>I am having difficulty with a few staff nurses believing that SIDs is a
>risk factor with artificial feeding. I have given them some research
>and quoted the World Health Organizations statistics. Are there many
>studies and where can I find them? I have gone through the AAP web site
>it doesn't look like they have taken a stand on this issue.
Get the chapter by Doren Fredrickson and also the chapter by McKenna and
Bernshaw from "Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives." Fredrickson did a
study using a huge data base of infant deaths in the US and he found that
for each month of *exclusive* breastfeeding, you cut the SIDS rate in half,
so that by the time you reached six months of exclusive breastfeeding, there
were practically no SIDS deaths. At the time of his research, before the
back-to-sleep campaign, the SIDS rate overall was 1/1,000 births.
So for 1 month of exclusive breastfeeding, the risk is lowered to 1/2,000 births
for 2 months of exclusive breastfeeding, the risk is lowered to 1/4,000 births
for 3 months of exclusive breastfeeding, the risk is lowered to 1/8,000 births
for 4 months of exclusive breastfeeding, the risk is lowered to 1/16,000
births
for 5 months of exclusive breastfeeding, the risk is lowered to 1/32,000
births
for 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding, the risk is lowered to 1/64,000
births
And while there is no epidemiological difference between talking about "the
benefits of breastfeeding" vs. "the risk of formula," there is a HUGE
psychological difference, as well as a difference in perspective in terms of
what you consider normal. If you talk about "increasing the risk of SIDS by
64 times if you use formula instead of exclusively breastfeeding for the
first six months" you scare the beejeebers out of new parents. You might
scare them into breastfeeding. And no one makes money from breastfeeding.
And money is what it's all about. Call my cynical . . . .
Kathy Dettwyler
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