>Julieanne and Heather
>
>
>
>This is how I read this, too, i.e. that National Dried Milk was for infants
>*under* 12 months of age.  (See Julieanne's post, below.)  So I was puzzled
>by the earlier discussion.


I misunderstood it, sorry, Virginia!

I am certain, as you are, that government distribution of 
formula/dried milk for infants, usually subsidised or even free, 
definitely contributed (and continues to contribute) to less 
breastfeeding and to a culture that made/makes breastfeeding less 
supported, less public and less valued.

Where I raised a doubt was with your idea that  it was government 
'approval' of a particular product that made people assume, somehow, 
that it was a better product.  They would certainly assume it was a 
safe product, a benign product, and perfectly ok to use, but not 
necessarily better.

The public subsidies for dried milk for infants and the unsupervised, 
uncontrolled distribution of it made obtaining the product easy, and 
its casual use  undermined breastfeeding hugely. But I remain to be 
convinced that there was a wholesale cultural shift towards it being 
seen as generally 'better' than breastfeeding, *because of being a 
government product*.

I have a large collection of babycare leaflets, books and similar 
from the 1930s onwards. There is often expressed a notion that 
breastfeeding is better - but in some instances it aquires the patina 
of 'the ideal', the thing to aspire to, that not many women will be 
able to do, or do for long...and that artificial feeding is 
simultaneously less desirable and almost equally good. The advice 
given to women is highly likely to make breastfeeding difficult to 
maintain, of course :  scheduled, timed feeds, a concern that 
breastfeeding is fragile (as it is, when timed and scheduled). But 
pretty consistently, breastfeeding is a superior method.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK
-- 

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