A Look Back at Breastfeeding Controversies
October 4, 2007 by kate baggott
Filed under Baby Care, Breastfeeding
This year, all the controversies surrounding breastfeeding are about what it looks like. Last year, the controversies surrounded whether or not breastfeeding itself leads to a higher IQ, or if babies who are breastfed are smarter because their mothers tend be better educated than women who choose not to breastfeed. As Mike reported at Be A Good Dad, misinformation about the defenses breastfeeding provides against asthma and allergies is also still being perpetuated. It makes me want to cry.
My own breastfeeding days are coming to an end. I’ve got almost no milk left and, while my little girl prefers to go to sleep after a quick nurse, that isn’t a possibility most nap times when I am at work and she’s in day care. I wanted her to have the option of nursing for just as long as her older brother did, but it looks like life has other plans. Still, I don’t regret one moment of the time I spent breastfeeding and it has been a long time.
I just hope that as I move on, I don’t forget the other mothers and mothers to be, who need me to remember how hard it could be. I hope I remember to give them calm words of encouragement and to pass along information as I need to.
I really hate issues like breastfeeding and autism. These fields get complete overrun by conflicting information and research to the point where it is impossible to figure our whether the research is genuine or was skewed to the opinion of the person doing the research. And then when the media gets a hold of it afterward, I have trouble even bothering to read about it.
It’s sad really.
Mike- I predict that in the next 5 years, the various conditions we now call “Autism” will become about 7 different conditions, and not all of them will be under the PDD umbrella.
Then, when an autoimmune connection has been made that is separate from the social side of things, we’ll really be able to see something. Until then, there are too many issues that are too convoluted.
I’ve been saying something similar for a while now about the eventual either splitting out or subdividing of the autism spectrum.
My goal was to make it to a year, and with one year rapidly approaching, I think that I will not be ready at one year– nor will The Boy. I enjoy nursing, and I hope The Boy continues for a while yet– even if it is just once before bed or a few times a day.
Maria- It sounds like both of you are doing a fantastic job.
I much prefer the health questions surrounding breast feeding to the idiocy of people freaking out about women nursing in public.