Comments on: Infant formula companies and breastfeeding

By: DouglasWhitehead.com

DouglasWhitehead.com — Tue, 30 Dec 2003 21:12:49 +0000

Formula-Fed Babies
My wife and I have two babies (11 months & 26 months) so this issue gets me riled up. DB’s Medical Rants links to The Milky Way of Doing Business by Katie Allison Granju. Just as the tobacco industry created…

By: Gary Gnu

Gary Gnu — Tue, 30 Dec 2003 20:54:30 +0000

Yes, it’s the Bush administration’s fault. I think they caused the earthquake in Iran too.

By: matthew holt

matthew holt — Mon, 29 Dec 2003 22:55:56 +0000

Come on DB, don’t feign surprise here. This is the Bush adminstration and it does what its industry sponsors want–in whatever industry you care to name. The AAP is just a speedbump on the infant formula industry’s racetrack to DHHS, and a speedbump they steamrollered flat in a few seconds. DHHS obliged by pulling the ads. So sure it might stop an ad campaign that might change a few mums’ minds about breast feeding, but it’s not as this administration would do anything too awful at the behest of corporations at whose nipple it suckles…..it’s not as if it would eviscerate clean air standards or borrow from our grandkids for tax giveaways to the 1% of richest Americans or invade Iraq or anything like that.

By: Lisa Williams

Lisa Williams — Mon, 29 Dec 2003 21:23:21 +0000

Oy. One of my sore spots is that the medical profession impresses on new mothers at every turn how important breastfeeding is — and then when there are problems push them off on poorly trained paraprofessionals known as “lactation consultants.” Last time I breastfed I had sufficiency problems — my son was always hungry and there was no way to express any milk to get a rest. I went to two lactation consultants. One told me to take fenugreek — an untested dietary supplement that’s also used to make imitation maple syrup. I took it until I smelled like the inside of an International House of Pancakes, but it didn’t do a damn thing to increase my milk supply. A second lactation consultant recommended meditation — with crystals she wanted to sell me. It was difficult to refrain from telling her I’d feel a lot more “centered” if I could beat her over the head with the Yellow Pages that the doctors referred me to when I asked questions about breastfeeding.