A recent post admonished the 3 IBCLCs who authored Ross's newest booklet for
the breastfeeding mother.  While I certainly agree that we must look
suspiciously at a formula company's breastfeeding "help" I think that the
current booklet is rather well done, and certainly an improvement over their
previous Guide.  The only visual link to Ross's formula products is a small
Rossco, the small trademark bear; there are no pictures of formula anywhere.
Supplementation with other than human milk is merely alluded to and not
discussed.  ALternatives to straight from the breast are discussed with the
indication that bottle feeding (of anything) may not be the right thing to do
in the first 4 weeks of life.  All of the standard tomes about breastfeeding
also discuss "problems"; this is not unique to this booklet.  Weaning is also
not talked about.

My independent B.S. meter, my wife Claire, who has read a number of these
breastfeeding texts, also read the ABM companies' booklets for content and
marketing.  She thought this booklet was fairly well done and certainly not a
substantive marketing tool.

The other major formula company that talks to docs and hospitals, I believe,
now supplies excerpts from the Huggins text in its "Breastfeeding Success"
discharge packs.  Please not that these packs are very different from their
"Breastfeeding" discharge packs.  Make your own conclusions about why the packs
have different names.....  Oh yes, there is still "advertising" on this
booklet.

Yes, yes, formula company discharge packs are bad, bad bad.  My boss, though,
reviewed the journal articles about discharge packs that I gave him and called
them "weak."  He and I both agree that, for our population, prenatal education
is most likely to influence feeding decisions.  I am still trying to get the
formula out of discharge, but, as many of you have found,  this is not easy.

My point is simply that we can not dismiss _carte blanche_ all things connected
with ABM companies; although we may not like how they make their money, they
are there when I need something for the kids with metabolics diseases who can't
be exclusively breastfed..

I am still looking for evidence that ANYONE at the federal level has issued
guidelines or intructions on HOW to comply with the ABM Marketing Code; I am
still looking for a reference that precisely states what Clinton signed,
notmerely a summary or interpretation.

Thanks.
David Louder, MD
Director, Well Baby Services
Wilford Hall Medical Center
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