Free Republic

A controversial new doll is leaving some parents wishing for the good old Cabbage Patch days. A Spanish toymaker known as Berjuan has developed a breast-feeding doll that comes with a special halter top its young "mothers" wear as they pretend to breast-feed their "babies." The halter top has daisies that cover the little girls’ nipples and come undone just as easily as the flaps of a nursing bra would. The doll — called Bebe Gloton, which translates as “gluttonous baby” — makes sucking noises as it "feeds."

Can someone … anyone … explain how it is possible for a woman who is breast-feeding while intoxicated to be arrested while a pregnant woman who drinks goes free? I am fed up with society’s hypocrisy when it comes to children, babies, or fetuses. There is no logical argument for there being a difference between a 7, 8, 9 month pregnant woman drinking, and a woman breast-feeding while drunk. This constant struggle to simply try and figure out what is/is not a baby and what is/is not abuse and neglect will have to come to a head sooner or later.

After her father Tim was diagnosed with colon cancer, Georgia Browne went on the Internet to research ways to help save him. That’s where she got a brilliant though a bit unconventional idea to breastfeed her dad: Georgia recalls. ‘I started researching on the internet immediately and found separate studies in America and Scandinavia both supporting the health benefits of breastmilk to cancer sufferers. ‘I watched the documentary and thought it was a really mad idea, if it was true,’ she says. ‘I started looking on the net and found research suggesting breastmilk helps kill cancer cells. ‘Finding out I...

*** “That was my least favorite thing I ever did in my whole life,” Washington writer Hanna Rosin says in a podcast conversation with three pals that accompanies her sure-to-be-controversial new feature, “The Case Against Breast Feeding,” on The Atlantic’s Web site. She’s talking about pumping breast milk – 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. *** “It’s the moment that kind of brings together all the awfulness of being a modern mother,” she says. ***...

As I work with new mothers in the hospital, I often hear comments like, “nursing my baby scares me more than labor.” During pregnancy, you have probably been inundated with unwanted (and usually inaccurate) advice about breastfeeding, so it’s no wonder that you are terrified to nurse. These 20 simple tips will help you to relax, forget about the myths you have heard and enjoy your breastfeeding experience. 1. Get support Good support is imperative for new nursing mothers. The key is to find support from someone who really knows what they are talking about and from someone who is...

KETTERING, Ohio — Police in Ohio say a woman has been charged with child endangering after another motorist reported she was both breast-feeding a youngster and talking on a phone while driving. Police in the Dayton suburb of Kettering say the caller told them he saw the woman Thursday. Officer Michael Burke says authorities used a license plate number to track down 39-year-old Genine Compton. He said the woman told officers she was breast-feeding and wouldn't let her child go hungry. Burke said the legal concern is that Compton had a child in her lap while driving, not that she...

UNICEF spokesperson Salma Hayek nursing a baby in Sierra Leone. Hayek was in the West African country in September as part of her involvement in the fight against tetanus, one reason Sierra Leone has the highest infant and child death rate in the world. But I'm guessing her humanitarian efforts won't draw as much attention as the "Nightline " television footage that showed Hayek breast feeding. Bloggers, as expected, are going crazy. “There is a close enough view that I could count swallows!” exclaimed Tanya on Motherwear’s Breast Feeding Blog, who was “blown away” that the scene was shown on...

I caught a bit of Dennis Prager the other day, and he was talking about breastfeeding mothers alleging Facebook discrimination. Jenna Wortham, at her NY Times Blog reports: Facebook is standing firm on a policy that has led to the removal of some photos posted by women that show breastfeeding. The deletions have spurred Facebook members to stage protests both online and offline.Facebook maintains it is simply enforcing an existing no nudity policy. I didn't realize how widespread the Indignant Lactivist Movement was until I Googled the subject. A nice young blogger posted this on her site, along with some...

Protesting a Facebook ban on photographs of lactating breasts, mothers are staging a "nurse in'' today at the site's headquarters in downtown Palo Alto. A simultaneous "virtual protest" will be held online, when women change their standard Facebook snapshot to a photo of themselves nursing — or, in the spirit of the holidays, an image of Madonna with child. Even an image of any mammal feeding her young will do, say organizers with the group Mothers International Lactation Campaign. Facebook has removed these photos from members' albums and profiles, saying that displays of areola — the dark skin around the...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- A New Mexico infant is dead and another is getting treatment at a hospital for a rare illness called enterobacter sakazakii. The New Mexico Department of Health said the illness is sometimes associated with baby formula. A baby boy in Otero County has died from the bloodstream and central nervous system infection. Now the state is advising safe ways to feed infants, including breastfeeding. “We're doing lab tests right now we're working with the Centers for Disease Control, and the Food and Drug Administration to look at every possible avenue. Right now it hasn't been linked...

WASHINGTON -- Sources say Alaska Governor and Republican Vice-Presidential nominee persists in breastfeeding her youngest child, Trig Palin, in spite of the fact the scientists and economists agree that the practice will do nothing to drive down elevated milk prices or alleviate child hunger on a global scale. Palin, who declared October 2007 as Breastfeeding Awareness Month in Alaska, admitted earlier this year that she has been providing an unspecified amount of breast milk to her 4-month-old son. Dr. Michel Fromage, spokesman for Médecins Sans Intégrité, lashed out at the mother of five on Monday. "This woman's do-nothing 'solution' is...

A woman claims her weekend shopping trip was ruined when she decided to breastfeed her two-month-old daughter inside a trendy Vancouver clothing store. Manuela Valle, 34, said, while waiting for her husband Francisco to try on some clothes, clerks at H&M asked her to stop breastfeeding in an aisle, in accordance with store policy, and move to a private room out of other shoppers' sight. "One of the girls working on the shift came to me and told me that I was 'not allowed to do that in public,'" Valle recalled. "The clerk said [that] it was offensive to other...

Vatican plea to uncover Virgin Mary and show her breast-feeding baby Jesus By Simon Caldwell Last updated at 11:09 PM on 23rd June 2008 [...] ...artists later depicted the nursing Mary fully clothed because the Protestant reformers were generally critical of "the carnality and unbecoming nature of many sacred images". But Miss Scaraffia argued that later depictions had also diminished the Madonna’ s human side "that touches the hearts and faith of the devout". Miss Scaraffia said that when the early Christian artists represented the Virgin breast-feeding they had sought to reveal the reality of God's incarnation. [...] Images of...

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Breastfed babies are more intelligent than those weaned on formula milk, according to the most comprehensive study conducted on the issue. Doctors followed nearly 14,000 children over six and a half years and found that those who were breastfed fared significantly better in IQ tests. At the age of six and a half, children who had been exclusively breastfed scored 7.5 points higher in verbal intelligence tests and 5.9 points higher in overall IQ tests. Teachers also rated the breastfed children higher at reading, writing and solving mathematical problems. The finding, which confirms earlier research, raises the question of whether...

Dear Prudie, I am a first-time mother to a beautiful 11-week-old boy. Right after having him, I was visited in my hospital room by a "lactation consultant." This person pulled out my chart without asking me and said, "I see you had a breast reduction done 10 years ago. That was extremely selfish of you."

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power came under fire today for trying to hire a specialist who would be paid to show new and expectant mothers at the utility how to properly breastfeed their children. The plan to issue a DWP-funded "lactation services" contract drew howls from taxpayer advocate Walter Moore, who pointed out that the utility's five-member board voted just last week for a package of new rate hikes. "You couldn't make this up," he said. "This is such a rip off. You've got to wonder if somebody's cousin runs the lactation business." Lactation proposals are due...

Eat Fruits And Veggies While Breastfeeding And Baby Will Probably Like Them ScienceDaily (Dec. 4, 2007) — Moms, want your baby to learn to like fruits and vegetables? Breastfed babies whose mothers eat fruits and vegetables are more inclined to like those foods themselves, a new study has found. (Credit: iStockphoto/Amy Kimball) According to new research from the Monell Center, if you're breast feeding, you can provide baby with a good start by eating them yourself. And, offer your baby plenty of opportunities to taste fruits and vegetables as s/he makes the transition to solid foods by giving repeated feeding...

Not all children can harness the full goodness of their mother’s milk. Does breast-feeding a child boost its brain development and raise its intelligence? Only if the child carries a version of a gene that can harness the goodness of breast-milk, say researchers. The results add to the ‘nature versus nurture’ debate over intelligence, by showing how the two effects can interact. The question of whether people are born intelligent or made intelligent by their environment has been debated for decades. Research with identical twins separated at birth has shown that both genetics and rearing conditions are important in determining...

Gene 'links breastfeeding to IQ' The government advises breastfeeding for first six months A single gene influences whether breastfeeding improves a child's intelligence, say London researchers. Children with one version of the FADS2 gene scored seven points higher in IQ tests if they were breastfed. But the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study found breastfeeding had no effect on the IQ of children with a different version. The gene in question helps break down fatty acids from the diet, which have been linked with brain development. Seven points difference is enough to put the child in the top...