Just to keep everything up-to-date… there was once this paper, which was a small review published in the BMJ and basically just said ‘mmmm-kay we should have a look at this 6 months thing as it may not be right for everyone’. (Preach it to the choir, ladies and gentlemen).
And as we all know by now, this nothing-y paper from UCL has been distorted in the most extraordinary manner by the press. So let us return to the BMJ once more, on whose site there are now a number of replies from credible-sounding (bearing in mind this is emphatically not my field) scientific, medical and public health bods that call for, amongst other things, looking at other methods of retaining or increasing iron levels in our babies.
I like this woman. She seems clever, just look at the alphabetti spaghetti of letters after her name. Go Miriam! For the rest of what she wrote, and comments from other irritated academics, please press here.
“Rather than calling for truncation of exclusive breastfeeding, limiting its myriad of positive immediate health, child spacing and long- term health effects, let us instead call for 1) delayed cord clamping for iron stores, with iron supplements as needed in later infancy, 2) research on the impact of exclusive breastfeeding vs. expressed milk feeding on the health of both mothers and their children, and, most of all, 3) unbiased, informed, and mother-centered support – clinical, social and economic – so that women may make an unbiased, informed infant feeding choice, and succeed in six months of exclusive breastfeeding.
Sincerely,
Miriam H. Labbok, MD, MPH, FACPM, IBCLC, FABM
The Carolina Breastfeeding Institute (CGBI) Professor, and Director, CGBI Department of Maternal and Child Health Gillings School of Global Public Health The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7445”
AMEN, sister.
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« Where Babies Led, Science Follows.
Miranda Kerr (shameless celeb-watching but that baby is DELICIOUS) »
Now who’s betting the media don’t follow up their story and tell the world about these responses.
*opens book*