Horrible Yahoo BF article

[PigLickJF]

Hey, anyone else see this on Yahoo!?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/...alongwithguilt

That's the most condescending, hostile, asinine article on breastfeeding I think I've ever read (granted, I'm not a huge reader of BF articles, but still), and poorly written to boot, in my opinion.

His only halfway decent point (again, in my opinion) is that bottle-feeding moms shouldn't be "assaulted" or harassed, especially if you don't know the circumstnaces at hand, and even that point is made in such a petty and insulting manner it's not really worth reading.

I've always enjoyed livescience.com, they always seem to have the most interesting and entertaining collection of science news, it's pretty disappointing to see this opinionated piece of crap come out of there, and I'm a bit surprised Yahoo felt this was "news" enough to post on their front page - I'm sure they could have found a less biased source to publicize.

PigLick

[NettleTea]

[lilmissimpatient@c]

That was terrible!

[*MamaJen*]

I can write it off as being written by a frat boy dude who's trying to be all shocking and irreverent. The problem is people will read it and think it's being written by someone who actually knows something about health.
He's looking to be rewarded with outrage. Just let it go.

[Teyu]

Oh god I can't do it. I read a couple of paragraphs, looked at the author's name, saw it was some dude called Christopher WanJERK, and read another paragraph, then stopped. He sounds really bitter. I bet his wife "couldn't breastfeed."

I guess I'll read the rest since I feel like stabbing my eyes out with a rusty knife tonight!!!

ETA: I read a bit more and stopped again. What was the point of mentioning that the WHO board was made up mostly of men? Er?

Also bottle feeding is such the norm in this culture that I doubt ANYONE has ever, in public, been scowled at, looked at funny, had heads shaken at them, whispers behind their back or flat out rude comments from strangers for bottle feeding. [And if you have, I am sorry. That sucks. But NIPers get it tenfold.]

Yes those poor marginalized bottle feeders. This is like when white people complain that black people have BET so why don't they get a white channel?

[songbh]

"Bad Medicine" column? Bad journalism, bad social science, and bad bad attitude is all I'm seeing in that column.

Like Teyu, I'm guessing that the author's wife had a bad breastfeeding experience, and like so many others, they both blame the breastfeeding advocates and lactation consultants who tried to help them, instead of the healthcare system and culture that sabotaged them.

[yokosmile]

I just read that article, made me want to heave. You would think formula feeding mothers are the ones constantly harassed in public the way he carries on. Rubbish.

[jimblejamble]

"Breastfeeding Nazis"...gee, that guy's not biased!

[rmzbm]

That is among THE MOST poorly written peices of dribble I have EVER read.

[funkygranolamama]

darn, there's not a place to leave comments.

that's a really odd article. he points out positives of bfing but then turns around and spits it out. i don't get him at all...

i hope everyone is going to rate the article at least so maybe he'll be kicked out or something. then again, they may use the number of times the page was visited to decide what it's worth rather than the number of stars.

[starwishful]

Funkygranolamama, if you use this link to the original article, there is a place for comments:

http://www.livescience.com/health/08...stfeeding.html

Ugh, it's so infuriating... I can barely form a coherent response. My biggest issue is actually with:

Intelligence, for example, is more associated with infant-adult interactions, such as reading — which a mother can do with her toddler while the infant is sucking down a bottle on his own.

Um, so the mom can't read to her toddler while nursing her infant? That would have multiple benefits... the toddler getting read to, the toddler bonding with both mom and baby, the baby still getting to nurse, the baby being introduced to getting read to at an early age, the mom getting to spend time with both her children at once, etc., etc., etc. :

[hipmummy]

Of course they had to put that to make certain women feel better after they read the last article that breastfeed kids are smarter.

[FREEmom1120]

I agree that that article was horribly written. If you're going to write an article about anything, at least write it well. Even if it's full of of half truths and such, at least pretend to have written something before in your life.

I will admit that this made me laugh out loud: "doctors have managed to associate breastfeeding with all things positive,...and getting your child to make you gigantic construction-paper hearts with the words 'my mother is better than the callous wench that bottle-fed you.'"

[Fujiko]

I clicked on the link at the very bottom of the page that said "questions or comments?" and left Yahoo some feedback. I don't know if that would be any better than commenting on the article's comment page, but I thought I would give it a shot.

[GooeyRN]

Originally Posted by JessicaRenee

"Breastfeeding Nazis"...gee, that guy's not biased!

I had a feeling the Nazis term would be used in the article. Sure enough.....

It made me sad to read about its too time constraining to bf a baby when you have a toddler to chase. I have a toddler and a baby. Its called child proofing. Set your toddler up with an activity when the baby has to eat. I can read to my toddler just fine while bfing the baby. My baby does not have to suck his bottle down by himself and be ignored so I can read to the older kid.

So what if the WHO is made up mostly by men? At least those men see the benefits.

This article sucks.

[sapphire_chan]

Articles like this one make me want to tell him to "go do that in the bathroom! that's disgusting, you should be ashamed of doing that in public. Why don't you cover up?"

[kittywitty]

His email is [e-mail]

I'll be sending one his way and some yahoo comments.

Sent a letter to LiveScience, Yahoo, and the author.

[jimblejamble]

This lady's comment just kills me...

"I've never BF my 3 sons, ages 5 and under. They are healthy, happy, well-adjusted little boys. I'm always quick to mention this when I'm around my cronies. I'm proud that I wasn't sucked in (pun intended) by all the Le Leche League-sponsored studies/results and just did what I wanted. I know NO ONE who was BF'd and we're normal. The kids these days have all kinds of things going on...adhd, aspergers, etc...and the increase coincides with the increase in breastfeeding. Is the media afraid to point this out. Even the NIH has a very good article about the insane amounts of dioxins in US women's breastmilk."

[meganmarie]

its too time constraining to bf a baby when you have a toddler to chase.

Not if you are tandem nursing the toddler at the same time!!

But that kind of thing would be shocking.

[rmzbm]

Originally Posted by JessicaRenee

This lady's comment just kills me...

"I've never BF my 3 sons, ages 5 and under. They are healthy, happy, well-adjusted little boys. I'm always quick to mention this when I'm around my cronies. I'm proud that I wasn't sucked in (pun intended) by all the Le Leche League-sponsored studies/results and just did what I wanted. I know NO ONE who was BF'd and we're normal. The kids these days have all kinds of things going on...adhd, aspergers, etc...and the increase coincides with the increase in breastfeeding. Is the media afraid to point this out. Even the NIH has a very good article about the insane amounts of dioxins in US women's breastmilk."

BREASTFEEDING is the cause of ADHD? Well, I'll be! :