I read with interest your announcement of a new interactive website for
parenting advice in this week's TIME Magazine.  I saw with dismay that you
used a photograph of a mother bottle-feeding a baby as an image of good
parenting.  Bottle-feeding may be common in our culture, but that doesn't
make it a good or healthy parenting choice.  Bottle-feeding has been linked
to higher risk of many diseases of infancy and later life ranging from ear
infections to cancer (including breast cancer).  Bottle-feeding children are
at a much higher risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, allergies, and
asthma, as well as lower IQ scores.  Bottle-feeding her children instead of
breastfeeding them also raises the risk of a woman developing breast cancer.
Breastfeeding is the normal, natural, healthy way to feed a child.  Please
reconsider using this image of bottle-feeding to promote your new website on
parenting advice.

Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Nutrition
Texas A&M University