The Breastfeeding Blog

In a new campaign that risks “nanny state” accusations, ministers will also give new parents detailed suggestions on how long they should go on breastfeeding and what they should feed children to avoid them becoming fussy eaters in later life.

Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, will formally endorse the Start4Life campaign at the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) annual conference in Manchester on Friday.

The Start4life campaign tells parents when they should switch babies from milk to solid food, what they should and should not feed them, and when children should start trying to walk.

In particular, parents will be told not to “rush to mush” and give their youngsters solids too early. Generally, babies should be given milk for at least six months, the campaign suggests.

Read the full article here:- [Telegraph.co.uk]

Breasts are everywhere these days. They saturate our media in guises both trivial and sombre. Whether grotesquely augmented, stricken with cancer or tumbling unbidden from the frocks of soccer wives, breasts guarantee rapt attention and ongoing debate. But never are these appendages more hotly debated than when they are being used according to their very purpose and design — that is, for the nourishment of babies.

Read the full article here:- [EurekaStreet.com]

In the UK, the women most likely to use formula milk are young, white and from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and this has created a major public health and inequalities challenge, write Professor Mary Renfrew from the University of York and Professor David Hall from the University of Sheffield.

It is well known that breast feeding improves infant health, and it has been shown to be the single most important preventive approach to saving children’s lives.

In spite of national and international policy initiatives, 40% of women in the UK who start to breast feed discontinue by the time their baby is 6 weeks old, and only 20% of infants are exclusively breast fed at six weeks.

Read the full article here:- [NEWSFOOD.com]

On February 5, 2009 ABC Nightline ran a segment on infant mortality in Sierra Leone . The show provided illuminating information about that problem in the small West African country, which has seen its share of calamities that emanated mostly from the recent eleven-year civil war. It went on to show actress Salma Hayek, in an almost Hollywood-style production, breastfeeding a Sierra Leonean infant while the cameras rolled and a woman, who I assume is the baby’s mother, looked on passively. Cynthia McFadden, the show’s co-anchor, explained that breastfeeding in Sierra Leone is a STIGMA, as men pressure women to stop breastfeeding so that they could resume sexual intercourse.

Read the full article here:- [STANDARD TIMES PRESS SIERRA LEONE]

Mothers planning a protest at a Denny’s restaurant know what they’re up against: The law doesn’t always work for them.

But that’s part of the point after a woman inside the Patton Avenue restaurant was told to cover up if she wanted to continue breastfeeding her 1-year-old son.

With the incident “heating up” on Internet message boards, at least 40 mothers plan to join the Feb. 22 nurse-in protest, said Kate Treap, who manages the Web site Ashevillemommies.com.

Crystal Everitt, a 28-year-old stay-at-home mom, is organizing the event. She said a Denny’s manager approached her a week ago when patrons complained about her openly breastfeeding her son.

Read the full article here:- [The Citizen-Times.com]

There are excellent reasons to promote breastfeeding, among which are:

* breast milk contains antibodies which protect (but does not prevent) babies from developing infections, including ear infections, diarrhea and pneumonia

* breastfeeding enhances childhood development including cognitive areas such as language

* breast milk is the gold standard of nutrition, and has been the substance that formula manufactures have been striving to replicate

* the physical nature of nursing helps to establish and promote the bond between mother and baby

* breast milk is always available and is less expensive than formula

Read the full article here:- [The Times Online]

It was another one of those “Why Did No one Tell Us?” situations. Earlier in the year, Julie had asked why no one had told her just how painful labour and birth were. Didn’t we? And now another friend was asking why no one had told her how hard breastfeeding was. Didn’t we?

Apparently not. She said her nipples felt like they’d been “slammed in a car door” and now that she mentioned it, it did kind of ring a bell.

For me, the forget-the-pain-of-labour-and-birth hormones never kicked in. I still burst into tears when I see a delivery on TV, and it’s pure self-pity. Those hormones did, however, work for breastfeeding.

I associate it with lovely afternoons sitting watching Countdown (I had them both trained to be hungry for Countdown). I always remember the way their heads would fall back when they’d had enough, a trickle of milk coming out of their mouths; they just looked so sated. And I could concentrate on the conundrum.

Read the full article here:- [www.independent.ie]

Theo Walcott’s mum claims his talent and speed on the football pitch are down to being breastfed when he was a baby.

The teenage England star is supporting a new DVD aimed at encouraging mums to breastfeed their babies.

Mum Lynn, 46, is a midwife and says: ‘I always like to claim that Theo’s speed, coordination and eyesight and all those things are down to being breastfed. I like to think it has set him up for life.’

The teenage England ace, who scored a hat-trick against Croatia in September, said: ‘I have always been healthy and my mum says it is down to the breastfeeding. And she is always telling me that one of the reasons I’m such a good footballer is because I was breastfed.’

Read the full article here:- [UKfamily.co.uk]