Dear Margaret, Jonathan K. and all: My feelings lately on the
entire topic of promoting bfg over abm is: change focus!
*Instead* of bf kids being "healthier and smarter", say that kids
deprived of human milk are sick more often and were shown (Lucas
study) to average nearly 10 IQ points less. *Instead* of saying
that bfg protects moms who bf and females who were bf from breast
CA, say that *not* bfg increases the risk of breast CA.
IMO, *all of us* have to do an about-face on this issue. The
difference is going on the offensive instead of continuing to
scramble around on the defensive. We have the literature to back
us up, we just have to present it differently. Yes, some may say
that it's manipulative, and they will be correct, I suppose. But
the issues that we are dealing with are literally life and death
at times, and certainly quality-of-life always. I have a feeling
that the majority of people, and this is including the whole
range from highly-educated physicians to completely uneducated
parents-to-be, will come to view the whole issue of infant
feeding choice differently if they are made to think about
"preventive medicine" differently. Breastfeeding should be
presented as the norm, unequivocably, and we should herald loud
and clear that the grand experiment of formula feeding as an
equivalent alternative infant feeding method is a FAILURE.
Down from the soapbox. Judy Knopf in Beer Sheva, Israel