Hi! Thought y'all might be as pleased as I was today over this discovery,
especially in light of all the aggrevating press/ads that seem to be so
abundant these days! We ate lunch at Arby's today (roast beef fast food
joint) and on the tray was a sheet entitled "Breakfast Trivia." It had a
series of trivia questions, with the answers printed in smaller print upside
down. One question was: "What is considered the near-perfect breakfast
protein and why?" The answer:
"The egg. It supplies your body with all the essential amino acids in the
proportions necessary to manufacture protein. Nothing else other than
Mother's milk provides everything needed in terms of protein, vitamins and
minerals."

Now, granted this is a minor mention and in small, upside down print to boot,
but it is somewhat akin to all the commercials for totally unrelated items
that choose to show a baby drinking from a bottle. Arby's did not have to
even mention milk, and I suspect there are many companies that would have
gone out of their way NOT to mention it. And the mention is a recognition of
breast milk being the gold standard. Perhaps when the day comes that
breastfeeding is the cultural norm for this planet, we will see more of these
casual references to the obvious, and perhaps the day will come when we don't
feel the need to announce every one to colleagues!!!

One other comment, and I can't remember who wrote the post about the pp nurse
teaching the bf class and saying that giving the bottle has the advantage of
knowing how much baby is getting. Perhaps it should be pointed out to her
that while we can tell how much baby is getting this way, we do not know
whether baby is getting the amount he is needing or in the composition he
needs! The analogy can be made about an adult sitting down to a plate full of
food. If someone else fixes the plate of food and we are forced to eat that
amount, one of three things will happen: 1. The amount on our plate is what
we want and need. 2. The amount on our plate is really more than we want or
need but we eat it anyway and feel overstuffed because of it. 3. The amount
on our plate is less than what we need or want and we either fuss
immediately, or head for the kitchen long before the next scheduled feeding.
If someone is guarding the kitchen door until the clock says it is time for
us to be hungry, we are not going to be happy campers. Seems like enough has
been said by various experts about the negative consequences of the "clean
your plate" or else routine that it is not difficult to understand that the
bottle can easily become the original "plate" to be "cleaned," thus setting
up lifelong eating difficulties.

Melissa Vickers
[log in to unmask]