<<Have any of you read the IntelliHealth breastfeeding article including
quotes from Ruth Lawrence? The hyperlink is:
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/S2FWarn?page=http://www.intelihealth.com/
IH/ihtIH/EMIHC000/24684/24688/295317?d=dmtContent>>

Yes, including its incorrect statement (among others) that "The academy
recommends that babies be breast-fed for six to 12 months."

This is just the latest in a series of misquotes of the American Academy of
Pediatrics' Statement on Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk (RE9729),
Volume 100, Number 6 December 1997, pp 1035-1039
(http://www.aap.org/policy/re9729.html) that I have come across in
US-produced breastfeeding literature. The academy's actual recommendation
is worded:

"Exclusive breastfeeding is ideal nutrition and sufficient to support
optimal growth and development for approximately the first 6 months after
birth.100 ...It is recommended that breastfeeding continue for at least 12
months, and thereafter for as long as mutually desired.104 "

That's AT LEAST 12 months, not "up to" 12 months, as is so commonly quoted.

I am pleased to see that a similar error in Carolyn Maloney's on-line copy
of her March 8th, 2000 press release "Rep. Maloney Introduces Legislation
to Give Women Legal Protection Against Termination and Discrimination on
the Job for Breastfeeding" has been corrected to read "The American Academy
of Pediatrics recently recommended that mothers breastfeed for at least one
year after the birth of a child."
(http://www.house.gov/maloney/press/106th/20000308bfeeding.html)

Looks like culture is at work again here: it seems inconceivable to some
that breastfeeding could occur for at least a year, much less that the AAP
would recommend it!

Cynthia Good Mojab
(Breastfeeding mother, advocate, independent [cross-cultural] researcher
and author; LLL Leader and researcher in the LLLI Publications Department;
and former psychotherapist currently busy nurturing her own little one.)
Ammawell
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web site: http://ammawell.homepage.com

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