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From:
T Pitman <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 7 Jan 2001 18:36:19 -0500
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My question would be, how many people/societies ever did practice what we
would call "exclusive breastfeeding" for the 6 months that we hold up to be
the gold standard these days?  From all the reading I have done over the
years, it seems that many societies offered their babies food other than
breastmilk from birth on - not as a main source of nutrition, but as a
matter of custom or religion or necessity, at times.  We don't know how the
earliest humans fed their babies - when they began offering them bits of
berries, roots and meat.  We now know that exclusive breastfeeding for at
least several months seems to be very beneficial for babies - but this is
not something that was "known" until very recently.  Sometimes I think that
we are trying to impose a very rigid idea of what should be done in the face
of a long history of many different ways that women have fed their babies
through the ages.


When I heard Michel Odent speak two years ago, one of the many things he
discussed was this introduction of other foods/drinks early in a baby's
life. His theory is that these ritual foods were introduced with the purpose
of separating the baby from the mother, even briefly, as a way of decreasing
the mother-baby bond and creating more loyalty to the tribe. He felt that
the deliberate interference with the mother-baby bonding was also a way of
increasing aggression and creating better warriors & fighters. He stressed
that not doing this is critically important at this time in human history,
because if our babies grow up to be too aggressive they can literally
destroy the entire world. And he pointed out that aggression can show up in
many ways, not just actual fighting - for example, he believes our currently
society treats the environment in an aggressive way.

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario

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