Last week, The New York Times reported prominently on a new government campaign to guilt-trip women into breastfeeding. Apparently it's not enough to inform women that breast milk is healthier than formula (which no one is denying). The campaign claims that formula is actively dangerous. Really dangerous: it compares not breastfeeding to smoking or riding a mechanical bull while pregnant.
Others have pointed out some of the political and sociological problems with this campaign, but now Stats.org explains that it (and the Times article) are based on a flawed reading of the data. For instance:
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), breastfeeding leads to a 21 percent decrease in the death rate of babies in an age range over one month and under one-year old.
But turn to the AAP�s source. The scientific study used to support this claim found that babies who are nursed are less likely to die� of injuries!
I don't think anyone's arguing that bottle-feeding causes children to run into chainsaws, so there's clearly a correlation is not causation thing going on here.
And that seems to be the case throughout. The women who are more likely to formula feed are also more likely to be poor, have worse health coverage, smoke, etc. No wonder their kids aren't as healthy. In one of the few studies that looks only at affluent mothers, the only differences found between breast- and bottle-fed babies is that the former have fewer ear infections and less diarrhea. Not exactly mechanical bull territory.
What's more, Radosh.net childcare correspondent (and proud breastfeeder) Marjorie Ingall points out that "formula is different now than it was in the 80s, when most of these studies were done. essential fatty acids (which help brain development) were added in 2001, making formula MUCH better now than it was in the 80s." And Momsquawk notes that the Times used a misleading statistic to imply that too many women don't know the benefits of breastfeeding. In fact, "when you look at the full results of the CDC survey in their proper context... only 16.6% of Americans believe that babies should not be breastfed for at least the first six months." In other words, as Marjorie says (and this is why she's our correspondent in these matters): "DUDES! IF WE **KNOW** WE'RE SUPPOSED TO DO IT, YOUR ASSWIPE GUILTMONGERING CAMPAIGN HAS NO PURPOSE! FUCKTARDS!"
