Lactnuts- I apologize if I already sent this to lactnet. I encourage others to write as well. LW Ms. Whyte, Thanks for soliciting feedback on the Medicinenet.com Doctor's Office part of your website. In December I read the piece "Breast Feeding and Formula Feeding." Being a maternity nurse and a board certified lactation consultant, I was very disappointed in the site. It is extremely lukewarm, if not downright apologetic, about breastfeeding, and (against current medical and public health advice) advocates breast and formula feeding combined as the best feeding option. Bringing up the "guilt issue" is not valid either, as parents will make their own decisions when given factual information. For example, I would not expect to see advice like "combining car seat use when you can, with holding the child on your lap when you're hurried, may be the best choice for your family." Several inaccuracies were also found. The statement, "the ability of the breasts to produce milk diminishes soon after childbirth without the stimulation of breastfeeding" is misleading. While it is optimal to begin breastfeeding or milk expression soon after birth, mothers who (for various reasons) do not get started right away can certainly breastfeed. Formula feeding mothers who never put their baby to breast still experience their milk "coming in." Mothers who get off to a "slow start" should be put in contact with a lactation consultant who will know how to help her achieve her breastfeeding goals. This next statement is really a breastfeeding myth: "The mother must maintain good nutrition and continue taking any vitamin/mineral supplements her doctor recommended during the pregnancy." Most women erroneously believe they must eat a "perfect" diet and take their prenatal vitamins to make good breastmilk. This is absolutely not true. Fathers and sibs feel left out with breastfeeding precisely because the culture (and your website) tells them to. I believe that family members would feel no more left out than during the pregnancy and birth, if breastfeeding were acknowledged as being the normal, next step in the reproductive cycle. Mommy has the uterus and Mommy has the breasts. Breastfed babies do usually eat more often than formula fed ones. However, time that would have been spent shopping for, preparing, cleaning, and sterilizing bottles and teats, and time spent caring for a sick baby, seeing the doctor, and getting the medications, is time that will be saved and can be spent blissfully nursing. Be realistic - with formula feeding, the moms are usually the ones doing most of the feedings anyway, after the initial few days of help from dad or grandma. This statement is exceptionally egregious! "The disadvantages of formulas are ... the lack of maternal infection-fighting antibodies that are in breast milk. However, it should be noted that the baby receives a four to six month supply of antibodies through the maternal bloodstream prior to delivery." Well, mothers reading this will think their babies are protected from infection for 6 months! Any maternity text will tell you that IgG antibodies are transferred via placental circulation, but may be deficient if the baby is born before 36 wks, and that IgA (acquired via breastfeeding) is of CRITICAL importance in protecting the newborn from infection. Please revise your website to reflect current information - or acknowledge prominently if you are a formula marketing site. Laurie Wheeler, RN, MN, IBCLC Coordinator of Louisiana BF Mediawatch Violet LA ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html