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WRITING CONTEST
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Longhorn Lactation
Action Alert! AAP to undermine exclusive
breastfeeding!
By Mariah Boone
Here we go again, my lactating sisters. As
long as it took the American Academy of Pediatrics to
get with reality and recommend exclusive breastfeeding
for the first six months of life in 1997, they are
already backing off from that position and once again
instilling doubt in moms who need the confidence to
breastfeed.
The scuttlebutt is that the AAP is fixing to
issue its latest backwards recommendation: that all
children receive vitamin D supplements, starting at
two months of age. This recommendation is due to the
fact that there has been an increase in rickets in the
U.S., a disease that is usually caused by a lack of
exposure to sunlight and which can lead to soft and
deformed bones. The problem with this recommendation
is that the vast majority of American children have
perfectly decent vitamin D levels and are not at risk
for rickets. The increase in rickets was primarily in
children who live in the constant shadow of
skyscrapers and therefore do not receive normal
amounts of sunlight and in children who belong to
groups that dress their kids like women of the
Taliban, so that those children also do not receive
normal exposure to sunlight. These kids really should
take vitamin D supplements if they can't or won't get
some more safe sun exposure, but the rest of us? No.
The rest of the kids, the vast majority of the kids,
are just fine. Their six or so months of exclusive
breastfeeding should not be undermined. It is very
wrong and very dangerous for the AAP to make this
universal declaration.
This is just the kind of thing that the formula
companies adore. They've already jumped on it: our
formula fortified with vitamin D according to AAP
recommendations so your baby won't get rickets: you
betcha. And the mothers? Can't you hear the mothers
who only want to do what's best for their babies
becoming less confident in the completeness and
superiority and importance of breastfeeding each and
every time some sort of supplementation is trotted
out? It's a big problem.
Anything other than breastmilk changes the flora
of a baby's gut and reduces those early benefits that
derive from the delicate balance of flora only
achieved by exclusive breastfeeding. There are enough
barriers to breastfeeding, especially during the first
half of the first year when it should be exclusive,
already. It should be criminal to add another. This
recommendation by the AAP is almost enough to make me
think that motherhood should be a requirement for
membership: it is so obvious that these are men who
have no understanding at all of the crucial role of
confidence in successful breastfeeding. Any woman who
had nursed a few kids would know better.
I, for one, do not want this recommendation to
be issued without notice or a fight: JOIN ME. I
hereby issue Texas parents a challenge: let's
organize a phone-and-fax campaign to protest this
recommendation. On Monday, December 3, 2001, let's
all call and/or fax (they do not officially accept
phone calls on these matters) the AAP with our
objection to their recommendation of universal vitamin
D supplements starting at two months of age on the
basis that it undermines exclusive breastfeeding for
six months, which is more important to the health of
more children than is vitamin D supplementation.
Vitamin D supplementation should only be recommended
for those populations actually at risk of rickets.
The telephone number for the AAP is (800)
433-9016. Their fax number is (847) 434-8000.
Inundate them with faxes and calls. Get everyone to
participate. Give them your address in your faxes so
that they can respond. Let Lone Star Ma know what they
say.
Help get Congresswoman Maloney's Breastfeeding Bill to
The House Floor
By Mariah Boone
That's not all, fearless lactivists. It's also
time for a little letter writing. Good Congresswoman
Maloney from New York has always done her part for
breastfeeding. She has almost outdone herself with
the Breastfeeding Promotion Act, HR 285. If passed,
the Breastfeeding Promotion Act would do the
following:
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Amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect
breastfeeding by new mothers in the workplace.
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Provide a performance standard for breast pumps.
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Provide tax incentives for businesses that
establish private lactation areas in the workplace.
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Make breastfeeding equipment tax deductible for
families.
Sounds good, don't it, y'all? Problem is, it just
hasn't made it out of Committee, a committee by the
name of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on
the Judiciary. This committee is chaired by
Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. Its other
members are:
Congressman Hyde, Congressman Gekas, Congressman
Coble, Congressman Smith (Texas Republican),
Congressman Gallegly, Congressman Goodlatte,
Congressman Chabot, Congressman Barr, Congressman
Jenkins, Congressman Hutchinson, Congressman Cannon,
Congressman Graham, Congressman Bachus, Congressman
Scarborough, Congressman Hostettler, Congressman
Green, Congressman Keller, Congressman Issa,
Congressman Hart, Congressman, Flake, Congressman
Conyers, Congressman Frank, Congressman Berman,
Congressman Boucher, Congressman Nadler, Congressman
Scott, Congressman Watt, Congresswoman Lofgren,
Congresswoman Lee (Texas Democrat), Congresswoman
Waters, Congressman Meehan, Congressman Delahunt,
Congressman Wexler, Congresswoman Baldwin, Congressman
Weiner and Congressman Schiff.
To encourage this committee to pass HR 285,
please write to each of them individually :
C/o The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on
the Judiciary
2138 Rayburn H.O.B.
Washington, D.C. 20515.
Ask them to pass HR 285 and send it to the Floor!
Thanks, lactivists!
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