Jay's "Gift bag" post has reminded me of a recurring theme here - Choosing
language carefully.

I have been thinking about this for quite some time and can think [way]
back to 5th grade where one of my teachers said something like "the first
side that gets to name something has the advantage".  I think "gift packs"
as they call them in my hospital shouldn't be called that. That implies
that they are special and good.  And every time we call them that, we are
just doing the artificial baby milk company's work for them.

Let's tell it like it is - formula and all those "special offers" aren't
that special - and are certainly not a gift to the breastfeeding mom and
baby - they are a gift to the formula company that's going to profit
monetarily from shortening the duration of breastfeeding.

I challenge the members of Lactnet to to come up with a "tell it like it is
without being nasty" new name for these " ABM marketing packages".   It
should be some thing that we can use and get accepted into the mainstream
just as the "artificial baby milk" is replacing the  more scientific
sounding "formula".

Just because we didn't get the first pick on names doesn't mean we have to
use theirs.
How about it?

Gail
Gail Hertz, MD, IBCLC
Pediatric Resident
author of the little green breastfeeding book - disclaimer: owner of Pocket
Publications
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