I wrote an email to Larry Meeks, a syndicated black male columnist after
my conversation with a social worker at our local county task force
meeting on breastfeeding.

It bothers me that whenever I compliment a black mother on her good or
beautiful child (or children) I am told in response "No, they're bad" or
"They're spoiled (rotten)."  I cannot get them to see I've given their
parenting a compliment.  (My 25 year old daughter chalks it up to a
cultural word reversal from Rap, meaning bad is really good.  But a
black friend did this with her grandchild in front of me the whole
year she lived here!)

Larry Meeks telephoned regarding my email this morning and asked me
some questions about my experiences with black moms and the benefits
of breastfeeding I mentioned.  He knew he and his siblings were
breastfed, but that it stopped being in vogue shortly thereafter,
around WWII.

The conversation began with the obvious, which was fewer respiratory
and ear infections in the infant.  I stated that breastfeeding could
help change this maternal disparagement, that it promotes an attachment
(he used the word "bond") that would work to help the mother view
her relationship with her child differently. It would enhance it and
the mother would be less likely to abuse her child.

We talked about mothers and babies becoming a "nursing unit, of
breastmilk being a superior  brain food as it's not lacking DHA, that
human milk keeps babies from getting too much fluoride if the mother
is making up formula from a fluoridated tap water source and the
indictment of fluoride by Phyllis Mullenix Phd for causing ADD and
ADHD (especially in males), which is problematic in the mineral
(nutrient) deficient of our population--read low income.

I mentioned people of African origin tend to be lactose intolerant
and only species specific human milk is truly safe and digestible
from that standpoint.  I also mentioned breastfed babies won't get
ultra high levels of estrogen, as they do from dairy alternative,
soy formula."

Breastfeeding by the mother is a mother/baby socializer and that even
crime rates and child abuse have been implicated in non-species specific
feeding.  Criminologist Deborah Denno did studies showing elevated blood
lead levels in all the black inmates she tested that incarcerated for
violent crimes.  Fluoride is known to leach lead out of old soldered
pipes into water, that's why we're told to run water for several minutes
that has sat in the pipes for a few hours.  Depending on the residence,
the communities water status and the mother's habits there can be a
connection to high lead in tap water/formula feeding equation.

I also told him a nursing mother would be less apt to leave her baby
with a boyfriend, who is most often indicted in infant abuse and death.
We talked about the AAP guidelines for breastfeeding, which correlate
with WHO and UNICEF.

Anyway, he's doing a column and will be promoting breastfeeding by
black mothers for some of the above reasons (probably socialization)
that we discussed for an hour on the phone.

Here's hoping it comes out well.

Judy Ritchie

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