Child Development Calendar

At the preschool where I work there is this "child development calendar" put
out by the state of Indiana, posted on the bulletin board. It has information
on what parents can expect as their babies grow, and various types of advice.
I was flipping through it today, looking to see what it had to say about bfing
and infant feeding. Not surprisingly, it is horribly dated and innacurate.
BFing is barely mentioned.
They say, at 1-2 months, that babies shouldnt be getting solids, but only
"breastmilk or iron fortified formula" with no suggestion that one might be
preferable to the other". For the newborn there is no mention either that bfing
might be better than formula.
For feeding frequencies, for the newborn they say to feed on demand, which
might be as often as every 2 hours. At 1-2 months they say your baby will
probably be
eating 5-7 times a day ... though a few bf babies MIGHT be eating more often
than this on some days .... [Yeah... in what universe....]

Several other places on the calendar, they talk about bottles (not putting baby
to bed with a bottle, or putting cereal in the bottle. But the only other
mention I can find of bfing is the suggestion that you ask your doctor about
vitamin drops at 4 months if your baby was a premie or you are bfing.

For solids, they say to start cereal at 4 months, fruits and veggies at 6
months, and meat and regular meals at 8 months.

Grrr.....

(I do get the feeling that the calendar is aimed at low income moms, so they
might be sort of assuming that these moms aren't going to be bfing anyway, but
that's still no reason to not encourage it!!!!!)


Naomi
CAPPA Certified Lactation Educator

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