True dat! Also I find it weird the attitude of some people (male and female) about breast feeding in public. Stuffing your mouth with a greasy quarter-pounder and death(tm) is fine but breast feeding a kid is not? What the hell? Mind you I respect the fact that women don't want to expose themselves, but still....

Nezua,
Yes, big Pharma wants to get to you right out of the birth canal! You know I hate to sound like one of those conspiracy theorists but I’m starting to wonder if there are other elements at work here besides just raking in handfuls of money? Both of my children were raised on formula and I can tell you that they both have had their share of illnesses i.e.: allergies and upper respiratory problems. This stuff is no good and should be only used when breast milk is unavailable.

As long as big Pharma owns the politicians in this country we will constantly be bombarded with drug commercials for diseases that never existed 20 years ago only to get cures that the side effects are worse than the disease! Meanwhile an herb that has some of the most beneficial natural medicinal properties remains illegal.

Anyway, thanks for another informative post. I’ve been reading you’re blog for a while now and it has become a daily read for me.

Oh, and for those that do subscribe to conspiracy theories here’s on you’ll want to check out.

http://educateyourself.org/vcd/howensteinwhyyoushouldavoidvaccines03feb07.shtml

and not just good for babies...good for mothers, too. reduced risk of breast cancer, the only way your uterus will return to pre-pregnancy size, burns 500 calories a day, releases endorphins and hormones...etc

http://www.babymilkaction.org/pages/boycott.html

and speaking of the devil that is formula companies--read this page about the nestle boycott. they are beyond unscrupulous. evil is more like it. just plain evil. sending women dressed up as nurses into impoverished nations with formula samples that last just long enough to have the mother's milk supply dry up, telling women it's okay to mix formula with contaminated water. evil.

Right on -- that IS why they exist. (The other reasons, are fine too, thank you, but definitely a fringe benefit.) So ladies, feed your babies in public with the real thing, and if anyone gives you a dirty look, just go ahead and ignore them. And daddies, encourage mamas who work to consider breast pumps. A bottle o' breast milk has the same gold in it.

As for the evil lobbying powers of Nestle and friends, I agree.
The formula industry is a definite for-real-kind-of-horror. When I think about the problems third world countries have faced with formula its horrible. (These are places where safe and healthy water for mixing isn't always easy to find like it is here in the luxurious US of A. But, the idea of "western" advancement as purported by Nestle encourages formula).

But even here back home, the formula industry waves a fist full o' dollars at the medics:
When my daughter was born almost a decade ago, I can remember getting free formula samples at the hospital. I told the nurses that I planned to breastfeed -- but still was met with -- "Well, take this anyway. It's free, and you never know you might use it."
A week later: The first pediatrician visit -- waiting room posters showed caring mothers feeding formula to their healthy babies, and in the examining room -- again, more posters. Guess what? When the doctors and nurses visited with us, we were told, it is OK to breastfeed. "But here, take this free formula sample anyway. You never know you might use it."

I also ran into my baby being considered "small." -- Charts showed her on the low-end of weight/height comparisons. This was a joke, because her genetic roots are not from the land of giants. (Hint to doctor: Look at me -- I'm 5'3". Dad's not much taller. Duhh.). The charts compared my baby among the oodles and oodles of fattened up formula-fed babies. So, wouldn't that throw off the curve a little? New parents beware of charts and percentiles that look at breastfed and formula fed babies as one group. By the way, my kid was/is pretty healthy. Only one or two ear infections as an infant, and so on...

Anybody up for a session of words matter?

Consider "breastfeeding" and "nursing;" My thoughts are the following: A woman breastfeeds, a rich familiy's servant acts as a nurse and breastfeeds another woman's baby (as in, 17th, 18th, 19th-century royal families). Of course, this wasn't because the rich lady wanted to preserve a sexualized breast. From what I understand, it was because the servant, from the farm and whatnot, was considered to be heartier, and stronger with healthier milk.

How about babies being born? "Giving birth" or "delivered." A woman gives birth. A woman doesn't deliver a baby. A physician doesn't always deliver (a woman from her pain) in birth. Isn't it better to say the doctor is assisting a birth, or something like that? Just some thoughts to throw around.

P.S. -- Thanks to U.M. for noting that sometimes physical limitations exist. I hate to think about the Army of Breastfeeders not allowing for some understanding. I once read about a woman who, preparing a formula-bottle in a public setting, was lectured by a well-meaning stranger about the benefits of breastfeeding. Turns out the woman had a post-partum condition that required some serious drugs she didn't want to pass on to baby. Not that this was any of stranger's business.

As appalled as I am by the power and influence of the formula industry, I am outraged by the ads. My children were formula fed out of medical necessity when I was physically incapable of breastfeeding. While breastfeeding is superior, formula is an acceptable form of nutrition, and I don't buy the view that it is "crap" or the metaphor to alcohol. The ads were hyperbolic (neither of my kids suffer from allergies), and vicious in tone. Their affect would have been to increase the cycle and pain of guilt suffered by parents who "do what they have to do" and use formula. There needs to be a focus on resources and support for breastfeeding, not psychological attacks on those who use formula.

I am sorry. But I just don't see formula as "acceptable." I do hold that it is "shit." that is my experience, and my right to say. Judging by the ingredients I have read and the expereience i had giving to my breastfed daughter. You don't have to "buy" the metaphor. I am telling you my personal experience and it hurt me to watch her brain on that stuff. You can disbelieve me because it hurts you to imagine the implications, thats your biznass. But whether or not you "buy" it, that was my painful and personal experience. Rmember: I grew up vegetarian, a very healthy boy. this informs my views.

there needs to be focus on how amazing and beautiful and healthy natural breastmilk is. if not from the mother's original breast, there are other ways aside from feeding gross corporations who seek to hook children on crap. read some of the comments above, dont just take my word for it.

as i said, im not here to shame anyone. so please, let go of it. i dont mean for this to be about you, but about those corporations who surely know better. and yes, against the taboo of breastfeeding, one that these companies feed.

It is not crap Alex, when there is no alternative. Don't worry, if you're in a situation where you have to survive. And that works, do what works. You are the mama and helping your baby survive is your fucking job.

You are right, about that.

But Nezua, and some of the others on this posting, are attacking the ads -- not women who find formula is a means to an end. The ads are troubling because they are meant to INFLUENCE women who are faced with a cultural decision -- breast feed or buy formula and preserve your perky fleshy breast because that is cooler.

In my midwestern town, right here in the Heartland of US of A, say about 2002, a woman named Jodie faced a community's outrage when she wanted to nurse her 2-year-old at story hour at the public library.

I remember one woman's letter to the editor at the local newspaper. She noted more chichis were visible on the local college campus than at story hour. Yet for some reason, the "normal" moms in town found it offensive that Jodie's breast was used to feed her boy at story hour.

Nezua's post is not aimed at women who choose formula because it is in the best interest of mom and baby (I think, anyway). The post is aimed at the government (OUR our OUR government) that cowtowed to cabrons who simply said "formula + money = throw ethics out the fuckin' window

The ads are troubling because they are meant to INFLUENCE women who are faced with a cultural decision -- breast feed or buy formula and preserve your perky fleshy breast because that is cooler.

yes, thats it. except i would replace "troubling" with "disgusting."

and sadly, the reasons given to us for choosing formula over mother's milk are more than just keeping breasts perky (and personally, i think that is a horrible reason to give children that crap in a can and that is my point about how breasts are not for the perfect bathing suit contours but for feeding young humans); the advertisers come at us in a hundred ways. social pressure, "ME" time, "easy," (from what i've seen breastfeeding is easier than messing with cans and stoves and mixing and such) and so on. and it's not for the mothers they do this and sell all these "reasons" it is for the corporate empire.