I'm a little confused, per usual. Why do we continue to go back and forth about who is the best parent when it comes to feeding our babies? Boob or bottle? Yes, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says "breast is best", got it, however doesn't anyone remember that we are blessed with the knowledge and technology of infant formula for when a mother can not breast feed?
There are many reasons that anyone one of us are unable to breast feed. Some mom's milk does not come in fast enough to nourish their baby. Not mom's fault. Maybe mom survived cancer and had a double mastectomy resulting in her reconstructed breasts not producing milk, not mom's fault. Maybe the baby can not suck correctly, not mom's (or baby's) fault. Maybe mom is constantly stuck down with mastitis that she is tired of living with flu like symptoms and needs to stop nursing, not mom's fault. Or mom is going back to work and does not have the option to sit down for twenty minutes in a private room to pump, not mom's fault.
And it isn't like those moms that need to feed their babies a bottle don't try the boob. I know women who would wake up every hour to pump so that their baby, who would wake up every hour and a half, could be feed with that milk in a bottle. If you do the math, that women is now up every other hour for an hour. A breast feeding mom just wakes up, puts baby to boob for 20 minutes and then back to sleep.
Within the past century, children died of malnutrition for many of the above reasons. That stopped when we developed formula. Maybe we should stop judging those who use that technology and move on with our lives. There a plenty of problems that we could use that energy for like the fact that one in every four kids live in poverty in this country. 68% of the kids that my son goes to school with are on free or reduced cost breakfast and lunch. 5.2 million children do not have health insurance. 22% of children have experienced food insecurity with the past year (2012). Can we try and focus what matters?
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