Thank you, Linda Smith, for bringing up one of my favorite soapboxes. I
have been gone for so long that I've almost forgotten the soapbox rush!
IMO, the formula companies got their significant first-toe-in with the
medical profession by appealing to the "scientific approach" and the
"scientist" that every physician wants to believe lies within
him/herself. And this scientific approach was weighing, measuring,
quantifying. Now I am not saying that we should not ever weigh, measure
and quantify. The formula companies played on physician scientific
"insecurity" of
being unable to know exactly what was in that white stuff coming out of
the postpartum human breast, and wouldn't it be more "scientific" to have
formula, and know exactly what and how much was going into their little
patients' tummies? Physicians, of course, passed on these same
insecurities and doubts to new moms, and here we are today, pleading with
moms to trust their bodies! You would think that with all the recent
medical literature on composition of human milk and all that has been
learned about normal human development since the 1940s, that the medical
professionals and moms would finally look on human milk as human food.
I know that the following is not a popular belief among my colleagues,
but I will be blunt: I don't believe that test-weighing proves anything.
By test-weighing, I mean weighing a baby before nursing and then
immediately after nursing. Not only is the mother usually under pressure,
but so is the baby, and these are just two factors which may be highly
significant. It undermines confidence and "proves" nothing - certainly
not sufficent to indicate adding formula, solids or stopping
breastfeeding. What sound physician would completely change a routine
medical treatment after reading of a single case report on a completely
new treatment? What about a bad hair day? Every time I hear of this, I know
that one of the above is
imminent, since the bottom line in this situation is no-confidence, which
will of course eventually bear fruit and there really won't be adequate
weight gain, etc. etc.
OK. Enough for the first tirade after a long absence. Best regards to
all. Judy Knopf in Beer Sheva, Israel