PROMOTION BY ASSOCIATION

Recently I was trying to discourage a mother's use of ABM with her
beautifully thriving baby.  I was telling her the short and long-range
impacts on her baby's health.  She said something that brought me to a new
awareness. ( You might think that I am rather slow on the up-take, given the
fact that I have been working with b'feeding mothers for 26 years.)  She
looked me in the eye and said, "I had my baby in the hospital and that is a
place of health.  I recieved a bag with formula in it and coupons for more.
I just don't believe that they would give me something that is harmful to my
baby.  My pediatrician's office also has brochures about formula and I
believe he would discourage my using it if it weren't good for my baby's
health."

Clear, huh?


Want to ponder your reply?

It's unfortunate that the people with the big bucks can leaflet our
parenting population and frighten and woo our health-care providers into
sanctioning a product for general consumption, even if they know it promotes
sub-optimal health, because they just don't trust the process of
breastfeeding.  I'm sure that "they" believe that if ABM suddenly
disappeared, the infant death rate would equal the ABM-use rate now. They
have no idea how their lack of knowledge and fear convey to parents that ABM
is the "safety net that is safe."

As for the need for a breastmilk substitute for infants with metabolic
disease, I can think of "a number" of pharmeceutical products which are
essential for specific medical problems but that are unavailable to the
general public.

The posts have been eloquent in warning of welcoming the Trojan Horse.

Pat Gima,IBCLC
Milwaukee, WI.