Adam, Rob and the gang paint a rather ridiculous picture of life without THE GOVERNMENT STUDY as some shoot-em-up free-market freeforall in which babies end up drinking Mr. Burns slurry only to coughing up asthmatic rheum and inject themselves with insulin for the rest of their lives. (I’ll pass over Adam’s egregious causation-correlation problem in the above post.)

In any event, I’m sure there there are no shortage of Le Leche fetishists out there like my wife who will be happy to contribute resources to commission a study on the benefits of breastmilk. We don’t need Uncle Sam to tell us what to feed our babies, nor do we need Andrea V to tell us. The internet accesses the Grand Canyon, after all.

A noble end indeed. Let’s just watch our means.

“We found that a history of breastfeeding was associated with a reduction in the risk of acute otitis media, non-specific gastroenteritis, severe lower respiratory tract infections, atopic dermatitis, asthma (young children), obesity, type 1 and 2 diabetes, childhood leukemia, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and necrotizing enterocolitis. There was no relationship between breastfeeding in term infants and cognitive performance.
The relationship between breastfeeding and cardiovascular diseases was unclear. Similarly, it was also unclear concerning the relationship between breastfeeding and infant mortality in developed countries.”

On the infant mortality scale, I’ll just note that the US ranks at an embarrassingly high level — we do a significantly worse job than places like Portugal or Malta.

Looks to me like the debate should be about how to keep more kids healthy in the US.

By encouraging breastfeeding, we’ll save money for the health system, get more kids in school and ready to learn, and improve our health system. There’s no reason the United States has to accept being anything less than number one in the world on this issue.

On what planet is there a China that is in ANY sense (especially economic) “free?”

At least Rob understands that formula isn’t poison. Now if he could only grasp why it’s not good policy for government to effectively lie to the public (know why they call ‘em “edgier?” They’re right on the edge of deception) about a product that has a useful, albiet limited, role.

My two cents – sure, some mothers can’t breastfeed, but as any pediatrician will tell you, it’s the best option if you can – even if you supplement with formula. The benefits are tremendous.

Conservatives are getting beaten up enough these days. You’d think they’d want their kids to have every advantage to rebuild the movement, but I guess here it’s just another case of ideology triumphing over common sense.

Finally, another major issue with breastfeeding is a class one. Work in a hourly-wage job and you have few opportunities to pump milk for your kid. Work at the same company’s headquarters in the executive suite and they may have a special “lactation room” set aside for you. Seems like more opportunities for women in the workforce to be able to breastfeed should be a key component of reform too.

The NYT did a nice article on the issue last year:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/health/01nurse.html?ex=1189051200&en=e0897ec4538fa90a&ei=5070

Breath the air in China – that’s the quality of the unfettered free market.