Gahhhh, The Early Show

[JamesMama]

I was getting my 'sleeping in' time this morning and DH comes running in and says "Hey honey, The Early Show is having a thing on breastfeeding." So he turns on the bedroom TV and they are saying how breastfeeding can lower moms risk of T2 diabetes, all good stuff.

Then the anchor says "How long should a woman breastfeed. IF she CHOOSES to breastfeed because some women don't do that." so the 'expert' says "Yes, some women don't. It is contrivical, some women have to work and things that work against them if they truely want to breastfeed. The AAP reccomends that women breastfeed exclusivaly for the first SIX months and then (okay get this one...DIRECT QUOTE) "UP TO ONE YEAR." then she adds or as long as mom and baby are happy with it.

Then the stupid anchor (not sure of her name, the woman, dark hair) says "Yeah, unless you have a very hungry baby then you might need to supplament."


WTF? :

Anyone care to write a letter? I can't come up with anything more eloquent than calling her an idiot and telling her to sew her mouth shut so she can't do more damage. Thats not very productive.

[Firemom]

Sounds liek Katie Couric. Anytime I have seen breastfeeding talked about on her show she has a lot of negativity.

I heard she breastfed but maybe she quit early due to not a lot of support and feels guilty about it. Who knows

[wendy1221]

Why do so many people seem to be so obsessed w/ moms not making enough milk? From what I've been told and from my own experience at LLL etc, it seems to me that oversupply is much more coomen that not producing enough. So why al this well, you might not make enough milk? Grrr!

And then to say bf for up to a year or as long as mom and baby are happy? Isn't that a contradiction. Up to a year or at least a year? Up to a year makes it sound like less is fine.

[soccerchic21]

Yeah unless you have a really hungry baby that just boosts your supply so you have more milk. : argh!

Where and who do we send letters to?

[JamesMama]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/...n1069764.shtml

There is the link to the article, there is a thing where you can watch the segment.

I'm not sure of the anchors name, I don't usually watch The Early Show (CBS)

And I guess she said "Unless you have a very hungry baby, because then you might want to stop a little sooner or supplament"

[JamesMama]

Mods, can I post the email address for the dr and the show?

[JamesMama]

Here is my letter

I am writing in regards to the November 23, 2005 segment about the new benefits of breastfeeding.

I thought it was a well articulated segment and I am glad to see more news stories about the MANY benefits of breastfeeding, both to mother and child. However, I was very upset by the comment by Rene Syler regarding the need for supplication. What many do not know is breastfed babies need to eat more often than artificial infant milk fed babies because breastmilk is more easily digested than artificial milk. Making a comment saying that 'unless you have a very hungry baby, then you will need to supplement' only perpetuates the myth that many women do not make enough milk. In most cases that is not true. Studies have shown that somewhere around 5% of women actually have real medical issues that cause them to not have enough milk, and therefore need to supplement. For Rene to say something like that only hampers a woman’s attempts to breastfeed and shows true ignorance in regards to human lactation.

It is sad, that a respected news organization, such as CBS, would allow such falsehood and lies to be reported as truth, even if it was Rene ad libbing. I urge Rene to retract her ignorant statement and encourage women to breastfeed, and to state that supplementing is usually not needed and can in fact be dangerous due to the supply and demand nature of breastfeeding.

Thank-you

ME

[AuntNi]

Originally Posted by wendy1221

Why do so many people seem to be so obsessed w/ moms not making enough milk?

Because smart marketing people at formula companies have been advertising that message in many different ways for the past 85 years! When I read the book "Milk Money Madness," I couldn't believe how insidious the formula companies were in convincing generations of women that they couldn't feed their babies. From what I've read, Failure To Thrive wasn't even a diagnosis until the formucos came into being.

[DBZ]

The mentioned the diabetes link on the news (fox) last night and it was an okay report I guess. I did have a hard time paying attention because the rest of the news was about child molesters. I thought that was lovely to air a 30 second piece about breastfeeding after going on and on about child molesters for 20 minutes.

[Ammaarah]

Do you notice the stupidest comments come right at the end, so the pro can't correct the host?

"No water, no juice, unless you have a really hungry baby?" Uh, OK, because when I'm hungry, I love a satisfying Evian.

Good letter, Renae.

[Technotart]

A little harsh perhaps....but my comments went like this -

Just where does your host Rene get off on injecting her opinion into an experts evidence and study based presentation? I wasn't aware that Rene had an MD, an RN, an IBCLC, an RD or any other credential qualifying her to make the ridiculous statements she made at the end of the breastfeeding segment relative to Diabetes in mothers.

Wean a little early? Supplement? How ignorant can a host possibly be? Would she recommend that heart failure patients wean themselves off of their medication since it might be her opinion that no one should be on Lasix? How about diabetics? Perhaps she would tell them at the end of a segment on diabetes that it is ok to eat sweets whenever they wanted and not to worry about their insulin!

Dr. Emily Senay did a beautiful job of presenting the facts about breastfeeding. Her presentation is well founded, supported by science and practiced in the medical community.

Rene came off looking like an ill informed bozo - Tell Rene to stick to what she knows when making recommendations - Lord knows that it's obvious that it isn't breastfeeding!

[Janice in Canada]

To send a comment to CBS The Early Show, on any page on their site, such as
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/...64_page2.shtml
Scroll right down to the bottom of the page.
In the dark blue bar along the bottom, there is link - "contact us" - that will open a comment form.
Make sure you have "The Early Show" selected.

Janice

[Childishgoth]

Thanks for posting this. i never get up early enough to watch to so i just mis severything