Hello lactnet friends,

I have been lurking for so long, I feel like I know everyone who regularly
posts to this wonderful community!  Thank you all for the informative and
interesting discussions.  I am a volunteer breastfeeding counselor for a
local nursing mothers' group called Nursing Mother's Advisory Counsil
(NMAC) in South Eastern Pennsylvania, USA. I have been enjoying all the
discussions on this list tremendously.

I'm coming out of lurkdom to ask a general question.

In places where formula feeding (F/F) is still considered the norm, is
infant illness (such as chronic diarrhea or constipation, or serious
problems resulting from viral or bacterial infection) also considered the
norm?

My pediatrician told me at one point that it was "normal" for a baby to
have X amount of illnesses in the first year of life (I can't recall for
certain what she said, but I think it was 6 in the first year).
Anecdotally, I heard a F/F co-worker saying how her two year old has
always has diarrhea and even now continues to always have loose stools.
Apparently his digestive tract suffered quite a bit of trauma from the
formula feeding and "may never return to normal stools."  She seemed to
just accept that as "the way it is."

Does F/F as the norm = sick baby as the norm?

Is this infinitely sad, or what?

Pam Chaplin-Loebell, Ed.M., volunteer breastfeeding counselor
Supporting breastfeeding moms: one at a time in Philadelphia, PA, USA.

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