Intellectual Pap

Hey kids!  I know it's been a while.  I fell down a Skyrim rabbit hole that I'm just now emerging from.

But emerge I must to rant about the inability of media sources to responsibly present medical study data. This is the study we're going to talk about today.  However you can pretty much pick any medical study from any medical journal and see the same thing.

The study in question discusses one hospital trying to become Baby Friendly, a designation that tells people "This hospital supports breastfeeding!".  They took away pacifiers as a step to become designated and their breastfeeding rates dropped.  OK on the surface that does look bad.  So if all you see is that headline you get articles like this and this and especially bad ones like this and this.  As a responsible Boob Nerd I refuse to take information like this at face value.  I like to actually go and read the study.  I know that's a difficult concept for some bloggers or journalists to consider.  Actually reading the source material they are going to report on sounds like it might be too much work.  However it might be a good idea anyway.  I'm not even suggesting they read the WHOLE study.  Even just the abstract is sufficient enough to tell them what they've written is utter bullshit.

This particular hospital had banned pacifiers but there was still full access to formula and the nurses had not been taught how to teach the mothers to soothe babies without using feeding or pacifiers yet.  Those are two equally important steps in becoming baby friendly.  The study tells you nothing more than nurse education and formula restriction should come before pacifier restriction in the Baby Friendly Designation process.  It upsets me greatly how the media has twisted this study to say "See!!!  We should use pacifiers!!!"    No!  That is not what this is advocating at all!  This study conclusion was that we need to do more studies.  Most hospitals are required to use evidence based practice.  If we used this article as our "evidence"  for not restricting pacifier use, our hospital would be a laughingstock.  I'd also like to note that Baby Friendly does not deny parents the ability to use pacifiers.  They just restrict the hospital's ability to hand them out for free.  If the parent's want to use a paci, by all means bring one in from home and use it.  I just can't give you a hospital freebie.  We continue to recommend use of pacifiers after breastfeeding is well established as a SIDS prevention tool.

So I guess what I'm really saying here is, if you see an article citing medical studies, it would behoove you to look up the study and read it yourself.  You cannot trust anyone else to spit the predigested informational pablum directly into your brain.  They nearly always get it wrong.

On a lighter note I also found breast shaped plush animals?  Dolls?  Thingies?  Um, I'm  not sure what to call them.  They are from Japan.  I know that's shocking because nothing weird EVER comes from Japan.

I have not yet figured out how to purchase these.  I cannot find the website.  But I need them.  All of them.  Now.

Hulk Smash Moments

I occasionally have moments of such pure rage that they can only be described as Hulk Smash Moments.  The most common reason for these moments revolve around infant formula or the companies that manufacture infant formula.  I just had one less than five minutes ago while searching for a breastfeeding pocket guide for new moms.  The two paid Google ads at the top were from Enfamil and Similac respectively.  The Enfamil ad was masquerading as "Breastfeeding Resources" but the Similac ad didn't even bother to pretend that it wasn't a formula advertisement.  I nearly threw my phone across the room and did yell, "Are you fucking kidding me?!?" at the top of my lungs.  The ballsiness of of these companies galls me.  And it frustrates me that so many people can't see what they are doing.  We breastfeeding crusaders get a bad wrap for trying to "force" our beliefs of healthy child feeding on the populace but these companies get a pass when they are actively campaigning for for your hard earned cash for a product so far inferior to the free stuff that it contributes to over a million deaths each year worldwide and 10% of the global disease burden in children per a 2012 article in the journal Archives of Disease In Childhood .  But yeah, totally, we're the bad guys trying to take away your choices.  I just want people to know all the facts before they make their decision.  If the decision is "formula feeding works best for our family" after they've been well informed, I have no problem with that. Formula companies have the opposite approach.  Be as big and as loud and as visible as you can so you can drown out any competing messages!

And that leads me to another Hulk Smash inducing issue.  Feminists who believe we trying to take away their choices.  The ones who are trying to limit choice are the guys out there with the billions to spend on adverts not me with my shitty cardboard sign on a stick that says "Breastfeeding is better for babies but don't get pissed that I said so, kay?"  This chick makes my blood boil.  Way to completely disregard years of scientific evidence to make yourself feel better.  That's super productive.  And since I linked to the ass hat above I feel compelled to also link to someone who might reasonably be expected to have an opinion that might mean something.  As an anthropologist who studies nutritional anthropology in humans and other primates, Kathy Dettwyler's opinions might mean more than some random shock journalist.  Also Mayor Bloomberg, I sort of appreciate your support except that I don't, because you're kind of a dick who likes to tell other people what to do, so it undermines the credibility of all of the rest of us.  So feminists, I have to give you a pass on that particular sitch.  

I've had these moments in public as well.  Ask my kids about the time I found the "Organic" formula at Toys 'R Us.  I'm not sure ape shit covers that one.  I'm certain they all tried to melt away from me.  I do not know this woman!  For good reason, I did go a little crazy there.  OK I get that cow's milk formula can be made from milk from hormone free, pesticide-free cows and using naturally sourced ingredients, but you can't tell me there isn't chemical involvement in the production of these formulas.  The DHA and ARA in these formulas are most often extracted from algae and fungus using a chemical called hexane which is also found in glues and gasoline.  Sounds totally safe to me.  There have been numerous reports to the FDA of DHA/ARA enhanced formulas causing gas, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea and generalized fussiness.
As a side note, organic formula producers apparently like to call their product "non-artificial baby milk supplement" as a clear F-U to the Lactivists who have started calling formula "artificial baby milk".  I can kind of respect that.  

Ahh.  Much better.  No more throbbing head.  Thank you internet!