Hi all
This is not the first time 20/20 has wanted to do a show related to
breastfeeding. About 8 or 9 years ago they did a show on parenting, and
included a segment on a family with an 18month old baby who, heaven forbid,
was not sleeping through the night. The distraught parents turned to Dr.
Ferber for help and 20/20 was there, filming throughout the night as we
listened to baby Michael scream and watched mom sitting on the side of the
bed in another room wringing her hands, waiting for the number of minutes
to pass so she could go see about her son. Michael did finally go to sleep,
but not until after he took all of his stuffed animals and threw them to
one side of the bed and then collapsed in a sad little hump. Ferber showed
the video to the parents and commented that how wonderful it was that
Michael had gone to sleep and that he "arranged" his sleeping space first.
I was incensed by the whole thing and wrote a long letter to them
suggesting that there is another approach and perhaps they could do a show
on the family bed as one alternative. I got other moms to sign the letter
and we sent it in.
A few weeks later I received a call from 20/20. They'd gotten my letter and
were wanting to do a follow-up show on the family bed, and since I had so
many signatures on the letter, they figured they could come to Atlanta
(where I was at the time) and film some of us.
Then she started asking how many of the letter-signers were actually
sleeping with their kids, and were there any of them who had "older" kids
sleeping with them. I told her that, aside from the fact that it wasn't my
place to tell them that about others, I really didn't know who was sleeping
with whom. I just knew that the group who had signed the letter was
supportive of the idea of the family bed, and I guessed that many of them
were actually making use of the idea, but that we did not find it necessary
to constantly grill each other as to whose child was the oldest one to
still be sleeping with mom and dad.
She was disappointed that I couldn't tell her the name of someone who was
sleeping with an older child. I got the impression she was really looking
for a teenager still in bed with mom and dad.
They ultimately did a followup show and did it in California with Dr. Sears
and some of his patients. As I recall it wasn't too bad, but wasn't
necessarily as strong as I'd have liked.
In any case, 20/20 is going to look for sensationalism first, and a good
message second, IMHO.....
Melissa Vickers, IBCLC
Lactation Consultant for iParenting's Breastfeed.com
<http://breastfeed.com/experts/panel/mcvickers.htm>
mailto:[log in to unmask]
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