>> My impression is that... docs who aren't routinely
>> involved in breastfeeding are generally... receptive...
>> while peds and OBs generally are not.  Reasons?

> The reason is that these other docs are not "inserviced " by the
> formula companies.

Yikes!  Do you really think that's it?  Well, I feel a whole lot better
knowing some potential reasons.  It's impossible to fight the enemy you
don't know, and I've been utterly mystified for years.

So Lactnet has proposed two possibilities, and I assume they work together.
Because the docs see so few exclusively bf'd babies and so many problems
associated w/ bfing, I can see that they'd come to see it as a whole lot of
effort for not much result.  Top that with a little formula company frosting
(or a whole lot, administered regularly?) and you have a pretty potent
concoction.  I feel now as if I have a reasonable handle on something that
has bothered me for years.

Some years ago, an RN IBCLC was hired by a local ped clinic.  They knew she
was an IBCLC, of course, though she wasn't hired specifically for that role.

She had Linda Smith's fact calendar over her desk, and one month it said
something like, "Formula-feeding is linked to an increase in otitis media."
One of her docs walked by, saw it, and said, "What *is* this crap?"

I couldn't believe he'd say that, so I tried to imagine a veterinary
analogy.  The vet hires someone with an equine (horse) specialty, but
doesn't hire her for that specific purpose.  She has over her desk a horse
fact calendar, and one month it's "Moldy hay is linked to an increase in
hoof infection."  (I made that up.)  Would the vet walk by her desk, see
that, and respond with "What is this crap?"?  Or would he be more likely to
say, "Hey, I never heard that.  Tell me about it," or even just, "Are you
sure about that?  Are there studies?"

That immediate, irrational hostility from the ped really scared me,
especially since I seemed to see it in all the other local practices.  There
*is* a partially good ending.  A month or two later, he put an article on my
friend's desk, marked "FYI".  It was yet another study on the link between
artificial milks and ear infections...  But I can't say this doc is a
staunch supporter even yet.  Indeed, the only drug rep that gets escorted
immediately to his inner sanctum, I'm told, is the formula rep, who has
become a close friend...
--
Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC  Ithaca, NY
www.wiessinger.baka.com

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