I was so hoping this would turn out to be an April Fool's joke.  No 
such luck.  The expert interviewed was Sydney Spiesel, a pediatrician 
and professor at Yale's School of Medicine who previously wrote this 
article for Slate magazine in 2006:  http://www.slate.com/id/2138629/ 
Tales from the Nursery: The Health Benefits of Breastfeeding May Not 
Be What You Think.  In it he says that it is impossible for maternal 
antibodies in breastmilk to pass into the baby's bloodstream, 
therefore it doesn't matter that breastmilk contains antibodies.  He 
casts doubt on studies showing various effects of breastfeeding by 
saying that it's just too hard to control for all the variables (ie, 
babies of parents with more education tend to be breastfed more, so 
how can we tell if their intelligence is due to the breastfeeding or 
the parental education).  Never mind that there are MANY studies 
which control for these variables very well.  His premise is not that 
breastfeeding isn't worthwhile for many reasons, just that it has 
been "oversold".  He says that mothers should feed their babies any 
way they are comfortable with.

Sigh.

I agree, it is so disheartening to have this story on NPR of all places.

Margaret
Longmont, CO


>Hello,
>
>National Public Radio broadcasted an almost five minute long segment 
>titled, "Study Puts
>Breastfeeding Benefits in Question."  I couldn't believe what I 
>heard.  In under five minutes,
>the take away message was that breastfeeding isn't as great as we've 
>been told!
>
>If you'd like to hear what was said, go to www.npr.org and then on 
>the left hand column,
>click on the program called Day to Day.  You will see the segment 
>listed under Research
>News.
>
>It was the most harmful broadcast segment I have ever heard for 
>breastfeeding, and
>shocking because I consider NPR to be such a trusted source of info...sigh.
>
>Gina Nigro
>New York

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