Janice Reynolds posted this on another bfing listserv. Thought
I'd pass it on here.
Naomi Bar-Yam
----------------------------------------------------
Media Alert to Canadians interested in Breastfeeding:
"Today's Parent" a well-read Canadian parenting magazine, published in
the September 2003 edition, an article entitled:
"Hot Milk - the unbottled truth about formula"
by John Hoffman
See entire article at:
http://www.todaysparent.com/baby/breastfeeding/article.jsp?content=20030807
_101250_216
or try: http://tinyurl.com/nwf5
Contents of article:
. What is in formula?
. What's not in formula?
. How close is formula to breastmilk?
. What are they doing to improve formula?
. What are the risks associated with formula?
. Soy: who needs it?
Article opening paragraphs:
"It's a safe bet that most parents who use infant formula - and the
majority of Canadian parents do at one time or another - know little
about it. One reason is the difficulty in finding an unbiased,
unpoliticized source of information about formula. There are those who
would prefer parents didn't use it; they don't like to talk for fear of
promoting formula. Others openly promote it, offering vague and sometimes
misleading marketing info but few details. Still others try to be more
balanced, but in an attempt to avoid guilt trips, they soft-pedal the
differences between formula and human milk.*
The one thing all these sources agree on - at least they all say so - is
that "breast is best," which leads to much discussion and, at times,
debate about breastfeeding. All the while, formula sits quietly on the
shelf, relatively unscrutinized. We hear and read a lot about
breastfeeding, but little about formula. It's time to correct that with
some straight answers."
<snip - long article - please click on url above for whole article The
article is well worth reading!>
Closing paragraphs:
"If we look at formula as a medical intervention, a way to nourish a baby
when breastmilk is not available, it stands up fairly well. The problem
is that this substitute became a competitor. And formula simply can't
compete with human milk. Here's how James Friel views it: "We've been
making formula for over 100 years and I've spent 20 years of my life
trying to make formula better. All the people I've dealt with in the
industry are honest, hard-working and dedicated. In spite of that, we are
still unable to make formula that comes very close to human milk and, for
me, that's a disappointment. We try to break human milk down into its
components and put it back together again, but it really doesn't work
that way."
Formula's greatest achievement may be that, although it still doesn't
really compare to human milk, it has become a reasonably safe substitute
that has improved over the years. Perhaps that is all it ever can be."
To contact the magazine about this article,
email: [log in to unmask]
or click to:
http://www.todaysparent.com/corpinfo/contactus/index.jsp
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