Lactnetters -- another post I sent to Rachael to forward to misc.kids in light of responses she's been getting. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Yet more from Dr. Dettwyler: Re the comments about "Well my kid was bottle-fed and he's perfectly healthy" -- you need to start thinking epidemiologically rather than anecdotally. Yes, of course, many many bottle-feeding kids will be fine, and many many breastfeeding kids will be sick. It's the overall frequency of these diseases, or relative risk, that matters. A good analogy is to look at how teenagers talk about drinking and driving: "Well, I drove drunk last Saturday night and I didn't get killed." Or "My friend was killed by someone who ran a stop sign and that driver wasn't drunk." Yes, yes, of course, people drive drunk all the time and don't get in accidents, and many people are killed by drivers who weren't drunk. Nevertheless, it is still the case that if you drive drunk you are MORE LIKELY to have an accident than if you drive sober. And of course many people survive car crashes even if they don't wear their seat belts and a few people die because they couldn't get their seat belts undone after an accident, nevertheless the odds are that you are much safer wearing your seat belt. I've worn my seat belt for more than 25 years, every time I get in the car, and I've never been in an accident at all, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop wearing my seat belt. If an adult doesn't want to wear his/her seat belt and dies in a car crash, I won't feel too bad about it, but if a child dies in a car crash because it was not restrained in a safety seat, that makes me angry on the child's behalf, and most people would say the parents SHOULD feel guilty. It is the same with infant feeding choices -- we are making choices that affect our children's lifelong health. Ditto for smoking. If you want to smoke, be my guest (outside, please), but it makes me angry to see parents puffing away in their infant's face. If you want to get passing-out drunk, or high on cocaine, it bothers me not as long as you don't get in your car and drive. But if you do it while pregnant, I think that's reprehensible. We are NOT doctor-bashing in the sense of accusing doctors of not knowing anything about breastfeeding -- they aren't taught it in medical schools, so how could they? We are doctor-bashing in the sense of accusing doctors of putting their own greed before their patients' welfare, but this is hardly NEWS to anyone. There are many many fine doctors out there who support breastfeeding, and some of them are even knowledgeable about it, but many are not, and some are in the pocket of the infant formula companies. I have to go feed my horses and dogs/puppies now, but want to write another post tomorrow following up on some of these ideas. I appreciate your willingness to carry the battle standard. Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Anthropology Texas A&M University co-editor of "Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives" and specialist in infant feeding and growth e-mail to [log in to unmask]