Strollerderby : formula feeding

Colbert to Food Movement Guy: Yes, But Were YOU Breastfed?

Madeline Holler — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:34:00 GMT

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Michael Pollan

colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Gay Marriage

Last night, over a can of high fructose corn syrup laden Sierra Mist, Stephen Colbert went after Michael Pollan, the whole food/slow food/no processed food movement guy and author of the books, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto and The Omnivore's Dilemma.

In addition to being a downer (and, perhaps, unpatriotic) about American cheese, Pollan also goes after millions of babies' first taste of fake: forrrrrrrrrmula!

Pollan, having not read the impetus for this argument, then claims that breastfed babies are better than formula fed ones. So the always quick Colbert asks Pollan whether he was breastfed.

Interestingly, he doesn't know. But!

Luckily, Pollan's mom was in the audience.

Disappointingly (underminingly, and, considering his age, could-have-guessed-ingly), she said he wasn't!

No wonder he also buys Fruity Pebbles.

They Say: Moms, It's Still Your Fault. Well, Yours and Daycare

10-Year-Old Battles Breast Cancer

How Fertile Couples Outsmarted Wall Street

Top 10 Pregnancy and Birth World Records

Should Healthcare Reform Start in the Maternity Ward?

City's 5th Co-Sleeping Death in 10 Weeks Reported

550-Pound Woman Gives Birth

Video: via HuffPo

Nursing Mom Calls for Breastpump Ban

Madeline Holler — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:06:00 GMT

Last week, New York Times columnist Judith Warner weighed in on "The Case Against Breastfeeding," Hanna Rosin's article in the Atlantic, in which she argues that the benefits of breastmilk are wildly overstated. We discussed the article and accompanying podcast here.

Warner agrees with all of the points and conclusions of Rosin's article, especially when Rosin says in the video that she hopes breast pump companies will just disappear.

Then, Warner takes it one stop further: she calls for them to be banned.

From Domestic Disturbances:

In fact, I hope that some day, not too long in the future, books on women’s history will feature photos of breast pumps to illustrate what it was like back in the day when mothers were consistently given the shaft. Future generations of female college students will gaze upon the pumps, aghast.

“Did you actually use one of those?” they’ll ask their mothers, in horror.

And the moms, with a shudder, will proudly say no.

It's not suprising Warner feels this way, since she characterizes pumping breastmilk as this:

... the grotesque ritual carried out behind closed office doors nationwide by beleaguered working mothers who are fully “committed” (as the lactation consultants put it) to the goal of long-term, exclusive breast-feeding.

She also hints that breast-feeding, or maybe just pumping, is undignified.

Listen, I'm not excited when I have to sit down to pump but I would hardly equate the Medela with a corset. Neither, I'm guessing, does this woman. But even if I couldn't stand it -- or thought it was undignified -- it still wouldn't be up to me to take away that option from other families.

Anyway, if it weren't for a breast pump, I really WOULD be tied down to my baby 24/7, which is what Rosin and Warner argue the breast pump winds up doing -- and for no result better than being able to say, "I don't give my kids formula." I know, I know. Their point is that it wouldn't be so bad to use formula. But it kind of is for someone very accustomed to an exclusively nursed baby.

I'd have to figure out which brand and type to buy, monitor the use-by dates and adjust to the different kind of poop in my kid's diaper. It's not worth it to me since I am able to (physically and logistically) nurse exclusively. For me, the trade-off of adding in formula isn't that fabulous and it adds a layer of complication (and if you're tempted to say "it's not that complicated," know that I'm a simple, simple person and yes it is).

Admittedly, I'm a big old breastfeeder and I'm more than happy to support any woman who wants to give it a try. But after years of nursing mine and watching other women feed their babies -- and seeing no obvious, long-run difference between my 8-year-old breastfed babe (now weaned, I swear!) and her formula-fed classmates -- I can totally get behind the decision to feed a baby formula instead or in addition to. (My big beef is when women really, really want to nurse but they get bad information about it or they don't get any support or facts or assistance in doing so.)

What baffles me in this new discussion aimed at getting realistic about the power of breastmilk is how ridiculous the idea of breastfeeding exclusively now is to them. They seem to want to say, "eh, formula ain't so bad. But breastfeeding exclusively definitely is (because it harms the mom! And a harmed mom is a harmed baby!)." Even if Rosin's right -- that it's not the milk that's the added benefit when nursing -- that doesn't mean breastmilk is bad. Or that it isn't really good. (In this scenario, formula can be really good too. Different. But good!)

What I'd like to see is Rosin or Warner saying "damn! I hated pumping! And then make their case for giving their babies a fat juicy bottle of Enfamil before heading off to work.

But I don't want them relegating my Pump in Style to the trash heap of working-motherhood history. Even if American families had a decent maternity/paternity leave law, I'd still have a few more ounces I'd want to squeeze out.

Photo: thesun.co.uk

Donated Breastmilk Comes to NY, Slowly

Miriam Axel-Lute — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:00:00 GMT

Hudson Valley Breastfeeding recently became only the second facility in all of New York state to receive a license to store and dispense donated breastmilk from a milk bank.

Milk banks collect expressed milk from rigorously screened and tested volunteers, pasteurize it, and dispense to hopsitals or individuals with a prescription. It can fill a gap where breastfeeding isn't possible, or where it's slow to get established.

Given that many of the circumstances that make breastfeeding difficult to near impossible—such as severe prematurity, maternal illness, or trying to switch away from formula at a later age due to allergies—are also times when the fine-tuned nutrition and infection-fighting properties of breastmilk are particularly needed, it's surprising to me that New York has been so slow to embrace this option.

Of course it does have to be shipped in from North Carolina, which has the only milk bank licensed to ship to New York state. (New York mothers can donate to that milk bank though. Go FedEx overnight shipping!) There are, in fact, only 10 milk banks in the country (shipping to 80 cities). And sometimes they run out.

Sounds to me like there next step needs to be a much bigger outreach to and cultivation of potential donors. Despite my own plentiful supply, turns out I wouldn't have qualified (I lived in England in the wrong year, so I'm a mad cow risk, doncha know), but it's certainly not like anyone asked. (Though there are those on Craigslist who will pay you . . .) Perhaps the milk banks could borrow some of the blood-drive PR people. (Become a donor.)

Related articles:

More by this author:

Baby Nearly Starves, Diluted Formula To Blame

Kate Tuttle — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:27:00 GMT

As if we needed any more proof that these are tough times: a Florida mother recently found out the hard way why you must never dilute baby formula to "stretch it." Jeri Moss, a 23-year-old mother of two, was trying to save money when she watered down her infant son's formul, adding far more liquid than the powdered carton's instructions called for. She says she did the same with her toddler daughter, with no ill effects. But five-month-old La'Damian, who weighs just eight pounds, was admitted to a local hospital suffering from malnutrition and water intoxication. He survived, but it could have gone either way. "Another hour, he would've been dead," according to the doctor at the Tampa hospital that treated the baby.

But according to the article:

Cindy Morris, environmental administrator for the Hillsborough County Health Department, said Moss has been receiving WIC benefits since June 23. Each time, she received the allotted amount of assistance: vouchers for nine cans of formula a month. The allotment includes both powder and premixed formula.

Morris said federal law prohibits WIC from giving more. "It's never meant to cover 100 percent of the nutrition," she said.

To which I have to respond, why not?

Related: FDA Sets Standard for Melamine in Formula

More from this author:

Grandmother’s Right? Or Totally Obnoxious?
Health Scam: Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Mama’s Got a Brand New Bag

Nation's First Breastfeeder Dead at 93

Madeline Holler — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:31:00 GMT

Fine, she wasn't the first breastfeeder in the U.S., but Edwina Froelich was one of the big pioneers of breastfeeding support and a founding member of that subversive group of nursing coercers, La Leche League. She died this week after suffering a stroke. She was 93.

Now, we can (and do) argue about nipple Nazism, sancti-nursers and cold, cold formula-feeding, but it's tough to argue that this woman DIDN'T make a big mark on how we parent -- and how we think about early parenting -- no matter what we feed our babies. At the very least, Froelich and the other founders of La Leche League helped to give moms choices, even though the option to breastfeed was always right there under our noses (actually, our necks, but whatever). Her nursing story started when, after having her first baby at 35, docs said she'd never make enough milk "at her age."

True American hero, all that. But here's what I'm actually thinking when I read her obit:

It says she is survived by her three sons (all of whom were breastfed) and nine grandchildren. Come on, aren't you wondering whether all nine were breastfed? And don't you pity the daughter-in-law who decided to go with Enfamil? Tension!

Photo: NYTimes.com

Things Fall Apart: Preemie Baby Formula Recalled

Karen Murphy — Mon, 28 May 2007 18:04:00 GMT

Yikes. It's scary when it turns out that what you're feeding your baby could possibly be harmful. If your baby is a preemie and you feed special prescription formula, you need this information: Similac "special care 24 calorie ready-to-feed premature infant formula with iron" is being recalled. Turns out? It doesn't actually have iron, at least not as much as it states it does on the label, and babies fed this for more than a month run the risk of becoming anemic.

About 5000 cases of formula, which comes in two-ounce ready-to-feed bottles, are involved in the recall, which is limited to some lot numbers included in stock code of 59582. If you have any questions you can contact the manufacturer, Abbott Labs, at 1-888-899-9182