As many of you know, I have been stirring up trouble on the
misc.kids newsgroups by posting medical journal citations
regarding the inferiority of formula, and the serious
health risks posed by it.   Several people have responded
by stating, in effect, that you can't believe any
of the studies of breastfeeding's health effects because
there is something different about the make-up of families
that breastfeed (less daycare, higher socio-economic status
[SES], more education re: hygiene etc.), other
than the breastfeeding itself, that accounts for the
difference.  And, therefore -- so the logic goes -- since
we [i.e., the Internet-savvy misc.kids crowd] are all of high
SES and careful about hygiene, etc., it's perfectly safe and no
risk at all to formula-feed our babies.

My question to all you statisticians and scientists is, how
did the researchers in various studies of the health
effects of formula and breastfeeding control for
socio-economic status and other variables that might
co-vary with breastfeeding?  I am sure that some of the
studies have made a stab at controlling for SES, etc., but
I don't know which ones, or how it was done.

Please respond by private e-mail.  I'll post a summary of
responses when I feel that most people who are going to
respond have done so already.

Rachael Hamlet, Lactating Lunatic Lawyer
e-mail: [log in to unmask]