Mr. Knox writes:

"Could my breastfed daughter write in 'I was breastfed and hospitalised with
pneumonia and bronchiolitis and now have eczema and asthma'?
Perlease!"

Perhaps if she had been bottle-fed, she wouldn't be alive today.  And how
long was she breastfed?  The minimum of six months of exclusive
breastfeeding recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the
World Health Organization?  The minimum of continued breastfeeding of one
year (AAP) or two years (WHO) or the 3-7 more typical of our species?  Or
was she only breastfed for a few months, and then not excusively?

No one has ever claimed that breastfeeding prevents all diseases, Mr. Knox,
and you know that.  No one has ever claimed that all bottle-fed children die
from bottle-feeding.  We are dealing with relative risk.  This is an
epidemiological approach, rather than an anecdotal approach.

Anecdotally, one can say: "Hey, I've driven drunk, and I never hit anybody
with my car."  "I drank during pregnancy and my child doesn't have fetal
alcohol syndrome."  "My great-uncle smoked 3 packs a day for 40 years and
died while swimming in the ocean from a shark attack -- therefore, smoking
doesn't cause cancer."  And yes, there are still people who argue that
smoking doesn't cause cancer, and HIV doesn't cause AIDS.

All of these arguments that you raise, Mr. Knox, are the typical naive
arguments of someone who has not read the research and hasn't spent the
years of experience that most of us on LactNet have thinking about these
issues.  If you are interested in becoming better educated, by all means,
please stay and read and learn, and go seek out other sources of information
such as "Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives," and "Milk, Money, and
Madness," and Dr. Newman's book, and Riordan and Auerbach, and on and on.
If you are only interested in antagonizing people and raising specious
arguments, perhaps another hobby would be more productive??

Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Nutrition
Texas A&M University

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions.  No one is entitled to their
own facts."  --- Arthur Schlessinger

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