How Breastfeeding Works

In the press today, various headlines trumpeted the “news” that breast may NOT be best, after all.

The Times said, “Babies need ‘solid food – not just breast milk’”  (though The Times is subscription only, so I can’t link the article).

The Guardian said, “Six months of breastfeeding alone is too long and could harm babies, scientists now say” (but, for balance, they also published this rather nice article by Joanna Moorhead, called, “It’s time to stop knocking breastfeeding”).

But the Express hadn’t read Joanna Moorhead’s piece when it decided to go with the breathtakingly ignorant “Mother’s Milk May Do More Harm Than Good”.

However, as is often the case, scratch the surface of the headlines and you’ll find old studies being rehashed by researchers with dubious connections. Today’s surface-scratching revealed not a winning Lotto combination, but a potential £££ win for the baby food/infant formula industry, because of the water-muddying that this announcement has caused. Mothers and health professionals are confused about what to do for the best regarding weaning their babies. Parenting forums are awash with (justifiable) fretting, in no small part because of this thoughtless statement:

The authors add that it is unlikely that current government advice will have harmed any children because so few mothers breastfeed exclusively for six months anyway.

I did (for almost seven months with my younger son), mine are fine, yes, I know, it’s anecdotal and not to be scientifically relied upon, but there it is anyway – and it may provide a crumb of comfort to a parent searching for information and reassurance about weaning age.

So, what was said?

This is the link to the original BMJ article.

And this is the response to the article from UNICEF.

And the response from Baby Milk Action.

And the NHS.

The most brilliant Analytical Armadillo has dissected the research and posted an incredibly thorough and well-worth-a-read article on her blog, upon which I cannot improve, analytically or, indeed, armadillo-ly. I urge you to read it.

A few things, though, about all this today.

Firstly, foremostly, whatever the headlines may seem to say, breastfeeding isn’t bad or harmful for babies. The researchers themselves were keen to point that out (somewhat disingenuously, it has to be said, but still…). It wasn’t breastfeeding that was being attacked, it was the age at which solid foods are introduced to a baby’s diet in the UK. And the UK is a country that has a multimillion pound baby food industry. And three of the four researchers on this study have been funded by that very same industry, something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by those challenging the research.

Janet Fyle, professional policy adviser at the Royal College of Midwives, said: “I believe this is a retrograde step and plays into the hands of the baby food industry.”

And that’s at the crux of all of this, really, isn’t it? Because we live in a capitalist society, so we accumulate “things”. We value things that are expensive, because they – well, because they are expensive. And almost nowhere is this as evident as the baby industry – my own personal favourite in the unnecessary product stakes is the wet wipe warmer
- which baffles me to this day. But if we eschew gadgets, or we go a step further and we refrain from using anything but our breasts to nourish our babies till they are half a year old and able to go straight onto solid food, bypassing the need for purees, a la the baby led weaning approach – well, what then, for the baby food industry? To whom will they sell little jars?

But you know what really gets to me about the sort of reporting we’ve seen today?

It is the absolute glee and relish with which anything that will remotely cast aspersions upon breastfeeding is written about or broadcast. Doesn’t matter whether the article is factually accurate or not (generally It Is Not), just that the “Haha, all you breastfeeders, you were wasting your time, hahahaha, LOSERS!” tone comes across loud and clear. Which is interesting, really, given the care with which I know I and many other of my fellow bloggers (get me, I’ve only been back doing this for a week!) use when writing about issues surrounding infant feeding.

So, if I could do my next bit of urging (last time for today, promise), it would be to sign the petition to the Press Complaints Commission that was drafted by Anne (Dispelling Breastfeeding Myths on Facebook).

Because it isn’t right or helpful that parents have been left feeling like they don’t know what to do for the best when weaning their babies and it most definitely isn’t good that journalists with their own reasons for bashing breastfeeding can do so at every opportunity.

(Oh, yes, and don’t worry about your baby going into orbit if you breastfeed exclusively for six months. It’s not true. I was seeing what it felt like to make up a sensationalised negative breastfeeding headline. When in Rome, etc…)

Filed under: Government Policy, Infant feeding issues, News stories, Research