Interesting Info from my sister's Baby Book

However...."Formulas that are so nearly as good as breastmilk that babies
will do practically just as well on them"????

Not Hardly.

I was being fascescious.

It was well known in the 1950's and 1960's (has always been well known) that
breastmilk was better than formula. However, for most of the 20th century,
doctors found that, mysteriously, after having nursed their babies successfully
for millenia, most women who tried to breastfeed were suddenly 'failing.' The
only explanation they could come up with was that 'modern women were too
nervous', or similar notions, and they comforted themselves, and their
patients, by telling themselves (and their patients) that since formula was
'practically just as good as breastmilk' that they didn't need to worry their
pretty little heads about their failure to breastfeed, or their unwillingness
to even try it. (And, in fact, many doctors stopped encouraging women to even
try it, since they knew that the women would fail anyway.)
What they DIDN"T seem to have realized was that what was causing the vast
majority of women to 'fail' wasn't 'nervousness' or 'poor milk quality,' but
the belief that babies were only supposed to eat every 4 hours for 15 minutes,
and that if baby wasn't satisfied with that, the solution was to top him off
with formula and, if that didn't improve the supply, to wean.)


Naomi
CAPPA Certified Lactation Educator

(either remove spamblock or change address to to e-mail
reply.)