Here is how a REAL newspaper presented the findings of the study about feeding and temperament. Magda Sachs alerted me to it on Wednesday so I wasn't blindsided when the Norwegian press picked it up, where the national broadcasting company presented it with a picture of a baby breastfeeding and huge headline: THESE BABIES CRY MORE. The text was less objectionable than the headline but that doesn't help, the damage is done already. Ugh. I 've studiously avoided the tabloids, not feeling up to it. But the Guardian has the best article I've seen so far: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/10/breastfeeding-babies-temperamental-study I did find the comment by the Royal College of Midwives person baffling to the point of being devoid of meaning: ""It cannot be presumed that physical signalling by the baby automatically means it is hungry; other evidence suggests that babies engage in sucking behaviour called non-nutritive sucking. The evidence needs to be seen in a greater context before we start to draw conclusions on this research and we should continue to do all we can to promote and increase the rates of breastfeeding." Perhaps she expanded on what on earth she was trying to get across with this remark and it got cut out of the final version of the story. I can't imagine how a parent would be better equipped to respond to the baby's signals after reading it. My own thoughts were that since the data on which the conclusions are based were reported by the mothers in a questionnaire, and no one seems to have actually monitored the babies to see how much they cried or how much effort it took to settle them, perhaps the differences reflect a more nuanced view of the children by the breastfeeding mothers, i.e., they were more sensitive to their babies' signals and so reported more of them occurring. There's an awful lot of bias in the eye of the beholder. But I haven't read the actual article on which the media reports are based, perhaps there were some quasi-objective ways of measuring the infant behavior after all. GREAT comments to the reporter, in the ABC on line article, Susan, and how gratifying that they published them! Another And it's ages until World BF Week. Can hardly wait to see what story explodes on the eve of that this year. Rachel Myr Kristiansand, Norway *********************************************** 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