Andrea Peyser seems a bit confused when she accuses the city of being the Gestapo for 
banning the so-called "free" formula bags.  First of all, her comment trivializes Holocaust 
victims.  There is no logical connection between murderers and public health officials 
trying to improve the health and survival of infants.  Secondly, she doesn't understand 
simple economics.  There is no such thing as a free lunch or “gift” from a for profit 
company. The industry makes huge profit off the so-called “free” samples by including 
the cost of production, shipping, advertising, etc. in the price of the product that the 
mother will need to buy once she runs out of the free samples.  Because more low-
income mothers end up using more formula they disproportionately bear the burden of 
the costs of this so-called "free" products once they get started and must continue to use 
it because their milk supply dries up.  Then rather than talking to researchers in human 
nutrition, she consults a psychiatrist.  Asking a psychiatrist about research on infant 
nutrition makes as much sense as asking a podiatrist about research on anti-depressants. 
As a nutritional epidemiologist, the peer-reviewed articles I have read on the risks of not 
breastfeeding would fill more than a filing cabinet.  Finally, to accuse researchers of 
making up data is simply slander unless you can document it. The only documented case 
of data fabrication in the field of infant nutrition that I know about was a researcher 
named Chandra in Canada who bilked the formula industry out of huge amounts of 
research money and was finally caught by a graduate student who noticed that it was not 
physically possible for anyone to have collected data on the number of infants he claimed 
to have observed in his research.  Really, the propaganda machine here is not the city, 
but those who have convinced us of the illogical statement that breastfeeding is better, 
but formula is just as good.  If one thing is better, the other is not as good. And what 
research is there that supports Andrea Peyser's claim that breastfeeding causes suicide?  
Oh please, get a grip and check your facts before scaring women half to death that they 
will suicide if they breastfeed.  Talk about a guilt trip!  Susan E. Burger, MHS, PhD, IBCLC

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