The Attached Mother

Nestle isn’t exactly a well loved company by many people who are concerned with breastfeeding or infant nutrition. They have a pretty nasty reputation, so far in that a Nestle boycott has been held by many people. So it makes me a bit proud to see some professionals standing up to Nestle as they once again try to hurt breastfeeding women in the name of profits. Using their usual tactics, wine and dine hospitals and their staff to get prominent placement and product pushing, they elbow past any information or support breastfeeding women might have gotten. Instead cans of formula, bottles, products with their name plastered all over it, and pamphlets telling women exactly how to wean and switch to formula are passed out like candy on Halloween.

Two breastfeeding experts have resigned from Burnaby General Hospital over a dispute involving infant formula giant Nestlé.

Renee Hefti-Graham and Linda Good both quit last week.

The issue began with an invitation circulated through the hospital’s e-mail system to a Nestlé-sponsored “wine-and-dine” event to be held June 12.

Both women were adamantly opposed to the event.

And it was criticized by Health Minister George Abbott and the hospital’s executive director, Arden Krystal, as a violation of a World Health Organization code that deals with the marketing of breastmilk substitutes.

The code states “no financial or material inducements” may be provided by formula companies to promote their products to health workers.

Nestlé cancelled the event following news of the controversy.

The WHO code is not enforced in America, mostly because the high profit formula companies have strong enough ties with the lawmakers who would be in charge of actually enforcing it. It’s nice to see that in Canada some people can actually get the giant Nestle to step back. Sadly it means that women now birthing in the Burnaby General hospital have lost what might have been their greatest breastfeeding support.

The hospital says that they are training the nurses in infant feeding. I hope that they will be teaching them how to support breastfeeding moms rather than push formula on them over every little thing. Perhaps the hospital will ask Renee Hefti-Graham and Linda Good to come back. With all of the news this story has been generating perhaps Nestle will think before aggressively taking over a hospital.

Sadly, I doubt it.

Nestle, breastfeeding

You might have heard about a new show that NBC is working on called The Baby Borrowers. Think Wife Swap, but with infants. The Baby Borrowers premiers this Wednesday the 25th at 9/8c. I for one will not be watching, but my heart will be breaking for the young infants left to cry with strangers for days, unable to understand why their parents have abandoned them. Though the show’s producers claim that the parents will simply be next door and able to step in as needed, their children are not old enough to grasp this at all. As you might have guessed there are many people, myself included, who think this is a horrible idea. Taking an infant from their parents, the people he or she has created a deep bond with, and just handing them over to a total stranger. This is a good idea?

Luckily there are people speaking up on behalf of the children, the ones being tossed off for ratings. Jan hunt of the Natural Child Project has issued an open letter to NBC and is encouraging others to join her as well. She explains the psychological damage a show of this nature could cause on children too young to grasp what is happening. While the parents might be able to understand that this is only for a short time the children certainly will not.

Jan is not the only one speaking up. Attachment Parenting International has called for a cancellation of the show and has asked others to urge NBC to stop this as well.

The Baby Borrowers

There can be a very fine line between discipline and abuse, a line that is crossed when spanking comes into play. Hitting, no matter what, should be considered child abuse. It is the act of an adult taking out their frustrations on someone much smaller, weaker, and emotionally unprepared. Even in the best circumstances it can be damaging to the child.

In Canada an anti-spanking bill has been passed by the Senate and is heading to the House of Commons. The bill is an attempt to remove a section of Canada’s criminal code that allows parents and caregivers to use “reasonable force” against their children. The problem is what exactly is reasonable force? Here ins the states a court ruled that it was reasonable parental disciple when a mother beat her son with an extension cord and left bruises. Clearly there is not one size fits all definition of what is reasonable and what is criminal.

There is an interesting article here discussing the anti-spanking bill and the differences between using force to hurt a child or to stop them from hurting themselves. For me the difference is between grabbing my child’s arm and pulling because they are touching something of mine or because they are running out into the street.

Corporal punishment is the use of physical force with the intention of causing a child to experience pain but not injury for the purposes of correction or control of the child’s behaviour.

The line between acceptable corporal punishment and dangerous physical abuse is usually drawn in the sand on a blustery day; there are no guidelines. Physical abuse is the infliction of physical injury through punching, kicking, beating, biting, burning, shaking or otherwise harming a child.

Whether a parent or caregiver did not intend to cause harm doesn’t make it more acceptable. In the end, it’s about one person asserting power over another and there’s nothing healthy in that dynamic.

There is another quote that I absolutely love, one that I wish more parents would think of when disciplining their children.

While immediate compliance is often what we’re after when we discipline, parents need to promote children’s ability to control their behaviour using internal controls because these are skills that are more important to long-term socialization.

We want children to behave well not because they don’t want to get hit, an external motivator, but because they have internalized socially appropriate ways of behaving. Knowing what the right way to behave is on the inside is enhanced by parental discipline strategies that use minimal parental power, promote choice and autonomy, and provide explanations for desirable behaviours.

In the end parents need to look honestly and completely at what they are doing when they choose to spank. What are they teaching their children about right and wrong? What are they teaching their children about power over and physical violence? And what are the long term possibilities.

spanking, abuse, Canada, anti-spanking bill

To continue my Co-sleeping and Breastfeeding theme from earlier I wanted to touch on a news story that is gaining a lot of attention lately. Crib deaths linked to common bacteria.

Researchers have pinpointed two common bacteria that may contribute to crib deaths, even when infants show no sign of tissue damage.

Post-mortem tests on more than 500 babies found high levels of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli in babies who died for unexplained reasons, a team from Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London said on Friday.

One explanation could be that the bacteria release deadly toxins, which damage the young heart, lungs or nervous system.

But bacterial growth may also be a secondary effect of other known risk factors like over-heating, parental smoking and lying a child on its stomach.

Crib death, also known as SIDS, is when babies stop breathing and die for unexplainable reasons in their sleep. Though often suffocation is lumped in with SIDS by people, they are not the same. True SIDS is the term given when doctors can find no reason for the child to have suddenly died.

This new finding has sparked heated debates across the web. Many parents are asking where is the link between the bacteria and the children. Some are asking about tainted formula or vaccines, while others are wondering if there is a defect that allows a bacteria found in everyone’s bodies to become so dangerous. One question that I read asked if there was a difference between those babies who were breastfed and those who were not in the numbers of SIDS cases and this bacteria.

It is sometimes touted that bottle fed infants have a higher risk of SIDS than those who are breastfed. Though the evidence so far is inconclusive, depending on who is doing the research, the connection between the two is certainly there. Especially when co-sleeping(pdf) is added to the mix. However, there is one important connection that I want to point out. The anti-bodies found in breastmilk. As Dr. Sears points out
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Via CNN:

A Chinese policewoman is being hailed as a hero after taking it upon herself to breast-feed several infants who were separated from their mothers or orphaned by China’s devastating earthquake.

Police officer Jiang Xiaojuan, 29, was feeding nine babies at one point.

Officer Jiang Xiaojuan, 29, the mother of a 6-month-old boy, responded to the call of duty and the instincts of motherhood when the magnitude 7.9 quake struck on May 12.

“I am breast-feeding, so I can feed babies. I didn’t think of it much,” she said. “It is a mother’s reaction, and a basic duty as a police officer to help.”

OK, so not an attachment parenting topic, but still something worth sharing. The earthquake that struck caused many families to be torn apart in so many terrible ways. To see a woman step up and help children who were separated or orphaned from their mothers is a heroic act we should all applaud.

I  do not want to turn this into another formula verses breastfeeding fight. There are hundreds of infants still starving from lack of food, whether that food is breast milk or formula. In the horrors of the quake  many mothers have been able to feed their children themselves or been able to obtain clean water and proper formula.  That another mother would step in and do something so amazing should be above all of that.

Milk banks are one way any breastfeeding mother can be a hero also. These banks collect and store breast milk for babies who cannot be breastfed for a variety of reasons. There are milk banks in many countries across the world that help care for children by connecting nursing mothers to babies in need.

Some hospitals in China have milk banks already set up to collect milk donations. Spreading the word about the ability to help other babies in need is a great way to help other children affected by the quake. Even if you cannot help them donating milk to your local banks will children here in America who are unable to have the benefits of breast milk.

For more information on the quake in China and information on how to help visit the China Earthquake Relief page.

breastfeeding, China, earthquake, orphans

More than three out of four women in the U.S. are breastfeeding their infants at least briefly, according to a CDC survey released Wednesday, the New York Times reports. According to the Times, the percentage of new mothers who breastfeed for some period has gradually risen from 60% in 1993 and 1994 to 77% in 2005 and 2006

I read this news this morning and was excited to hear that 77% of mothers are breastfeeding, if only for a short while at least. Those first few days and weeks of breastfeeding is so important not only for the health benefits but also for the bonding experience breastfeeding creates. Unfortunately this huge increase of breastfeeding drops back off by 6 months of age.

Some breastfeeding experts said that they were happy with the report’s findings but noted that breastfeeding rates after six months of age have not changed and are significantly lower than the goals set by government agencies. According to the Times, the survey did not report breastfeeding rates for infants who are six months old because of lack of data

Breastfeeding has such great benefits for a child well past the first 6 months of age. In fact breastfeeding benefits continue well into the toddler years. The nutritional benefits alone are worth exploring continuing breastfeeding past 12 months. Early eaters are notorious for being picky, there isn’t a mom alive who hasn’t at least once worried that their child was getting enough to eat when their little one only wants to eat mac & cheese for a week straight. That is where the extra nutrition can come in handy. According to Kelly Mom:

• In the second year (12-23 months), 448 mL of breastmilk provides:
  • 29% of energy requirements
  • 43% of protein requirements
  • 36% of calcium requirements
  • 75% of vitamin A requirements
  • 76% of folate requirements
  • 94% of vitamin B₁₂ requirements
  • 60% of vitamin C requirements

  — Dewey 2001

One thing that was not discussed in the article is why these numbers are going up. I think it’s important to know what is happening to encourage more women to breastfeed so that we can do more of that. Are we getting better at educating parents on why breastfeeding is important, are more workplaces offering policies to allow new mothers time to breastfeed, or are we as a culture opening back up to the idea of breasts as feeding instruments? Laura Harding at Type-A Mom points out that the attitudes about breastfeeding are changing for the better. After a period where breastfeeding came out of fashion and was looked down on people are finally coming back to what breastfeeding can be.

breastfeeding

Jenny McCarthy has been one of the most outspoken Celeb moms on autism, since her own son was diagnosed in 2005. She has talked openly about her challenges when her son was diagnosed and her struggles towards a cure for her son’s condition. Though not everyone feels that autism is something that can be cured, Jenny’s son has made amazing improvements that seem to support her research.

With the recent ruling that vaccines attributed to Hannah Pollig’s autism Jenny spoke out again on autism and her son Evan for CNN.com. Through diet and detox Jenny was able to help her son recover and regain things that were lost to him before. But she feels that changes need to be made before instances of autism occur rather than trying to help the children recover later.

We believe autism is an environmental illness. Vaccines are not the only environmental trigger, but we do think they play a major role. If we are going to solve this problem and finally start to reverse the rate of autism, we need to consider changing the vaccine schedule, reducing the number of shots given and removing certain ingredients that could be toxic to some children.

We take into account that some children have reactions to medicines like penicillin, for example, yet when it comes to vaccines we are operating as if our kids have a universal tolerance for them. We are acting like ONE SIZE FITS ALL. That is, at the very least, a huge improbability.

To see a short clip of Jenny talking about her son, and fighting back some tears, visit here at Mom Logic. I would also recommend reading The Next Big Autism Bomb: Are 1 in 50 Kids Potentially At Risk? It is certainly something worth thinking about. Jenny will also be on Larry King Live tonight discussing autism. You can visit the site and vote in a poll on whether you feel vaccines are linked to autism.

Be sure to head over to Discussing Autism for more information and some great discussion on this topic. To keep the conversation going on check out her list of the best autism blogs and share with other people living with autism or an autistic child. Also head over to Momologue who is keeping the autism discussion going on all month. To see the list of who is joining her this month and toss your own hat into the ring visit here.

autism, curing autism, Jenny McCarthy

As The Business of Being Born has hit NetFlix more and more people are rushing to see it. I would love to give you a review, but I’m the only mom left without this movie service so I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet.

But childbirth has popped up as a great topic among many AP moms. Amy shares her thoughts on women dying in childbirth, Peggy O’Mara wrote on birth resistance in Mothering magazine, and the always humorous Hathor has been pumping out some great cartoons on birth and those wonderful love hormones. Even though natural childbirth is a “requirement” for Attachment Parenting, it is still a topic that many feel connected to and love to discuss.

Mommy Think has a great article on the real debate of homebirth and the research surrounding it.

While some mothers are in heaven about seeing the movie, others feel more hesitant.  And other moms found themselves flooding tears over what they saw. The ranges of opinions and feelings on homebirth vary so much they are all worth reading for a broad view. There are some homebirthing parents who are anti-Attachment Parenting, and some who are finding their spouse or partner resistant to the idea. It is such a hot topic that everyone is weighing in their opinions.

Some even going so far as to claim that homebirthing makes you a better parent.

If you have seen the movie yet and have an opinion to share on either The Business of Being Born or homebirth in general I would love you to share. Leave a comment with your thoughts, or if you have already written a post on your own blog leave the link here so others and read it. I just ask that everyone stay respectful and rational.  Insultin, hateful, or belligerent comments will be deleted.

I read this news article and could only sigh and shake my head. Apparently Millions of new mums say breastfeeding in public is still a nightmare. Even in this day and age mothers are still being looked down on for simply feeding their children.

Over at The F-Word there is a great post discussing this issue. The numbers shared are shameful and disturbing to think about. Despite the knowledge that breastfeeding is the best way to nourish children there is still a disaproving glare cast on it from society.

More than one fifth of the women who participated claimed they have left their babies screaming from hunger rather than opting for the alternative of feeding them in a public place. Many women fear that they would be judged for their decision to breast-feed, with 38 per cent of new mums banishing themselves to lavatories as they anticipate a negative reception in a public space. In fact 54 percent of mothers claimed to have received unwanted attention when feeding their babies, with more than 14 per cent confessing to having heated arguments with those who have been so abhorred by their actions. Consequently, more than a third of the women questioned opt to use formula milk in public in order to avoid any unnecessary conflagrations.

Unfortunately it isn’t just confined to the UK. Mothers in the US have seen their fair share of issues over public breastfeeding. And there have also been the online fights such as MySpace removing breastfeeding images as obscene, LiveJournal deleting breastfeeding icons, and FaceBook banning breastfeeding images. It is almost no wonder some moms would rather let their babies cry than try to feed them. The public reactions make it clear which option is more acceptable.

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There is a study out right now that has a lot of parents talking. According to the study Spanking Raises Chances of Risky, Deviant Sexual Behavior.

Of course one has to wonder what “risky sexual behaviors, or even sexual deviancy” means. There are many people who question this kind of over-hyped claim. A quote from the article tells us

A meta-analysis of spanking studies conducted by Gershoff found 93 percent agreement among studies that spanking can lead to such problems as delinquent and anti-social behavior in childhood along with aggression, criminal and anti-social behavior and spousal or child abuse as an adult.

Yet aggression and anti-social behavior do not add up to risky sexual behavior. For many parents who do engage in sexual activities outside the normal range this study does not seem to add up. The examples later listed such as coercing a partner to have sex and sex without a condom are both risky, and in the case of coercion illegal, sexual practices. Yet including activities such as enjoying spanking during sex , presumably between two consenting adults, causes some parents to question the reliability of this study.

The problem is that in many cases what one calls deviant another does not. Of course there are many sexual activities that i think we all can agree are deviant, incest and pedophilia for examples. But there are also some that sit on a gray line. Spanking during sex between two consenting adults being one of those cases. There some who feel that homosexuality is deviant, yet I strongly doubt that it was childhood spankings that makes one so.

It would seem to me that a better title would be that “Spanking Leads To Aggressive Behavior”, something that is noted in the article. Focusing on the sexual aspects draws away from the important part of the study. Which is that spanking children is harmful.

• Does Spanking Equal Discipline?
• The Center For Effective Discipline
• Project NoSpank
• Gentle Christian Mothers
• 10 Reasons Not To Hit Your Child

spanking, children, discipline, gentle discipline