Moral Landscapes

Celebrities know they have this author fooled. Angelina will not breastfeed her kids for more than a few months, she will be much too vain to let her breasts be used for practical purposes. My wife breastfeed each of our children until they were 18 months old. They never had formula. Why do people get so fooled by celebrities.

Check out tomorrow's post for evidence of at least some celebrities' breastfeeding length. You may be surprised. We are using celebrities to get attention to the issue. And for those who don't know it, breastfeeding length does not "deflate" breasts.

And... she was like really strict about it

Anyone notice the irony in the Karicare advertisement spanning the lenght of this article?

When I was pregnant with my first child, the woman who ran our antenatal classes told us that formula or breast milk - 6 of one - half a dozen of another.

It was only because I did my own research and didn't listen to these 'experts' that I persisted and breastfed all 4 of my children - the first for 10 months, the last for 3 years.

I have known so many parents who have been told by paediatricians and even lactation consultants that breastfeeding for longer than 3-6 months has no benefit for the child and is only filling a need in the mother.

It's this kind of sabotaging of the precious mother-child bond that has led to the shockingly high rate of early weaning or worse - of mothers who don't even start to breastfeed. Our incidence of diabetes, SIDS, asthma and food allergies can be caused or related to the introduction of cow's milk or soya based formulas and truly, there should be no reason to use formula at all.

The vast majority of women can - with the proper support and encouragement - feed their babies. For those who truly can't, human milk banks can fill the gap. There is no reason why any human baby should have to be raised on anything less than human milk.

Thank you for an excellent article. I will be sharing it widely with our entire network.

Meryl Dorey
Australian Vaccination Network

This article addresses some very crucial topics and has some enlightening information that is important for every mother to read. As a teacher I can tell that this is a very well-written persuasive essay on the topic of breastfeeding. What articles are out there written about no adverse side affects of formula fed babies? I, and all 5 of my siblings, were formula fed and we were just as healthy as friends and family who were breastfed. Also, I didn't breastfeed my daughter and she was never sick as a baby. Realize that to breastfeed, or not to breastfeed, is a strictly personal one and mothers who do no breastfeed are not endangering their child by using formula. Besides, isn't breast milk only as healthy as the mother? Also, I'd love a list of the "thousands" of ingredients in breast milk. Another thing, the mother-child bond is not destroyed or even slightly ruined by the choice to formula feed. Please be sensitive to all mothers regardless of their choice in how to feed their child and respect their decision.

I'm a teacher too, and so I know how to do some research! Here is the list of ingredients in breast milk. http://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums/whatsinbreastmilk.pdf

By the way, articles like this are not meant to put down your choices as a mother. They are to help medical professionals and mothers make INFORMED choices about what is best for babies. If you are 100% informed and chose formula, then I respect that.

I believe that breast milk is ALWAYS what's best for babies, but breast milk is not always best in every family's unique situation. It's a personal choice. I also believe that if more people truly understood breast milk, the choice would be simple and more mothers would breast feed.

Also, as a teacher, you should know that specific examples of how formula fed babies are 'just fine' is not good science. While you may be 'just fine' there are hundreds of studies out there using good science that show breast milk is superior.

One more thing. I'm not taking a dig at your relationship with your child. Don't read this that way. But breastfed babies associate the mother with all things that baby needs. Food, comfort, warmth, etc. Bottle fed babies associate the bottle and not the mother with food and sometimes with comfort as well.