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I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I don’t watch the news, and I don’t really read the newspaper.
I do read some on-line news, and I figure if it’s really important, it will be trending on Twitter. Living under a rock like this allows me to block out a lot of the negativity and keep my sanity. It also allows me to avoid reading all the latest studies of things like “Chocolate causes cancer” and of course “Chocolate cures cancer”.
My other source for news and information is... tea with my mom. My mom is always passing along tidbits she sees in the news. Todays gem was “You shouldn’t breast feed past four months old”... apparently, not enough Iron in breast milk.
I, of course, shared this info on Twitter, and there was an immediate response. Some people were really not happy, some were laughing at the result of the study, but most were up in arms.
I know you think I am either going to condemn or cheer this new “study”, but I’m not. I’m pretty sure test results vary depending on who is funding them.
Now, I didn’t breast feed my first baby. My milk never came in. I did try, but I didn’t go to any lactation consultants, nor did I run tubes from my nipples in an attempt to mimic breast feeding and hope it would work. I just went with bottles.
For those of you who did do all of those things, I commend you!
With my second baby, I told myself I would try again, and it worked! It wasn’t easy, and I was sometimes frustrated, but I was able to feed her. I did so for 5 months.
Perhaps not as long as some “studies” would recommend, but I was happy.
Both of my girls are happy, healthy children.
There is so much stigma that comes with whether or not you breast feed, there is so much judgement and pressure. I think being a parent already has so much pressure that maybe we need to stop adding pressure by passing judgement on one another.
I have written about judging before, and I maintain that it’s unnecessary to make others feel bad about themselves for their choices. I would like it if we could all adopt the mantra “To each their own”.
Then, maybe we could join hands and sing Kumbaya while conducting a study on how world peace can be accomplished through positive thinking... but who would fund that?