Bad Breastfeeding Article in Herald today :(

[Ziggysmama]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/...ectid=10504866

Check it out. Its terrible!!!! It doesn't say who sponsored the study or if its peer-reviewed yet either. I call BS on the whole thing..!!!!

[Tine]

Total crap, as far as I can tell. No researchers or institutions cited whatsoever. And THIS is just mind-boggling:

"takes advantage of the higher fat and protein content of early-released milk from each breast."

Hello? Hasn't science shown that hindmilk has more fat? One has only to look at foremilk and hindmilk to see this difference.

"By contrast, baby-led breast-feeding can decondition the let-down reflex through prolonged suckling at each feed"

Wha??? I fail to understand how allowing the breast to let down multiple times (which is what my breasts do when following baby-led feeding) "deconditions" the letdown reflex. What the heck does that mean, anyway? It makes no sense whatsoever. DD has been nursing for 25 mos., and even though she's doing so only 2x/day now, I still feel the letdown every time. Whatever "deconditioning" is supposed to mean, it's not happening here.

[lacysmommy]

Only 63 nursing pairs were studied, so I don't think one study "proving" their hypothesis was right says anything. It usually takes multiple studies replicating the same results to make it "fact," right? But unfortunately the media sometimes will latch onto one small study such as this and proclaim its results as gospel.

[butterfly_mommy]

They should study me

I practice baby led feeding, and feed from only one breast each feeding (actually for a few feedings) trying to reduce my milk supply due to oversupply and sometimes I express/pump off some foremilk due to overactive let down and imbalnce resulting in gassiness in DS

and I have a 17 lb 11 week old and still have an oversupply issue (but it is getting better)

[KristyDi]

1st I have to cry foul on the word "traditional." Where is this schedule traditional? For what group is it traditional? When was this tradition established? I suspect this "traditional" schedule came about around the time formula became popular. I'm pretty sure tribal mothers or mothers in the middle ages kept to a 10 min per side schedule.

They found that infants were more likely to be exclusively breast-fed for up to 12 weeks when their mothers followed traditional rather than baby-led breast-feeding practices.

Wow, 12 whole weeks! [/sarcasm] How long did this study last?

Moreover, draining milk from both breasts at each feeding inhibits the slowing of milk production in an unused breast, and takes advantage of the higher fat and protein content of early-released milk from each breast.

Seriously? We all know that this is just backwards. Hind-milk is higher fat.

Good grief.:::

[Tine]

Originally Posted by KristyDi

1st I have to cry foul on the word "traditional."

Yup, that rubbed me the wrong way too. You bet your sweet bippy that this "traditional" feeding schedule is only as old as formula. :

[sewaneecook]

I suppose my exclusively BFed baby was underweight at 22 lbs at 4 months?!? There are so many points that are wrong in that article it would take a book to counter all of them!

[Teenytoona]

As one of the many here, I call BS too. "Traditional" stinks to high heck of formula based schedules. And may I add that my DD (who is 7 weeks) who normally feeds from one breast at a time (oversupply/letdown) gained 5 lbs in her first 6 weeks, so um, yea, whatever. I have a few guesses on who funded this bs.