Nursing Your Kids

The Washington Post reports that controversial pro-breastfeeding ads picturing baby bottle nipples attached to insulin injectors for diabetes and inhalers for asthma were replaced after lobbying by formula companies. The ads’ message was that breastfeeding reduces the risk of both diseases and showed statistics to prove it, but the formula companies objected and the ads were replaced by ice cream cones and dandelions respectively.

For me, the most interesting part of the story is the reactions of mothers on both sides of the issue. This researched based ad campaign with numbers behind the statements and images has the unfortunate effect of making women feel guilty for their decision to formula feed. Is formula feeding bad for your baby’s health? Should mothers who formula feed feel guilty?

If a woman can’t produce enough milk to feed her baby should she feel guilty? If a mother needs to take medications that are harmful to a nursing baby should she feel guilty? If she has to return to a hostile work environment where she’s unable to pump should she feel guilty? What about the teenage mother, like my husband’s cousin who just felt that breastfeeding was gross? Should she feel guilty?

After the New York Times article Breast -Feed or Else equated formula feeding to smoking, the Statistical Assessment Service (STATS) whose goals “are to correct scientific misinformation in the media resulting from bad science, politics, or a simple lack of information or knowledge” reported that the science behind the article was faulty. STATS states that babies who are breastfed do have significantly lower incidences of ear infections and diarrhea, but all of the other claims in the article, including reduced risk for SIDS, asthma, diabetes, leukemia are exaggerated, misleading, and based on outdated studies. In terms of the risks of not breastfeding, STATS writes

Even waiting to have a baby increases the chances for breast cancer (should we put a warning label on condoms saying “avoiding pregnancy can increase your risk of breast cancer”?). Our lives are filled with risks, small and large. Not nursing is a small risk, the real question is what it costs (or benefits) you.

I like their approach. Breast milk is superior to formula, but formula feeding isn’t risky behavior. Whatever the reason for not breastfeeding, it’s safe to say that you’re not condemning your child to a life of asthma and obesity.

The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog has an excellent post about the controversy that shows the ads.

Mama Knows Breast writes about it here.

And Cagey at A Booblog reacts here.