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Subject:
From:
"katherine a. dettwyler" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 25 Nov 1995 18:46:22 -0600
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Hi everyone.  I'm back at home and on-line!  Had a great conference, about
which more later, and a WONDERFUL time with Carmen Sevilla, Rachael Hamlet,
and the LLL leaders in northern Virginia (at least I *think* that's where I
was).  Hope they thought so too.

Just have to share one amusing incident, and two disturbing ones.  First the
amusing -- we went into a Borders bookstore in Newark Delaware -- a
humongous chain, that sells books, music, and videos.  I went to check out
the baby care section, of course.  They had two copies of "Bottlefeeding
without Guilt" place cover facing out (instead of the spine) right at eye
level.  I took them off the shelf and replaced them with three copies of
"The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding" from the shelf below, and then "hid" the
Bottlefeeding Without Guilt" books behind some other baby-care books.  Shame
on me, huh.

The next day we went to visit some "friends" who used to live here in Texas.
They have a 10 week old daughter (and 4 year old twin sons), and the girl is
on soy formula.  She "couldn't nurse" because the baby had to stay in the
hospital to be under the bilirubing lights and "got used to the bottle" in
one day and refused to nurse.  Of course she didn't pursure breastfeeding
too much.  Then the baby was constipated on cows' milk formula, and is now
having the same problems on soy formula.  The baby cried the whole time we
were there (about an hour) and I sat on the couch and gritted my teeth while
the father walked around trying to amuse the baby and the mother acted like
the whole thing was a huge hassle.  Meanwhile her 4 year old twins and my 4
year old Alex ran around yelling.  Her boys *were* premature, born a month
before Alex even though they were due about two weeks after.  One weighs 32
pounds, the other 37, while my Alex is 4 inches taller and weighs 52 pounds!
He (my Alex) also asked later in the car "Why couldn't those two kids talk
very well?"  They really couldn't.  Sad.  My husband praised me for my
politeness in not saying anything to her.

Then in the Wilmington, Delaware paper there was a terribly sad story about
a baby who was shaken so hard that he died -- he was only a few months old
and his parents were arguing about who *had* to feed him, and they passed
him *roughly* back and forth several times between them.  I wanted to jump
up and down and scream "If that baby had been breastfeeding, there would
have been no argument, and that baby would be alive today!!!  Also, Delaware
has a horrible infant mortality rate (like the 3rd from the worst in the
country, by state) and there were several articles in the paper about
strategies for improving the survival rate of infants in the first year of
life, but no word one about breastfeeding.  Any lactnetters in Delaware, or
nearby?  The News Journal needs your input!

It's good to be back!  I'm looking forward to my first digest.




Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Specialist in infant feeding and growth of children
Texas A&M University
e-mail to [log in to unmask]
(409) 845-5256
(409) 778-4513

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