My formal schooling is in astrophysics, and I've learned about many kinds of
biases in observational research - and this looks to me like both selection
bias and confirmation bias.  You can only select cases for your sample that
you can observe: a family which reveals in an appointment that the toddler
is breastfeeding.  If you do not ask every family of a toddler whether the
child is breastfeeding, you risk only hearing about the cases where the
parents have cause to mention it - and that may be primarily the cases where
the breastfeeding relationship is seen as problematic.

As well, whenever toddler breastfeeding is mentioned, the doctor may only
remember the cases where the parents had a negative comment, or went on at
length about the role breastfeeding was playing in the child's life.  If
everything is going well, what is there to talk about with the doctor,
right?  And if he has the preconception that breastfeeding beyond a year is
detrimental, he will be even more likely to notice and remember those
examples.

Then there are the parents' biases - is there a parent who fears
breastfeeding? parents who aren't comfortable integrating it into their
modern lives? parents who are having family dynamics problems and hiding in
the safe and comfortable refuge of a breastfeeding relationship?  parents
who find breastfeeding a convenient thing to blame when they aren't ready to
face the real problem, or find it a socially acceptable thing to blame (like
blaming teething for baby crankiness when you don't really know the cause).

Rosemary McNaughton
LLL Leader (and MSc Astrophysics!)
Northampton, MA, USA


On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 5:23 AM, Linda Shaker Berbari <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> Apologies in advance if this seems trivial but I felt I wanted to share.
>
> I was having a conversation yesterday with a family doctor about
> breastfeeding and he was convinced that breastfeeding beyond one year can
> have ³detrimental effects on family dynamics² as he put it. He was sure
> that
> a mother breastfeeding beyond one year is ³owned² by only one member of the
> family and that this can negatively affect the other members of the family
> including the husband. I never thought about this before and was only able
> to defend through WHO recommendations (2 years) and by sharing my personal
> experience which includes breastfeeding my two kids beyond one year.
> I am sure that with everybody¹s extensive experience on this list you have
> encountered many such situations, so what kind of reference would you
> recommend that would start to turn this doctor¹s opinion around? Is this
> something that has been discussed before?
>
> Looking forward to hearing your views.
> Thanks,
> Linda
>
>
>
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