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Boycott Nestle

Nestle refuses to comply with World Health Organization codes for the marketing of infant formulas. As a result, hundreds of thousands of babies die each year. Find out more: No AIM (artificial infant milk) Here and Baby Milk Action, Nestle Boycott.

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Democracy Now! | Milk Money: How Corporate Interests Shaped Government Health Policy for Women

Milk Money: How Corporate Interests Shaped Government Health Policy for Women

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Last summer, the Department of Health and Human Services unveiled an ad campaign to promote breast-feeding in the United States. We look at how baby formula corporations put intense pressure on the government to change its approach and eventually reshaped the campaign. [includes rush transcript]

Last summer, the Department of Health and Human Services unveiled an ad campaign to promote breast-feeding. As it turns out, the campaign was much different that what was originally produced. It was a battle between mother's milk and the companies that make infant formula who put intense pressure on the government to change its approach.

The ABC news program 20/20 produced an investigative report about the efforts of the formula companies to shape the government ad campaign. This is an excerpt from the program where ABC 's Investigative correspondent Brian Ross asks Acting Assistant Secretary of Health and Human services Christina Beato why the formula companies met with then-Secretary Tommy Thompson.

• "MILK MONEY", excerpt of 20/20 Investigative Report.

Last night the story received a Gracie Award which recognizes exemplary programming created for women, by women and about women in all facets of electronic media.

• Anne Merewood, Director of Research for breastfeeding center at the Boston Medical Center. She is involved in the breastfeeding awareness campaign for the northeast region.
• Yoruba Richen, producer on Democracy Now! Before that, she worked in the investigative unit of ABC News. She was a field producer for the story Milk Money.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
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AMY GOODMAN: This is an excerpt from the program where ABC's investigative correspondent, Brian Ross, asks Acting Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services, Christina Beato, why the formula companies met with then secretary Tommy Thompson.

BRIAN ROSS: Why is it the industry gets to meet with the secretary, Mr. Thompson, but the breastfeeding advocacy groups do not? They didn't hire the right lobbyists, is that what you are saying?

CHRISTINA BEATO: I'm telling you, they have been working with this department all along.

BRIAN ROSS: But they asked to meet with secretary Thompson and have not had a meeting like that.

CHRISTINA BEATO: Oh, I'm not aware of that.

BRIAN ROSS: Did you meet with people from the infant formula companies?

CHRISTINA BEATO: Yes, I did. I met with them sometime in the spring, late spring.

BRIAN ROSS: Did you meet with people from the advocacy groups?

CHRISTINA BEATO: I have not met with people from advocacy groups. They never asked to meet with me.

BRIAN ROSS: But you met with the industry.

CHRISTINA BEATO: I met with the industry, because they kept calling my office every two weeks.

AMY GOODMAN: That was a clip from the "20/20" investigative report, “Milk Money.” Last night, the story received a Gracie Award, which recognizes exemplary programming created for women, by women and about women in all facets of electronic media. Joining us on the program is Anne Merewood, she is Director of Research for the Breastfeeding Center at the Boston Medical Center, and Yoruba Richen, she was the field producer on the story and she is a Democracy Now! producer now. And it was wonderful to see Yoruba last night, as part of the team winning this award. Yoruba, I want to start off with you, why did you focus on this story? Why was it so important?

YORUBA RICHEN: Well, when we found out about what was happening with this ad campaign, the correspondent that I worked with, Brian Ross, was very interested in digging into this and exposing the efforts of the formula company to not only shape the ad campaign, but to really -- to really mold it into what they wanted to see, and it was a classic case of pharmaceutical companies, big money, shaping public policy. And we felt it was such an important story, and we were lucky to work with great women advocates, people who were frustrated with what was going on. And we got documents that showed that the formula company was meeting with the Department of Health and Human Services and that the campaign was being changed.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Why was the campaign launched by the government to begin with?

YORUBA RICHEN: Anne, maybe you want to speak to that since you were a part of the --

ANNE MEREWOOD: Well, the risks of formula feeding are very high, and the government hasn't given much attention to it in terms of public policy in the past. The formula industries really dominated the airwaves, has dominated the marketplace, and it was just about time that the government did something about it, so the Office on Women's Health took it on as a major public health issue.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And when you say there are risks of formula feeding, could you specify?

ANNE MEREWOOD: Well, we have always talked in the past about the benefits of breastfeeding, but in reality, it's the risks of formula feeding. And all of the studies show that in very many different areas, things like obesity, I.Q., diabetes, ear infections, all of these different areas, that if women breastfeed, the child is much less likely to suffer from that.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, specifically, what the report was about was a change of an ad. You had this ad that was going to go out, that ABC got a hold of, that basically Yoruba said and you played it at the top of your own piece in “Milk Money.”

YORUBA RICHEN: The ad council -- it's very important to remember that the ad council had done studies and focus groups to see what was going to be most effective in getting women to change their behavior and to increase breastfeeding rates. They found that focusing on the risks of not breastfeeding, was the -- was more effective than focusing on pro-breastfeeding. So, that is the direction they took in the campaign. They said in these original ads, not breastfeeding causes these – you know, may cause increased risk of these different – of different problems for babies.

AMY GOODMAN: In fact, they said leukemia --

YORUBA RICHEN: Diabetes.

AMY GOODMAN: They said diabetes.

YORUBA RICHEN: Right.

AMY GOODMAN: Now let's go to the ad, while still strong, which doesn't refer to it in this way. We're going to play the ad for video viewers. And I'll describe over it for our radio viewers. This is an ad where a woman is on a mechanical -- gets on -- a very pregnant woman gets on a mechanical bull, is hoisted up on this bull and then she starts to rock on it, and she is ultimately thrown off this bull. It says, “You wouldn't take these risks before birth; why start after?”

AD: Recent studies show babies who are breastfed are less likely to develop ear infections, respiratory illnesses and diarrhea. Babies were born to be breastfed.

AMY GOODMAN: And so it talked about babies being breastfed and that they will have less infections. Anne.

ANNE MEREWOOD: I think it's important to realize that the ads were change. They weren't completely eliminated. And they took out some of the risk-based very strong language, but their ads were designed to attract public attention, and I think actually the formula industry did us the biggest favor they could have ever done, which was that they made such a big stink about this that they got far more publicity than it may ever have gotten if the formula industry hadn't gone in there and tried to do something about it.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And how did they actually get access to the Department of Health and Human Services? How intense was this campaign?

YORUBA RICHEN: It was very intense. From what we -- you know, from what we know, it was extremely intense. They hired, and we showed later in the report, a Republican lobbyist, a man named Clayton Yeutter, who used to work or, I think, be head of the Department of Agriculture, who was writing letters to Tommy Thompson. They obviously had a relationship. As we said in the report, the letters started off, ‘Dear Tommy, thank you for changing and -- listening to our concerns and changing. We'd like more change.’ So, they had an access that, you know, classic case of lobbying, money, having access to government policy. I mean, you expect the formula companies to do this -- to do this. That's what – you know, that's what -- how companies work, but for the Department of Health and Human Services to be receptive to it and change it, I mean, that's the issue here.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, the assistant head of the department said that the infant formula companies were lobbying them constantly, that you, the lactivists, which is the new term for the pro-breastfeeding activists like those who stood outside Barbara Walters’s “The View,” when she said she felt uncomfortable seeing women breastfeed in public. You, they said, were not there pushing them.

ANNE MEREWOOD: It’s not true that we weren’t there pushing them. In the end, I believe that they did not get an interview, but that wasn't because there wasn't a lot of effort. There were a lot of people trying to do a lot of things to get into the government. And they did talk with all the people in the government. But I believe the formula industry was very, very persistent with the phone calls.

JUAN GONZALEZ: What was the role of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which -- most of the public would expect some kind of a dispassionate perspective from the medical establishment?

ANNE MEREWOOD: The American Academy receives millions of dollars a year in support from the formula industry. If you go to any of their conferences, they're the biggest advertisers at the conferences. They give out lots of literature to the doctors, and they were the people that originally intervened, and when the formula industry went to the American Academy of Pediatrics, then the AAP started to put pressure on the government. So they were very much involved.

AMY GOODMAN: You had this very strange irony where the head of a division within the American Academy of Pediatrics --

ANNE MEREWOOD: Was not consulted.

AMY GOODMAN: Was very much pro these first ads?

ANNE MEREWOOD: Yeah. That was the breastfeeding committee of the AAP, but they were not actually involved in the debate. They were not invited to the table.

YORUBA RICHEN: You know, in that case, too, what they always do is question the science. Oh, the science, and she -- we showed her doing that in the piece. The science isn't there. The science -- it’s not supported by science. And Larry Gartner, Dr. Larry Gartner, who was the former head of the Chicago Medical School, who was the head of the breastfeeding section of the American Academy of Pediatrics, you know, stands – and very respected in his field, this science was good. And the science was strong enough to put in these ads. And they were able to do away with them by questioning the science and by discrediting it.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you both very much for being here, Anne Merewood, Director of Research for Breastfeeding Center at the Boston Medical Center, and congratulations, Yoruba Richen, Democracy Now! producer. It’s great to have you here.

To purchase an audio or video copy of this entire program, click here for our new online ordering or call 1 (888) 999-3877.

School's over

Well tonight was my last class for the summer semester, yay! I took the test and presented my country profile on Denmark.

I also got my sewing machine in the mail today, yay! The wonderful lady who sent it to me also included a free sewing box, a sewing book, some fabric, and other odds and ends of sewing. I am so excited, tomorrow I am going to set it up and try to sew a diaper cover, yay!

Not much else is going on here. One of my breasts is really sore, has been for a few days, and now there is a white dot on it. I hope it doesn't keep getting worse like it has been.

Well I am beat from staying up all night to finish my presentation, so now I am off to bed early. Ciao!

NIP

Maine moms have a legal right to nourish junior the old-fashioned way

Thursday, June 23, 2005

COMMUNITY VOICES: Meike Jenness

Maine moms have a legal right to nourish junior the old-fashioned way

Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

 

 

ADVERTISEMENT
 

Some people might not be aware of this, but two recently coined words, "lactivist" and "lactivism," have been added to the English language.

Their current usage seems confined to the description of breast-feeding mothers fighting for the right to breast-feed in public spaces and not be told to go to a bathroom, cover their breasts or leave their babies at home.

They attend events called "nurse-ins." The movement seems to have started in New York in 1994. Since then, nurse-ins have taken place in other states as the occasion arose.

The most recent nurse-in was staged in NewYork two weeks ago. It was organized against cast members of ABC-TV's "The View," on which Barbara Walters is reported to have said she was made uncomfortable by the sight of a woman breast-feeding a baby on a flight she was on.

The nurse-in was called almost as soon as the program aired to protest the general anti-nursing attitude at "The View" and the comments made concerning their opinions that breast-feeding was "gross and disgusting."

The nurse-in was also called to protest the celebration of one of the cast member's infant daughter being introduced to her first bottle feeding.

Some 200 women are said to have responded in New York, while supporters in other cities also staged nurse-ins of their own. Ms. Walters is further reported to have expressed surprise at the reaction to her comments.

I did not see that ABC program. But, I did catch CNN's coverage of the nurse-in and the reasons for it.

The crew of ABC's "The View" have the right to free speech and expression. For all we know, they might be genuinely uncomfortable with public breast-feeding. Perhaps the program should have been used to investigate the wellsprings of those feelings.

There is an African saying, "When you touch a woman, you touch a rock." In English, this can be translated as "Don't mess with women, or you'll be in deep trouble."

Reports that ABC is in damage control mode now, with the "The View" staff dousing the fires their comments fanned, don't come as a suprise. It would be interesting to know what form the damage control will take. A public apology, perhaps, and the introduction of baby-friendly rules at the workplace that would allow mothers time off for nursing.

All 50 states have laws that promote and support breast-feeding. Thirty states allow mothers to breast-feed in any public or private location. New York State is included on that list, as is Maine. This state's breast-feeding laws were passed in 1999 and 2001.

The 1999 law considers the needs of a nursing infant when deciding on custody rights when people get divorced. The 2001 law protects the right of mothers to breastfeed in public or privately.

These laws, however, did not prevent an "exposed breast incident" from taking place in February 2005, when the cover of Mothering Magazine showed a mother breast-feeding an infant.

A woman customer complained at the Wild Oats natural store here in Portland that she was uncomfortable having her son see the magazine cover.

To placate the woman, the magazines were taken off the shelf. The furor that followed with "nurse-ins" and call -ins and media coverage by not least of all, this paper, resulted in the magazine finding its was back to the store's shelves.

The incident proves that there needs to be more public discussions about breast-feeding in the media. The topic should not be confined to so-called women's magazines.

This might help in breaking down the cultural attitudes that are so hard to break that a media personality of Barbara Walters' stature can say what she said publicly, and then be surprised by the outrage that followed.

And when talking about cultural habits being hard to break, I, for one, did breastfeed in public. Not to have done so would have been too high a price to pay for assimilation.

bottle feeding was not an option, in private or in public. And at the risk of adding to the long list of stories told about mothers being intimidated to not nurse in public, I experienced that right here in Portland, long before the 2001 law was passed.

Like the lactivists, I support the campaign by the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics for the promotion and support of breast-feeding.

As for formula bottle feeding, it has its uses, and I appreciate the role it played in liberating women. But I question its usefulness in some developing countries, where potable water is hard to find. One size does not fit all.

Meike Jenness of Peaks Island is a freelance writer and occasional videographer. She can be contacted at:

meikiej@hotmail.com

just a quick update

Just a quick littel update. Things have been going good here, Brooke has two teeth coming in, yay! They are her top two front teeth, and they haven't broken through yet, but they are on their way! She has just been too cute lately, which makes it really hard to leave to go to class. Luckily my last summer class is on Tuesday, so then I can focus on her and getting my business started.

Tomorrow night we are going to Tskyro Tokyo for my birthday, I can't wait! We are also going to do something sat night for my b-day, not sure what though.

Nothing else has really been going on. Just the usual school and hanging out. I might do something tomorrow during the day, not sure what though. I also have to do laundry and start my presentation that is due Tuesday, its on Denmark.

Well, bedtime. Ciao!

response to comment

breast feeding till nine..or almost 9,i think is a little toooooooo MUCH! EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS!!!! Poor kid...
Comment from dwnmckn - 6/22/05 12:57 PM

Again, you still have not presented any research to back up your statement that this means emotional problems are present. The "poor kid" to which you are referring to is one of the happiest kids I've ever seen, or rather read about, according to her journal.

I am beginning to suspect that you are the one with emotional problems. You have been known to troll numerous boards, including the one I frequent the most. You're idea of a good time is to insult women from these boards and instigate arguments. Maybe you should examine your own emotional development and those of your own children before you worry about someone else's.

are you serious?

This woman is clearly nuts.

PoughkeepsieJournal.com - Sorry, mother's milk belongs under wraps

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Sorry, mother's milk belongs under wraps

By JONNA SPILBOR

If I could be a cop for just one day, I wouldn't arrest people for minor infractions like rolling through traffic lights at desolate, late-night intersections. Instead, I would drive around in a paddy wagon, filling it up with people who engage in activities that are perfectly legal, but so utterly annoying they ought to be outlawed.

For example, there ought to be a law against making noise while chewing soft foods, holding up a grocery line because you forgot the milk and reclining your seat on trains and planes, unless the person directly behind you is either (1) a stuffed animal or (2) completely invisible.

Yet, it's simply a fact of life that humans will engage in a long list of legal yet torturous behavior, leaving the rest of us little choice but to scowl and bear it.

I'm here to say unequivocally, wholeheartedly, and with every ounce of maternal instinct washing over my being like a prickly rash — breast-feeding in public should not be one of them.

Bloated bosoms took to the streets of Manhattan en masse recently when 200 lactating women, calling themselves "lactivists" collected their hungry infants and staged a "nurse-in" in front of ABC's television studios to protest a passing comment made by famed journalist Barbara Walters.

Walters, while chatting with her coffee klatch on her daytime talk show, "The View," casually mentioned how she felt "uncomfortable" on a recent flight, having been seated next to a woman who was nursing a baby at her seat.

Other than cashing in her first-class ticket, there wasn't a darn thing Babs could do about it. Federal law, as well as laws in at least 35 states, allow nursing mothers to breast-feed wherever they are otherwise lawfully situated. Restaurants, retail stores and yes, airplane seats included.

Public suckling may be perfectly legal, but should it be?

In New York, for instance, which happens to be a very breast-friendly state, exposure laws make it a crime for a woman to bare that portion of her breast that is "below the top of the areola" unless she is exposed for the purpose of breast-feeding.

The implied expectation of the law is this: The public has every right to be uncomfortable, indignant and even call the police at the sight of a bare-breasted woman basking in her bareness. But once a woman adorns the same bare breast with a 10 pound hungry person, the rest of us must gushingly accommodate her, or get the hell out of the way.

Just because you give a boob a job doesn't magically change society's long-ingrained attitudes about public nudity. Why then, does the law — and nursing mothers — expect the rest of us to embrace a stranger's desire to express milk from her bosom while seated six inches from our burrito?

I know what you're going to say. A baby's gotta eat. Sure. But until your child can chew, he doesn't need to eat with the rest of us.

Look, I'm no prude, but I do think there are certain, perfectly healthy activities that are simply too private for public consumption. Pap smears do a lot of good too, but you won't catch me having one in Macy's window.

One "lactivist" in attendance at the protest was quoted as saying, "People don't want to see it because they feel uncomfortable with it, and they feel uncomfortable with it because they don't see it."

Apparently, circular reasoning is the one negative side effect of breast-feeding that "lactivists" don't talk about much. Personally, I no sooner want to observe a woman breast-feeding her baby in public, than I would want to witness her conceiving her baby in public. Forcing me into becoming an audience to a public showing for which I didn't buy tickets, is an invasion of my rights — is it not?

Perhaps baby isn't too happy about it either. I imagine the bond between mother and child, especially during the first year of life, is a beautiful, magical force like none other.

If breast-feeding contributes to that bond, why would a mother want to detract from the experience by doing it while walking the dog or having her hair done? Just because the law allows you to, bonding with baby is not something that should be multitasked.

This woman is ignorant, rude, and cruel. Please, click on the link and email her through the link found at the bottom of the article.

People like this should be forced to attend breastfeeding education classes. grrrrr!

response to comment

I think people who breast feed to age 5 has an emotional issue.
Comment from dwnmckn - 6/20/05 2:15 PM

See, I find that comment very ignorant. I am just wondering what research you have found to back up your opinion? And you didn't explain why you think they have emotional issues?

I think people who have a problem with extended breastfeeding have a problem with it because they are like sheep who conform to society's viewpoints, even if it means jeopardizing the health of a child. Our society is one of the few that reject extended breastfeeding, while it is a perfectly natural thing other places around the world.

BTW, the ignorance in this comment is also apparent in your grammar. It should say: I think people who breast feed to age 5 have emotional issues.

Thanks for your comment, though. Its nice to know someone is reading my journal LOL.

friday night

Well its Friday night, yay! Yesterday I just played with Brooke all day until I had to go to class. Today I played with Brooke all day again, then went to Wal-Mart with Stacie and Brooke, where I got my pics from the honeymoon developed. Then we went out to eat with Jason. Ugh, Monday I am so going back on WW's, I cant' stand being heavier than I was:o(

Pretty much it, nothing else to say. Ciao!

just a thought

I have a friend that lives in Italy, and I sent her the link to my journal. This was her reply (She said it was ok for me to post it):

I'm ok, I guess...
but reading your diary there's something that I don't
get it...maybe it must to be an american thing
(LOL!!!). why is so strange having your own baby food,
I mean, in a past email you wrote me that you choose
to be a breastfeeding mother...ok, great, I don't see
nothing wrong.
What I was thinking that maybe here in Italy we don't
have any alternative, what I'm trying to say is that
breastfeed for the mother is absolutely usual, as
staying home as much as you can w/your baby, and also
cloth diaper...
When I read your email I understood that you were
talking about something as a philosophy, but I
realized that is just normal, so I thought that maybe
in Usa people "still strange" finding always some
alternative strange ways to grow up a child...
boh! In Italy things are so different! strange b/c
movie and sitcom from Us used to talk about family,
what is good or wrong, I guess trying to make people
learn something, but they never talked about being a
mum or breastfeeding...
Ciao! As Cià!
Sal

 I just think its strange that AP parents have all at one point have been criticized for our AP style, yet in other countries, for example Italy, it is the norm. Wish it were different here :o/. Anyways, just thought I would share that with you.

wedding pics

Some pics of my wedding that my cousin took...

Morning laugh

Breast Feeding in Public

 

So glad to use cloth

I got this article through one of my message boards

TheKCRAChannel.com - Family - Diaper's Ink Leads Day Care To Think Child Abused

Diaper's Ink Leads Day Care To Think Child Abused School Reports Parents After Finding Marks On Girl's Private Parts

UPDATED: 9:44 am PDT June 14, 2005

HOUSTON -- A Houston-area mother wants a popular diaper brand to recall its product after the ink used on the diaper made her daughter's day care think she was being abused by her parents, television station KPRC reported Monday.

The mother said her daughter's day care turned her and her husband into Child Protective Services after finding what they thought were bruises on the girl's private parts.

"I fell to pieces. I couldn't imagine what they thought when they saw something like that," Jennifer Brock told the station. "My heartbreak turned to anger and confusion."

The bruises turned out to be blue ink from the child's Huggies Pull-Up Diapers fading onto her skin. The designs on the inside of the diaper -- stars outlined in purple ink -- were the culprit.

CPS cleared the Brocks of the abuse allegations, but they told the station that they still want something done about the problem.

"Personally, I think they should, at the very least, go public about it. The most courteous thing they can do is recall the product," the mother said.

"Something like this could be used as fuel to have parental rights terminated. It could get ugly real quick," father Kevin Brock said.

In a statement e-mailed to Jennifer Brock Huggies said, "We are so sorry that the color from the training pants transferred to your daughter's skin. The cause of this issue, while rare, is under investigation."

Huggies said it has no plans to recall the diapers and that it is working to remedy the manufacturing problem.

The child's day care issued an apology to the Brocks but said it did the right thing by notifying the authorities of the situation.

CPS officials said they e-mailed all of their investigators, alerting them to the problem with the diapers.  

First of all, those poor parents. Second of all, eeewwwww, I would shudder to think of ink rubbing onto my daughters skin, esp in those areas!   Yet another reason to cloth diaper your baby :o)

 

 

 

 

 

 

washing machine is for cloth diapers

In one of the cloth diapering support message boards that I frequent, I read this great post:

I was just reading Good Housekeeping and they were reviewing different types of washers. One washing machine (about $1400 - the one that comes in all the colors) has a "sanitary cycle to kill the bacteria in diapers" <~~as if washing cloth diapers were a regular activity amongst normal people :D

Kudos and applause to whatever company manufactures that machine. It's about time! :o)

LALALALA

Well today was a good yet uneventful day. I woke up in the morning and quickly threw my dipes in the wash. The weather channel said it was going to rain today, so I didn't hang them up outside....it didn't rain grrrrrr. They are so much nicer when hung out outside :o/

At 1:00 Brooke and I met Jason at his work for his lunch break, and he took us to his Grandmother's for my first sewing lesson. I ended up staying until 4:30. I learned a TON, and I made a lot of cloth baby wipes, yay! I'm so excited, I can't wait to start making diapers and clothes! Pretty soon my buisness will be up :o)

Well that is pretty much all that happened. For dinner Jason grilled fish on the grill, and it was good. I jumped on my trampoline and did some homework, and now I must go pump and go to bed.

Ciao!

GRRRRRRR

Ok, so I am angry. I was reading the June 2005 issue of Parents magazine, when I came upon an article entitled "I Still Nurse My 5-Year-Old." Great! A story that is pro-breastfeeding, yay! The story interviewed the mother and explained the benefits of extending breastfeeding and how it has not only improved the health of her children, but the emotional benefits as well. The mother also explained how she is constantly critisized and ridiculed by everyone, even her closest friends. I say Bravo! to her. What she is doing is guaranteeing a healthy life for her children, and no one has the right to criticize her for that.

Anyways, onto the part that made me mad. On the side of the interview was a column titled "Time to Wean? Experts Weigh In." The first to experts, both lactation consultants, stated the benefits of extending breastfeeding. But then came the "expertise" of Dr. Willam Carey, from the Children's Hopsital of Philadelphia, division of pediatrics. This so called "expert" states: "In the first few months of life, breast milk is a near-perfect and complete diet. But once solid foods are introduced, it becomes less important in terms of nutritional value."

I couldn't believe it. LLL and AAP both agree that breastmilk should be the primary food in the first year of a baby's life. Solid foods that are introduced should complement the breastmilk, not replace it. Breast milk certaintly does not lose its importance after the first months of life, or after solids are introduced. This "experts" opinion is hogwash. It is ignorance such as this, that is passed off as "expert" opinion, that hurts the breastfeeding cause in this country. GRRRRR.

Ok, after the ignorant expert opinion follows another comment that encourages extended breastfeeding (yay!), which is then followed by another ignorant "expert" opinion. According to Dr. Darshak Sanghavi, at Children's Hospital in Boston, "The argument that other cultures breastfeed older kids doesn't really apply in our society. In those cultures, it's much harder to find good nutrition..." I would have to seriously disagree with this statement. In those other cultures, where good nutrition is hard to find, how many kids do you think are suffering from childhood obesity and other childhood dieseases? Therates of childhood obesity and related illnesses in this country are shockingly high, and steadily climbing. Let's face it, McDonalds does not offer good nutrition. Extended breastfeeding is extremely beneficial to a child's health, especially in these days of a fast food culture. Again, this expert's opinion is hogwash. GRRRRR

And that is my vent of the night. Ciao!

Weekend

Well it was a pretty good weekend. Friday we just hung out at the house, Saturday we went to a cookout and then to the IL's, and today we went to my cousin's graduation party. When we got home we cleaned the house.

Tomorrow I have my first sewing lesson with Helen, Jason's grandmother. I'm really excited. I can't wait to open my buisness, I'm so impatient LOL!! Grrrr I wish I had more patience!

The pics posted are those that my mom took when she was watching Brooke on Thursday while I was in class. She is so cute, she loves the pool! At my cousin's party today we put her in a little kiddy pool and she had so much fun splashing around!

I'm so glad I switched to cloth diapers, it's really working out for us. Its so easy and it actually makes changing her diaper fun because I get to pick out which cute dipe she is going to wear next!

Well, gotta work on some homework. Ciao!

rest of honeymoon

Ok, the honeymoon was awesome! It felt like we were there for a lot longer than three days, we did so much! Brooke was great on the ride down, she didn't cry at all. We left around 12:30 and got there around 9:30pm, a long drive. The hotel was very beautiful and we had a great view of the falls. When we got in, Brookie was still wide awake so we put on our bathing suits and went swimming in the hotel pool. It was Brooke's first time in a pool and she was a little scared at first, but then started splashing around and having fun. She still would cry whenever Jason went under water, though. After the pool we went to bed. Jason woke up around 5:30 and couldn't sleep, so he woke both Brooke and I up at 6:00 and we got ready for the day. First we went down to the Falls and took some really great pics  and just looked at all the scenic views, it was so beautiful! After doing that for a while, we went into Journey of the Falls, where you go through a tunnel that leads to a platform directly near the base of the Canadian Falls (Horseshoe falls). We all had to wear ponchos and got soaked! Brooke seemed to like it, and we took some pics. After that we went up to the boardwalk-type street and walked around. We ate at a restaurant and went into the Ripley's believe it or not musuem. After that we walked the boardwalk back down to the American falls and took more pictures. Then we went back to the hotel and collapsed until 8pm, when we went out to eat at Red Lobster and then back to the Falls to take pics of them lit up, it was very beautiful. Then we went to bed. Tuesday we went first out to eat and then to the Butterfly Conservatory. It was so great, there were butterflies everywhere! We took tons of pics and one landed on Jason's head, but he moved so it flew away! After the Butterfly Conservatory, we went to Marineland. There we saw seals, dolphins, orcas, beluga whales, bears, etc. Brooke and I got to feed and touch an orca whale, but Brooke was scared of it. We also went into a deer forest, and got to feed deer, which Brookie loved, she laughed and had a great time! After Marineland we went to the Observation Tower and took pictures, it was very beautiful. Then we went out to dinner at Hooters and went back to the hotel for bed time. Wednesday we just drove home. That was our honeymoon, we had ablast!

whew

Well the wedding was this past weekend, it is was wonderful, in my opinion! The only thing that happened was that the ceremony started late b/c the guys got in a car accident on the way there! Thankfully, no one was hurt!

The honeymoon was just as wonderful. We went to Niagara Falls, and took lots of pics! I only had time to upload these pics, so I will upload the rest tonight. We went to the falls, to the butterfly conservatory, to Marineland, and to the observation tower. Well, I have to leave for class now so I will update more tonight.

ciao!