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From:
Virginia G Thorley <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 5 Nov 2001 09:44:49 +1000
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Just a quick comment on Cindy's post:  As always when this comes up, I
wonder when, oh when, are people going to think of investigating the
mother's diet, doing the standard allergy testing on the baby?  And why soy!
My personal opinion is that the power of advertising has created a community
idea (and professionals are part of the community) that soy is good, that
soy is zero allergenic.  (As someone who is even *more* allergic to soy than
to dairy, this really annoys me.)  The same lack of logic exists in the
community with other foods promoted as "healthy".  If I say I can't have
bovine dairy products, there is likely to be someone who'll offer me yoghurt
(bovine origin) instead, or low-fat bovine milk.
    I haven't heard this perception in recent years, but twenty years of so
ago Mums would tell me their baby "didn't" have cow's milk - and didn't seem
to realise that most formulations of artificial baby milks were cow's milk
modified in the factory.  (I wonder where they think it came from!)
    Breastmilk hasn't had all these years of advertising/promotion and so
the community doesn't have the perception of it as a health food.  It's an
unknown quantity, and so it's suspect.  Sad.  In fact, even the way we talk
about it sounds almost apologic: e.g. "He's only having breastmilk" (instead
of "He's exclusively breastfeed - no need for substitutes") or "No, she
isn't having solids yet" (instead of "That's right, she doesn't need solids
yet").  Over the years I've seen a reports mentioning that a refugee mother
is breastfeeding, because there's "nothing else" (implication:  if she could
afford "better" should wouldnt' be doing it, grrr!)   Perhaps what we should
be promoting in our various coalitions and taskforces is concepts such as
"breastmilk, the global health food", "breastmilk, growing healthy
Australians (or Americans/ Chinese/ Dutch/ Germans/ Norwegians/ etc.)".
Just think what this sort of huge global campaign, organised locally, could
achieve in years to come.  (That's on my wish list!)
      Just musing!
       Virginia

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