January 4th, 2009

If you think formula feeding isn’t “that bad”…

…then you just plain don't know any better.

This is just a teeeeny, tiny bit of education (you know.. research, data, cold hard facts) about how dumb it is to formula feed when you don't have to.

Wake up ladies! And settle in for a "tough love" rant about what you're really doing.

Yeah, yeah, I know the argument. I too was formula fed, and here I am alive and well. Maybe. I mean, how can I know that my mother didn't subject me to some predisposition to cancer because she refused to breastfeed me? I could be a ticking time bomb. Cancer runs in my family… my family of people who were never breastfed, by the way. Did you know that babies die every single year simply because they were not breastfed? Do you know how many illnesses breastfed babies are protected from? Do you know how much healthier breastfed babies are in the long run?

Do you know that some organizations like UNICEF killed a whole bunch of babies in Botswana by telling their HIV positive-mothers that they should formula-feed to avoid passing on the HIV? Yeah… boy oh boy did that backfire. The babies instead died in 20 times the numbers because of the other illnesses that breastfeeding would have protected them from. And what "they" found out was that there was only a 5% chance of even passing HIV to a baby through breastmilk… even less if the mother was treated with a simple drug.

Those organizations have now changed their position, and discourage formula feeding. It only took killing some kids for them to figure this out. Those poor people.

And I'm really so sick and tired of people saying that "formula is not rat poison." Okay, but you MUST know that it's not breastmilk either. And Pepsi isn't rat poison, but I sure as shit am not feeding it to my baby. That's an ignorant argument. Show me some research that formula feeding somehow benefits a baby, then maybe we can have a dialogue about it, but you're not going to find that research. Read the side of your can of formula. It TELLS you that you should be breastfeeding.

So why are people so quick to defend formula feeding? Heck… when I formula fed my first son I felt shameful. I surely wasn't defending it. I was a lactivist even then. I knew breast was better - I just didn't have the support the first time around to make it through the tough times. When Jonas was 4 months old, I wrote a letter to a Chicago radio-personality who said something on the air about breastfeeding in public being "illegal" in some states (which it freaking isn't, but he still refused to issue a correction because he said he was only reading what he was told to read, as though that makes it better… coward!)

Now… there are some ladies I love who chose to formula feed, and I certainly don't want to make anyone feel bad. But this is just something that I have to share. I believe babies deserve to be breastfed. They deserve our best… no matter how hard it may be. It's what we signed up for.

I urge those who feel like they can't do it; please, get support. Make it work. Your baby deserves their mama's liquid gold.

**Rant over. Exhale. **

____________________

**edited for spelling; you konw how sometimes it's late, and words just don't look right to you? I think they call that dyslexia.

6 Comments

archived under: Adventures in BabyMaking, Current Affairs, My Political Tirades

Yeah, I’m like the MacGyver of Breastfeeding…

So, today I got to work and realized that I accidentally left my breastmilk cooler at home. Oh, and all my breastmilk bottles too. Crap. Well, luckily I had a couple of spare bottles and caps sitting at work. Problem? The caps didn’t fit the bottles. You’d think they’d all be interchangeable, but they’re not. The Medela caps don’t fit the Lanisoh bottles. This is problematic.

So, I pump my two bottles of milk, and then start devising a plan. No way am I going to leave my breastmilk at work overnight – not when I absolutely need it at home for Jules the next day. If I had thought about it sooner, I probably could have run downstairs to CVS and picked up some crappy Playtex bottles and a cooler to take everything home in. But, that would be…

A.) A waste because the Playtex aren’t BPA free and I would NEVER store my precious breastmilk in a container that wasn’t BPA-free. They’d go straight in the garbage after I got home – and
B.) Would cost me at least $15 for overpriced crap bottles and a cooler I’d never use again.

So, what’s a girl to do? How do I get breastmilk home in two bottles without caps that fit? I decided that I could put the caps on, but since they didn’t fit right if the bottle tipped over, the milk would come pouring out. So how do I keep them cold, and keep them upright?

Then I remembered that I had a little plastic Witch’s cauldron at my desk that I kept Halloween candy in. So I dumped out all the candy, filled the bottom with ice, carefully placed the bottles upright in the couldren, then stuffed stiff paper all the way around the bottles until they were completely secure. No way were they tipping over in there. And since the cauldron had a little handle, I could carry it without worry!

My 20-something yr old childless co-worker looks at me as I’m filling this little candy bucket with ice and says “What in the world are you doing?” So, I have to go about explaining how a nursing mother’s life revolves around the safe transport of breastmilk. This poor girl has already heard way too many things about breastmilk from me. You can see the horror mixed with confusion plastered all over her face.

So then on my way home, I was standing at the train ticket counter picking up my monthly pass, and the ticket taker jokingly says to me “Looks like you found a pot of gold there!” I’m thinking to myself “Why yes sir, I did… A pot of LIQUID Gold!!!”

Haaaaa ha ha ha!

3 Comments

archived under: Adventures in BabyMaking, Daily Adventures, The Things I Do For Money

Well, of course they are…

C-sections tied to higher asthma risk for babies
Natural birth helps prime infant’s immune system, researchers explain

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28005600/

LONDON – Babies born by Caesarean section are more likely to develop asthma than children delivered naturally, Swiss researchers said on Tuesday.

There has been conflicting evidence on the link between asthma and C-sections but the researchers said the number of children involved in their study and a long monitoring period strengthened their results.

The findings also underscore the potential risks of elective C-sections as more women in Western countries choose to avoid a natural birth, the researchers said in the medical journal, Thorax.

"The increased rate of Caesarean section is partly due to maternal demand without medical reason," Caroline Roduit of Kinderspital Zurich medical institution and colleagues wrote.

"In this situation the mother should be informed of the risk of asthma for her child, especially when the parents have a history of allergy or asthma."

Asthma, which affects more than 300 million people worldwide, is the most common pediatric chronic illness. Symptoms include wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing and chest tightness.

Babies born by C-section are not exposed to their mother's bacteria when they pass through the birth canal — something that helps prime the immune system and could explain the increased risk, the researchers said.

The Swiss findings are based on nearly 3,000 children whose respiratory health was monitored until age eight. By this time, about 12 percent, or 362 children, had been diagnosed with asthma for which a doctor had prescribed inhaled steroids.

About 9 percent of the children were born by C-section but these babies were nearly 80 percent more likely to develop asthma compared to those born vaginally, the researchers said.

2 Comments

archived under: Adventures in BabyMaking, My Own Personal Awesomeness

A Healthy Baby……

is not ALL that matters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://messageboards.ivillage.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=iv-prdec08n&msg=10777.1&x=y

SheeSH!!! I honestly want to strangle women when they say this. MOMS MATTER TOO. My UTERINE HEALTH MATTERS TOO. My PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH MATTERS TOO.

Perhaps you'll believe that when you've been sliced open, denied access to your newborn baby for hours after his/her birth, been unable to move for 7 freaking days, and end up having trouble breastfeeding – all because you believed all the bullshit your doctor sold you.

Then maybe, just maybe, your doctor won't be considered some all knowing god, and the inquisitors won't look like stupid women who don't care about healthy babies.

Just maybe.

EDITED TO ADD: I have a genius idea. I should keep a running tally of the women in that thread who are just going to "trust their doctors" – then check back in the month and see how many of them resulted in unnecessary c-sections and other complications. I love non-scientific experiments like this. Should I go back to Ivillage and post my study/findings when all is said and done? I wouldn't bother warning them now. They wouldn't listen, they'd probably flag me, and who needs that nonsense all over again.

5 Comments

archived under: Adventures in BabyMaking

My Two Sons

Here are my babies dressed for Thanksgiving. Don't they look so friggin adorable?!?!? Now that Jules is wearing toddler size clothes (yes, you heard that right) it's easier to find he and Jonas matching outfits. I will certainly be dressing them to match each and every chance I get now! We also got them matching Dinosaur PJ's too, which Jonas calls "Dinosaur Bone Peejays" – because he calls ALL dino related things "Dinosaur Bone" – not sure where he got the "bone" part from… probably PBS.

Along those lines, I've come to realize Jonas is a friggen genius. He's not yet 2 1/2, and he already knows his letters, and colors, and shapes!!! This kid never ceases to amaze me. How funny that a year ago at this time he couldn't even walk! And now he's doing preschooler things! His Spanish is now quite impressive, probably better than many adults.

Today he got a Time Out for touching the Chrismas Tree again, like I told him NOT to do 20 times, but he's always so freaking cute when he comes out of Time Out. I walk over and bend down and give the schpeel "Jonas, you were in Time Out because you were touching the Christmas Tree when I told you not to. Only looking at the tree, no touching, okay?" and he responds "Yeah Mama, no touching wrimis trwee, only look." Then he gives me a hug and a kiss and says he's "sah-wee." And that's that.

He's pretty excited by all this "Christmas" stuff going on. He now insists on watching "Chawee Bown Wrimis" every time we're in the car (that's Charlie Brown Christmas for those who do not speak Toddler.)

And then there's Julesy – the smilingest baby in the whole world. He handled my room-full-of-loud-Italian-relatives on Thanksgiving wonderfully! At one point my uncle stopped and asked me how I got such happy babies. I said it was because I was so dark and miserable, they just had to come out the opposite so there was harmony in the house. Jules is sitting just fine on his own now, and he's a healthy 20 lbs, 29-ish inches. Just look at him here in his 12-month-sized clothes. He's doubled in size since birth. Insane. These kids just keep growing and growing.