Posted on 08/31/2007 7:42:09 AM PDT by SmithL
Washington - --
In an attempt to raise the nation's historically low rate of breast-feeding, federal health officials commissioned an attention-grabbing advertising campaign a few years ago to convince mothers that their babies faced real health risks if they did not breast-feed. It featured striking photos of insulin syringes and asthma inhalers topped with rubber nipples.
Plans to run these blunt ads infuriated the politically powerful infant-formula industry, which hired a former chairman of the Republican National Committee and a former top regulatory official to lobby the Health and Human Services Department. Not long afterward, department political appointees toned down the campaign.
The ads ran instead with friendlier images of dandelions and cherry-topped ice cream scoops, to dramatize how breast-feeding could help avert respiratory problems and obesity. In a February 2004 letter, the lobbyists told then-agency Secretary Tommy Thompson they were "grateful" for his staff's intervention to stop health officials from "scaring expectant mothers into breast-feeding," and asked for help in scaling back more of the ads.
The formula industry's intervention - which did not block the ads but helped change their content - is being scrutinized by Congress in the wake of last month's testimony by former Surgeon General Richard Carmona that the Bush administration repeatedly allowed political considerations to interfere with his efforts to promote public health.
Rep. Henry Waxman's Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating allegations from former officials that Carmona was blocked from participating in the breast-feeding advocacy effort and that those designing the ad campaign were overruled by superiors at the formula industry's insistence.
"This is a credible allegation of political interference that might have had serious public health consequences," said Waxman, D-Los Angeles
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
The breast-feeding cult is no different from the global warming cult.
Sepnding taxpayer money on their personal obsessions is a total waste.
Breast feeding cult? Are you serious?
The breast is a means to feed the infant, not an object to help get you off.
Your premise does not prove your conclusion.
I will agree that La Leche League and their ilk treat breast feeding like a religion and pursue it with an all-consuming and unreasonable zeal...but that doesn't make all breast-feeders cultists. On balance I suspect that breast-feeding probably is the best option for feeding an infant, particularly a newborn.
I like to think of it as a multi-function device.
What a bizarre statement.
The breast is a means to feed the infant
Emphasis on "a."
I nursed all of my babies, but I agree with you that spending taxpayer money on a breastfeeding ad is a waste. We mothers are perfectly capable of making these decisions on our own. I’m glad the ad was toned down because what is considered good science today can easily be disproved tomorrow.
Bizarre? Hardly. The response to the poster was in reference to their statement the the breast was not designed to feed the infant.
A? come on how about is?
What I'm against is the La Leche whackjob cultists browbeating my wife because she had difficulty breastfeeding our first and who started insulting her when she told them that she did not intend to breastfeed our second.
I had to toss them out of her hospital room.
Who said that? Why are you making stuff up?
Breast feeding is the natural means God intended infants to be fed. One cannot deny the intended function of the breast........we see it in all of nature. Gees. Bottles are a man-made creation.
You really believe that formula is better than breast milk? Scientists are better than nature? Did you know that breast milk contains antibodies that help an infant (that does not yet have a full immune system) fight off illness? Did you know that their is feedback between the infant and the woman — the breast milk actually changes based on the infants needs? You are either trying to justify formula feeding because you did it or you are speaking out of ignorance.
And feet and beasts are the natural means God intended us to use to get from point A to point B.
However, the natural ingenuity God gave us has enabled us to find other means of travel as well.
One cannot deny the intended function of the breast........we see it in all of nature.
We observe many things in "nature" - but we are, by definition, above nature.
Bottles are a man-made creation.
So are clothes, houses, cars, ovens, planes, air conditioners, surgery, medicine, etc.
And the bandwidth you are using to criticize man-made inventions.
Do you really believe I posted anything resembling these words you are trying to shoehorn into my mouth?
Scientists are better than nature?
???
Did you know that breast milk contains antibodies that help an infant (that does not yet have a full immune system) fight off illness?
An infant is born with his mother's antibodies.
Did you know that their is feedback between the infant and the woman — the breast milk actually changes based on the infants needs?
LOL! Through ESP? I'd love to see clinical proof of this claim.
You are either trying to justify formula feeding because you did it or you are speaking out of ignorance.
I don't need to justify it. It works just fine.
Perhaps if I invented some cockamamie story about infants changing the nutrients in their formula with telekinesis you'd change your mind?
Yep, I drive a car, but I still have to walk out to it. You have an “odd” attitude toward breastfeeding. It is a natural food source for infants and much healthier. I saw your post about some annoying people at the hospital — I’ve met up with annoying car salesman, but I still drive a car. My advice is to “let it go”. You seem irrational about the subject.
Life sciences and mechanical sciences are very different. Put simply, the most advanced jet fighter is a tinker toy compared to the complexity of the human body.
You really spout off aggressively about things you don’t know anything about, don’t you?
Breast milk can change according to infant need. (Cardiology).(exposure to pathogens can change the quality of breast milk to give a sick child the cells it needs to fight off disease)
Publication Date: 16-JUN-03
Publication Title: Chemistry and Industry
Format: Online - approximately 351 words
Author:
http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-3074949_ITM
Breast-fed babies have fewer illnesses because human milk transfers to the infant a mother’s antibodies to disease. About 80 percent of the cells in breast milk are macrophages, cells that kill bacteria, fungi and viruses. Breast-fed babies are protected, in varying degrees, from a number of illnesses, including pneumonia, botulism, bronchitis, staphylococcal infections, influenza, ear infections, and German measles. Furthermore, mothers produce antibodies to whatever disease is present in their environment, making their milk custom-designed to fight the diseases their babies are exposed to as well.
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/reprints/breastfed.html
Of course, it's a natural food source.
"Much healthier"? Please.
This sounds like the claims hippies make about organic produce versus standard produce.
You seem irrational about the subject.
I'm perfectly rational: feeding children with formula is completely unobjectionable and it is a waste of taxpayer money to spend it on ad campaigns furthering the advocacy of radical groups like La Leche.
Let people decide how they want to feed their kids, and let the government keep its mouth shut on the topic.
Government funding is a completely different issue than the relative value of breast milk and formula. You don’t have to oppose breast feeding to oppose government spending. Stating the obvious. It backfires when you deny well known facts in order to oppose a government program.
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