After reading the most recent posts on formula, I feel discouraged.  Formula
should be a discussion of risks and outcomes.  It should be a discussion
about its ingredients--of course, who the hell knows what's in it anymore.
Infant formula is no longer just some milk and added vitamins.  It is alot of
recombinant this and that--a grander experiment than ever before.

Sometimes there just isn't any other choice but to use infant formula when
breastfeeding falls apart.  I don't think anyone on this list would ever
suggest letting a baby starve because breastfeeding isn't working.  Neither
should we believe that those who breastfeed are saints and those that don't
aren't.  A saint I ain't--and I breastfeed all 3 of my babies.

Formula is not the evil.  The evil is corporations that manipulate the
medical community, the media and the facts in order to sell a product.  The
evil is the belief that consumerism is the totality of life on this planet.
I used infant formula with my first baby.  I nursed her for 11 days and quit
due to extremely sore nipples.  I relactated and that experience was the
catalyst for my involvement in breastfeeding.  Do I feel guilty about using
infant formula?  Hell, no.  My choices were absolutely limited--no local milk
bank in my community.  I didn't have the resources for a pump or even know
that that was an option nor did I truly understand about the risks of infant
formula.  Did my child pay the price for use of infant formula?  I believe
so.  She is the only child of my 3 children that has suffered with asthma
despite being breastfeed for 4 years (the others were exclusively breastfeed
for similiar periods of time but neither has asthma).

Yet, does  that experience lead me to believe that infant formula has to
exist?  It exists now because of a powerful industry that heavily markets its
wares.  I believe, if  breastfeeding advocates cannot visualize a community
without this substance,  there is not much hope.  What do you think the
infant formula industry visualizes on a daily basis?  Do you think they are
visualizing breastfeeding or a bottle in every infant's mouth?

What you visualize, you actualize.  And, if we as a community of
breastfeeding advocates cannot visualize living without infant formula, then
we will never live without it.  Yes, we have to work with it but we don't
have to believe that it is here to stay.  There are many sad stories of
mothers who do not want to use this substance.  Should this stop us from
being critical of this substance?  Should we be silent in our concerns about
this substance.  I think not.  Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC



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

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