Dear all:

Recently, there seem to have been an increase of discussions that have proliferated all over the internet and social media as well which ask about a problem defined by a single indicator. So, before I proceed, for all of those who post your questions with precise language and adequate detail, my apologies.  

The single indicator issue has lead columnists like Hanna Rosin to be able to cherry pick a few studies and a few multicausal outcomes such as obesity and make the false claim that breastfeeding doesn't make a difference -- leaving out the 17 other infectious and chronic diseases that the American Academy of Pediatrics came to consensus on as having "strong evidence" of increased risk among formula fed infants (of course they said decreased risk for breastfed infants -- but thanks to Diane W we all know that's backwards epidemiologically).  The reason why obesity cannot be tightly linked to any one indicator is because MANY factors influence obesity and so therefore you have to investigate those many factors to figure out how to approach the problem.

Now, given that we know that formula feeding has a complex mix of risks for morbidity and mortality that are often ignored, why would we dumb down our own assessments to look at ONLY ONE indicator?  Actually I don't think many of us do, but the problem may be more that some of us assume our peers understand that we may have looked at a bunch of other indicators and sometimes we may assume it isn't necessary to explicitly state what we already investigated.  Yet the additional information is really helpful if we want good input from our peers.

So, please when you post on Lactnet or anywhere else for that matter, do not just ask "I saw a baby who had two purple stools yesterday, what could it be?" or say "the baby is growing well, but mom's supply is low, what could cause this?". Taken in isolation, no one can provide any sort of sensible response to such questions.   

It really helps to know the age of the baby, the baby's congenital age at birth, the frequency of feedings, the behavior of the baby, the actual weights of the baby (rather than just stating that the weight gain is fine -- I can't tell you how many times mothers I've seen have been told the weight gain is fine or the weight gain is low only to discover some serious math errors), and in cases of poor growth the intake of the baby and the source of intake (breast and/or other devices).  

Sincerely, Susan Burger, MHS, PhD, IBCLC

             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome