First
of all, it's "fewer" ear infections, not "less".
Second of all, my uncle smoked four packs a day and died when he was 96
years old, so hooray for smoking! Let's give babies cigarettes based
upon my anecdotal "data".
Third, formula feed if you want. But raising children is about what is
best for children, not about what is most convenient for mom. I grew up
with several sibling and we were all breastfed. None of us felt lack of
time or attention from our mother to the point that she had to formula
feed.
I don't care what your choice is with your children; but stop using
anecdote and mistruths to support the marketing of formula to mothers
who may not have the financial resources to acquire good healthcare
information and breastfeeding support.
By Rebecca Smart
Oh - and I meant to say also: so I don't have a hard time with Kate's opinions, since she didn't really give them.
By Erin
Well,
because Kate didn't share her opinion. She just told her story in that
blog post. There was no opinion, other than we shouldn't make
formula-feeding mothers feel guilty. And I agree with her that we
shouldn't. I guess if she were to form the opinion that my life would
be so much easier if I'd have just switched to formula, then fine - as
long as she's not harping on it to me about how my life is just so
horrendously difficult due to breastfeeding, she's entitled to think
it... just as I'd be entitled to think that her baby should still be
getting breastmilk, although I wouldn't be berating her about it,
either. I don't even know her situation, as she simply says they "had
difficulties." If the difficulties were that she never was able to
produce milk after nursing her baby frequently, with the correct latch,
and for many days... well, I don't think I'd be of the opinion that she
should still be breastfeeding! But, as we don't know the details of her
situation, we can't really form even a broad opinion. But, as I said
before, even poorly-formed opinions are valid, as long as we don't go
insulting people with them.
By Erin
I don't get it. If we are all entitled to our opinions, why have such a hard time with Kate's opinion?
By ChrisT
Oh
anecdotal evidence, how I loathe thee! Hey, I know a girl who dig
drugs, smoked, and drank, through out all of her pregnancies, and her
kids are fine! Those studies that say otherwise are full of crap,
right? I know people who smoke 3 packs a day and they're "fine" so
obviously smoking doesn't cause any problems! You SHOULD feel guilty.
What on earth is this insistence that we should never feel guilty about
making bad decisions? You freely chose to give up and feed your son
sub-standard food, when some education and effort on your part would've
allowed you to feed him what he was MEANT to be eating. I repeat, you
SHOULD feel guilty. I freely chose to smoke during my first pregnancy,
and even though my 6 year old is "fine" I should and DO feel guilty and
ashamed every damned day. Just because she was lucky enough to fall on
the other side of the statistics doesn't make my decision good and does
NOT make what I did okay. I'm woman enough to admit it and own my
mistakes and learn from them, too bad you can't say the same.
By Kay
Why
is it that people are afraid of others' opinions? Aren't we all
entitled to our own opinions? I am not advocating somebody berating
another's choice to not breastfeed, but if they have the personal
opinion that your baby should still be getting breastmilk, then aren't
they entitled to their opinion? Or are we so PC that now opinions
should not be okay? We can all tell when there are people with rude
opinions that they spout off freely... but they are entitled to do so,
and usually end up looking foolish - natural consequences.
By Erin
Kate,
You are certainly not the first person to do this but why do so many
people quote their own personal stories when it comes to supporting or
denying statistical facts. Whether or not your child or cousin Frank's
child was sick more or less and the relevance to feeding choice is not
statistically significant . There are actual proteins in human milk
that cause the infant intestinal tract to both grow and to act to
protect infants from infection. In fact pharmaceutical / formula
companies etc are trying to artificially grow these proteins so that
they can be added to anything from infant formulas to adult vitamins
etc.There are many, many research articles on this with a statistically
significant sample size. This will be a huge market and although they
may keep suspiciously quiet about it right now, do you think they will
be so quiet when it is perfected and there is money to be made?
Formula bags are given out by formula companies because the companies
know they work.They are not being nice and they are not stupid.
By Lynn
