>why is it that when a patient enters hospital or signs up with a new family
>dr. and has to fill out a health history questionnaire that the most crucial
>question is not there????  "do you know whether you were breastfed?  if so,
>for how long?,  was any formula used?"
>even if people did not know the answer they could go home and talk about it.
>good.
>and oh, says the client, why do you want to know that?  well, bc i can
>screen you more carefully in the areas i know that formula has it's risks.
>or something like that.

Hear Hear!! For what it is worth, there are small beginnings in this area.
When I go for my mammogram I am asked if I breastfed and for how long
total. It's not much, but it's a start. I agree that it should be a
standard
question in health intake forms, along with birth dates, family hx of
diabetes,
heart disease, cancer etc.

When I do research interviews about bfing, I always ask if the participant
was herself breastfed as a baby and for how long. Even if the info
isn't directly relevant to my research, it provides valuable data.

>the other issue of the day is all the money that is being raised for worthy
>causes - medical problems - which we know the population is at increased
>risk for when formula fed - why isn't breasfeeding mentioned as a
>preventative step?  i never hear it.  all the research being done to cure
>people who have xxxx and who were formula fed...  i don't get it.  i feel
>terrible but the only cause i see as worthwhile is promoting breastfeeding.
>you do that and the rest will dramatically decrease.

It's not that the only cause worth supporting is bf. It's that if we want
to
make a dent in PREVENTING these other diseases we must promote bfing.
supporting
bf IS supporting these other causes!
There is another listserv that is dedicated to breastfeeding promotion
and one
of the issues they work on is getting these other causes to put bfing on
their
radar screen and in their education materials. You may want to check them
out.
It's called [log in to unmask] Janice Reynolds is one of the moderators
You can email her about how to get on the list.
Janice Reynolds <[log in to unmask]>

These are important issues that deserve our attention. Thanks for
bringing them
up.

Naomi Bar-Yam

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

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html