China and breastfeeding

Formula in China....my rant for the week

Now I don't live in China and know nothing about their advertising/marketing, etc. BUT I do know that the formula companies and the way they are touting formula as being superior to breastmilk is killing babies at an alarming rate. FOUR infants have died recently, 13,000 have been hospitalized, and tens of thousands are seeking medical care. Why? Because as one new mother was quoted, "I fed my baby powdered milk because ads said it was more nutritious then breastmilk. We trusted that the government would provide adequate tests to ensure food quality." Ha! Most of the dairy companies making the formula KNEW that the formula was making babies sick and what was done? Nothing.

Poor, poor, Chinese parents. BUT not just in China, it happens everyday in the good ole United States. If you happen to watch any kind of TV during the day, it is guaranteed you will see a commercial for formula....if you read any kind of family/parenting/kid magazine, you will see several ads for formula (and the best yet....they have hired hunky Ty Pennington to be a spokesperson! HELLO??? He is NOT even a parent!!! How stupid do they think women/moms are? Buying a product based on the hunky qualities of the person in the ad? Seems stupid to me but then again I'm blond, what do I know (tic))

Anyways, back to the ads...every single one of them states at the bottom or in a soft voice during the commercial, "Breastmilk is best, ask your doctor" Soooooooo, you ask your Dr. usually when you are sleep deprived, scared shitless of the little screaming ball of redness you have been handed as your own, and asking for any help your nice-know-everything doctor can give you. He of course oh how so convenient hands you a sample of formula! Here, this will help you! AHhhhhh, it's like receiving a miracle in a can! But really?? Is it?? He gave you that can of formula not to be nice and to be a hero and save the day, but to get kickbacks from the formula companies....nice lunches, nice gifts, travel opps, you name it, they buy it for the nice Dr. who hands out their formula all day long. He doesn't want to help you and your gift from God, he wants to destroy any chance you might have of keeping a breastfeeding relationship going. He wants to make sure that you go out and buy that formula and keep padding the pockets of the company so they can pad the pocket of the dr.

I get so tired and aggrevated with doctors and formula companies and their holier than thou additudes that they know best and they can supply the best. No, you can not. No one can even come close to the purity and quality and health benefit properties that breastmilk can...not even close. They say DHA and brain this and eye that and they have all these great ingrediants that will make your baby better, but no my friend, I am sorry, you can not touch breastmilk with a ten foot pole. Even just "one bottle" can do irreversible damage.

Add this to the babies now dying in China and of course Africa but I can't even go there today.

China used to have a breastfeeding rate of 76%...now it's 47%.....I can only hope and pray that this whole fiasco will scare them enough and push that rate back up to where it belongs.....Babies were born to be breastfed, it is their right, please don't deny them that.