Rewrite

[alaria_lyon]

I have rewritten the crappy advice given to me by the pediatrician's office. I have tried to be diplomatic while still promoting breastfeeding. Please let me know what you think...

Comments

[vickyunleashed]

Babies who spend too much time with a bottle in their mouth may start to use the bottle as a security object, which makes weaning from the bottle more difficult.

Breastfeeding has never been popular in my family. We may have been "tokenly" breastfed for a couple of weeks. Interestingly, when my sister gave birth in 1970 and 1976, her doctor advised against it, offering that formula was best.

I have a tragically comic story about baby bottles: My cousin Amy was forced to give up her bottle the week before she started first grade. She cried her eyes out.

Before then, Amy and I used to pull up two chairs to her mother's kitchen counter -- TO FIX OUR OWN COFFEE. I put mine in a plastic cup, and Amy put hers in her baby bottle and sucked it down like nectar from God.

We turned out all right anyway, I guess, both of us productive citizens who hold graduate degrees and more-than-decent career positions.

So, not being a mother, I'm not qualified to make any suggestions about how to feed/raise children. I've made one observance, however. A lot of the mothers I know who rabidly did "everything right" in regard to pregnancy and breastfeeding have children who have the same (or greater) problems as the women who ignored the rules.

I'm just rambling, but that topic is always interesting to me.

[alaria_lyon]

Well, the issue isn't degrees and careers, it's health. Dental issues as children and adults, allergies, asthma, obesity, diabetes, even cancer, are all higher in children who are formula fed (or in the case of breast cancer, women who didn't breastfeed). Fabulous parents can and do formula feed, for a variety of reasons. Fabulous parents also feed their kids processed and fast food and their kids become productive citizens who hold graduate degrees and more-than-decent career positions. Doesn't mean it is good for their health or the health of the nation.

I have two wonderful parents. I couldn't be closer to mother if we were literally joined at the hip. I was also formula fed. I also have asthma and allergies. So does my brother (well, the allergies part). I also have a likelihood of becoming diabetic. Would we if we were breastfed? Don't know. I had gestational diabetes with Squeak. I didn't with Matty after 2 years of breastfeeding. Was it cause of the breastfeeding? I think so.

The health of our nations mothers and children would be greatly better if breastfeeding were more common.

[vickyunleashed]

I have severe asthma and allergies -- as does one of my nephews and several other family members. It would be interesting to know how we might have faired had we been breastfed.

I'm envious, in a good way, that you're so close to your mother. Arlene is golden.

You bring up an interesting point about how Matty might have faired well due to your two years of breastfeeding. That seems like some good evidence in favor of feeding a child the natural way.

My point was that some of us did not receive that extra option of breastfeeding... but we do the best we can with what we have.

As I stated before, I'm not a mother; therefore, it's not fair for me to offer more than a sideline observation.

You're a great mother. Every human should wish to have such an informed mother as you.

[alaria_lyon]

Oh, I get your point. I didn't receive that extra option either. But back when we were kids, our parents were told that formula is better. Now we know better. And when we know better, we should do better. Doctors should not still be telling their patients that formula is as good or better than breastfeeding. Even the formula companies are required to put on their product that breast is best.

[vickyunleashed]

Yeah. We're on the same page.

http://www.katu.com/news/27373454.html

Look at the animal kingdom. All non-human mammals breastfeed. They don't have formula -- and they don't need it.

I have a favorite memory about feeding babies. My aunt's cat gave birth, and then was killed by a car, leaving my mother, father, aunt, and uncle to take the four orphaned kittens on vacation with them. They took the babies to Myrtle Beach in a box with a blanket.

They stopped what they were doing every hour to feed the babies cow's milk via doll bottles. Nature provides.

Humans are mostly kind, I think.

[alaria_lyon]

Interestingly, the baby elephant is being supplemented with formula.

[vickyunleashed]

Thankfully, that's over. If Rose-Tu had given birth in the wild, she'd likely have had a different response -- and the baby would not have needed formula.

Having been raised in a zoo, she had never seen a birth, and didn't know what to do.

[alaria_lyon]

Yup. Unfortunately, this is what has happened to the human race. The majority of girls are being raised never seeing breastfeeding, only ever seeing formula being given. They are raised in a zoo and don't have any clue about nature.

[vickyunleashed]

The majority of girls are being raised never seeing breastfeeding...

And so many of the mothers I see are girls.

I live in the quiet suburbs, but see many young mothers waiting for bus. It appears that so many of them are maybe 21 -- and have three or four children in tow. These are not the babysitters that I see; they're mothers. I cannot for the life of me figure out how they keep up their families. When I was their age, I had so few worries -- just securing good grades and figuring out my classes for the next semester.

Thankfully, it seems that you're in a position to help young women and families. It just feels like things are out of control from my view.