In our house, the term 'milk' really means human milk. Everything else is 'rice milk', 'soy milk', or 'cow milk'. When ordering my daughter's preferred beverage at restaurants, we always ask for a glass of 'cow milk'. We usually get funny looks from the server, but it is second nature to us and to our children, to call 'cow milk', 'cow milk', because that's what it is!
It certainly gives our servers a small pause... Yes, there are more kinds of milk than just 'cow milk'!
Michelle Swanson, LLLL
Wyoming, USA
:-)
--- [log in to unmask] wrote:
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Terminology (breastmilk is milk)
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:51:47 +1100
Helen Butler, posted about a baby girl with pasty stools. Helen, it looks as if you provided the support that mother in England needed, for as long as she needed. However, as I read it, the little girl did nicely on *milk*. It was only non-human milks were that were a problem. Why, oh why, does the community think that bovine milk is "milk" and that a baby isn't on milk until non-human milk passes her lips? (Okay, it's cultural, and deeply embedded.) I'm sure you find this frustrating, too.
I am curious that the baby has problems with cow's milk but is having buffolo milk, which is also bovine. Do you have more information? Does anyone out there have experience of this? This could be an interesting discussion.
New Year resolution on terninology: Breastfeeding is normal. Breastmilk is normal milk. If we refer to cow's milk as just "milk", we are normalising it in the context of young humans. How about in 2009 we make an effort to use the simple term "milk" for the human variety of milk, and label the other types of milk by what they are? Cow's milk, buffolo milk, goat's milk, sheep's milk, manufactured milk. I made this change some time ago. Care about semantics leads to changes in thinking. (Why does this sound radical? It shouldn't.)
Update:
Yes, I'm still in a nursing home, very slowly healing. Rehab is still a few weeks away. I'm thankful to have my laptop and a wireless internet connection, and I can continue my writing. I am in the process of thanking individually the very kind members of Lactnet who have sent me heart-warming messages for my recovery. These messages have meant a lot to me.
Warm regards,
Virginia
Dr Virginia Thorley, OAM, PhD, IBCLC, FILCA
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
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