I was reading up on child development recently and was disappointed with
a number of the "best sellers" on the market.  One example is T. Berry
Brazelton's book Touchpoints.  While I think he makes some very nice
points about childrearing and claims to be "pro-breast", some of the
info is truly off-track.  Stuff like:  "Breast milk may not come in till
day four or five."  Newborns can go a week without stooling... (I'd be
damned concerned with a small baby who doesn't have bowel movements.)
"Fifteen to twenty minutes at each breast is more than enough for
sucking..." (Hmmm... the timer again.)  Waking the baby before the
parent's bedtime to get him to take a feeding so he'll sleep thru the
night... (yeah, sure.)  Cereal will make the baby sleep longer...
Fathers should give a supplementary bottle.

My point is that this doctor is a clinical professor of pediatrics
at Harvard Medical School.  He is guru to both young pediatricians
and a whole generation of parents.  Is it any wonder there is such a
high breastfeeding failure rate?

Some of the gems I've heard this week in Israel:
"My doctor says I shouldn't feed the baby more than 10 minutes on each
side or he'll get colic."
"The gyn said I shouldn't be bothered to increase my milk (this is at
2 weeks pp.)  When it's gone, it's gone."
"The doctor said that all breastpumps are the same."  (yeah, and a VW
is the same as a Mercedes.)"


The nurse says I will psychologically cause trauma to the baby if I use
an SNS."

For years I tried to be diplomatic when hearing this rubbish, but lately
I've just about had it.  And I'm saying straight out : "This is
inaccurate and outdated information."  I really think we need to be
getting into medical and nursing schools and nip it right in the bud.

Susan Nachman-Srebrnik
Ranana, Israel