Kathy you wrote, "Formula today is much
better than it was 30 years ago.  There have been a number of instances of
formula made with too little of one thing, or too much of another, that
ended up causing major cognitive damage to children who consumed it.

In the grand scheme of things, breast milk is clearly best, but formula is
better for babies than fat-free cows' milk, which is better than orange
juice or Tang or Coca-cola, which is better than bourbon, which is better
than turpentine, which is better than strychnine."

Nestle has always believed that breastfeeding is the "best" form of nutrition
for infants but that information is presented at their "very best" baby.com
web site.  Subtle. Good, better, best and very best.... What is it that we
believe and why?  If the common mind think of all breastfeeding advocates is
that infant formula will always exist, it will always exist.  I won't argue
with you and other breastfeeding advocates that believe that we must have a
"better" infant formula.   But I think when we start wondering why things
haven't changed in regard to the feeding of our infants, than maybe we should
look again at the ideology of making a better formula.

What we do by accepting these thoughts is to buy into our society using our
resources (limited) on creating something we know will never equal the real
thing. Thus we are defeating ourselves.  It is the infant formula companies
who want to know what is in human milk.  They have become the keepers of that
knowledge.  So Nestle has become the caretaker of the information on human
milk. (research on human milk seems to always end up in the Nestle Nutrition
Workshop Series) Should we be surprised it doesn't see the light of day to
the general public.  Should we be surprised that they have declared
"ownership" of human milk components.  No.

Kathy you wrote, "If you care about babies, and knowing that there will
always be babies who are not breastfed (for whatever reason)..."

I care about babies but why should I believe that "there will always be
babies who are not breastfed."  I believe that the future I want to live in
is one without formula.  That vision means that I want our society to invest
in human milk banking ( not Prolacta Bioscience human milk in a can).  I want
to quit using our limited resources on a product that everyone admits wasn't
good 30 years ago, wasn't any better 20 years ago, and still hasn't reached
best yet.  Although if we are to believe Nestle it has reached the very
best--which I think means that Nestle thinks it is better than
breastmilk....Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC

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