to

pediatricians and hospital hotlines across the country from new parents

worried that breast-feeding itself could somehow harm their infants. Given

this environment, many conscientious new parents may conclude that

formula-feeding represents a safer alternative to the potential " dangers " of

breast-feeding. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

In virtually all of the reported cases each year in which a breast-fed baby

becomes seriously ill as a result of her mother's feeding choice, the problem

is actually one of not breast-feeding -- meaning that, as in the Walrond and

Cheeks cases, some uninformed and unsupported nursing mothers are not aware

that they aren't effectively transferring milk from their breasts to their

babies. In sharp contrast, however, routine formula feeding -- even when done

properly by parents -- is itself a contributor to overall rates of infant

morbidity and mortality in the United States. This is because -- despite what

manufacturers' advertising would have parents believe -- today's commercial

infant formulas, while a marked improvement over the homemade concoctions of

years past, still represent a flawed and highly inferior imitation of our

own, species-specific milk.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics' most recent member survey, a

majority of baby doctors see slightly more formula-fed babies than breast-fed

babies admitted to the hospital for instances of malnutrition and failure to

thrive. But this represents only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the

differences in rates of morbidity and mortality between formula-fed and

breast-fed infants in this country. When the overall health of formula-fed

infants in the U.S. is compared to that of breast-fed infants -- even after

controlling for variables such as parents' socioeconomic backgrounds -- it

becomes clear that formula-fed babies are sicker, sick more often, and are

more likely to die in infancy or childhood. However, parents often lack

access to this information, and in fact, are often the recipients of

misinformation, thus denied the ability to make truly informed choices

regarding how they will feed their babies. Although the phrase

" breast-feeding is best " is tossed around so liberally as to have been

rendered almost meaningless, many Americans are under the mistaken impression

that today's commercial infant formulas are nearly identical to human milk.

And because of this, parents who routinely approach other important infant

health and safety issues in a thoughtful, deliberate way are largely unaware

that in epidemiological terms, the decision to formula-feed when

breast-feeding is an option places their child at demonstrably higher risk

for a wide variety of ailments.

" Parents are not adequately informed regarding the real risks of artificial

milks [infant formula], " says Wight, MD, FAAP, IBCLC, and a

neonatologist at Children's Hospital in San Diego. She says that she

considers it part of her job to strongly encourage the parents of her

patients to breast-feed. " Doctors never worry about making parents feel

guilty when we discuss childhood immunizations, car seats, seatbelts, bicycle

helmets or fencing around pools. I have an obligation to my patients to give

them correct information -- not formula marketing slogans -- and let them

make the choice. "

Dr. Lawrence Gartner, MD, FAAP is a respected medical authority on infant

feeding who has played a role in drafting policy statements for the AAP

regarding this issue. He agrees that parents today aren't fully aware that

the breast-or-bottle decision is more than just another neutral lifestyle

choice. " Compared to other equally important child safety issues like car seat

use or babies' sleep position, parents should understand that the decision

whether to breast- or bottle-feed ranks right up on top when it comes to

protecting babies. The AAP certainly puts it in that category. "

In fact, the AAP explicitly states that encouraging breast-feeding among

parents is " as important to preventive pediatric health care as promoting

immunizations, car seat use, and proper infant sleep position. "

Dettwyler, Ph.D., associate professor of anthropology at Texas A & M

University and an internationally recognized expert on infant nutrition,

agrees with Gartner's assessment of the relative risks of " artificial

feeding " for American children. " I would rank the decision of how to feed

your baby as the No. 1 infant safety issue in this country, " says Dettwyler.

Despite the widespread misperception that aggressive promotion of

breast-feeding has had a major impact on how we feed our babies, more than

70% of infants in the United States are fed infant formula as their primary

source of nutrition for most of their critical first year of life. According

to a recent report in the Washington Post, although a federal survey in 1995

found that 58% of American mothers start off breast-feeding their babies --

the same percentage as a decade earlier -- 20% fewer mothers today are still

breast-feeding after three months. While it is certainly true that many

individual formula-fed infants will do " just fine " (as will most unvaccinated

individuals in the United States), the research clearly indicates that, as a

population, America's formula-fed babies are not " fine " at all.

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HREF= " http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/1999/07/20/formula2/index.html " >Next

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