Dear all,

Occasionally something nice does happen. Even in the media.  Sunday night
news (I don't watch, but daughter Jill (well trained) taped it for me.  About
5 minutes on breastfeeding -- surprisingly, not too bad!  Our own Larry
Gartner was on -- take a bow, Larry!! -- as was Marian Thompson and Marianne
Neifert.  Talked about breastfeeding being best -- even showed a can of
formula with "Breastfeeding is best" on the label (damning with faint praise,
gag), but it made good copy.  The only bad thing was they redredged up the
story of the baby that was "exclusively" breastfeeding and the mother didn't
think he was getting enough, but the physician and other health workers she
called told her by phone not to worry, he was doing fine.  He ended up
dehydrated and in the hospital, and a couple of days later suffered a stroke
from which he still has neurological defects.  Of course, they blamed
breastfeeding, but at least they did talk about the lack of support for
breastfeeding rather than blaming the fact that she was breastfeeding
totally.  And of course, they didn't mention that just possibly, the stroke
might have occurred if they tried to rehydrate the baby too quickly....
hmmm....

They also had a mom who said she "tried" to breastfeed; "really wanted to
breastfeed" but just didn't have enough milk.  And they did mention LLL and
ILCA (both based in Chicago) for help, but didn't give any phone numbers!!!
 Nor what ILCA is all about.  Duh.  Didn't mention lactation consultants.

Last night's offering was more on breastfeeding, and also that mothers don't
have to feel guilty if they bottle feed.  I haven't seen that one yet --
anyone from Chicago see it?

Given some of the other things that have been in the news lately (didn't
someone see something awful on Fox health news on Saturday or Sunday?) I
thought this was a pretty fair treatment.  At least they had some great
people on!  (Take another bow, Larry!)

Jan Barger
http://members.aol.com/bsccenter