They’re not saying to nurse if you don’t want to either— they’re saying if you and your infant want to nurse past one year, you should be supported in that choice by your pediatrician and your workplace. That’s what “mutually desired” means in the recommendation. |
Nobody is telling women to nurse longer than a year!!!!!!! What part of “mutually desired” don’t you understand. They are just saying that women who WANT to do so should be supported. Pointing out the health benefits is not a instruction to do it just information to help women and others weigh costs and benefits. Women who want to nurse longer than s year SHOULD be supported instead of having to deal with all the judgement crap they now deal with. I don’t understand how this can be problematic. This is probably the least problematic statement in the whole document. Totally supports women’s choice without and prescriptives. |
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“ Third, the World Health Organization has asked the AAP to match their positions on breastfeeding. Unfortunately, this results in painting with too broad a brush.”
I honestly think this is part of it. WHO is very zealous on the BF issue. The recent discussion in the US of the reality of so many families needing formula and a focus on supporting families in getting it so they can feed their babies likely spurred a push on the AAP to issue something stronger that is pro BF. And the ping standing AAP recc of 1 year was a very noticeable deviation from the WHO 2+ year push. What is valuable in countries with unsafe water though is not the same thing as in those with safe water. Why this cannot be acknowledged more in BF discussions is beyond me. |
^ “long” standing not “ping”
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I would not be so fast to characterize the United States as being a bastion of safe drinking water, unless you’ve never heard of a place called Flint, Michigan? Or is giving infants lead-contaminated water good with you as long as they’re already poor? In the normal course of events I would be more worried about the safety of the formula in the United States than the safety of the water. The Abbott cholorbactor contamination is of course now famous but before that Similac was being recalled because it was contaminated with beetles. I would certainly expect that if the AAP were to consider recommending formula they would have to take that into account as well. |
More lies. The new guidelines do not say anything about nursing for one year. They say, and I quote: "The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for approximately 6 months after birth. Furthermore, the AAP supports continued breastfeeding, along with appropriate complementary foods introduced at about 6 months, as long as mutually desired by mother and child for 2 years or beyond." The old guidelines said: "The American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirms its recommendation of exclusive breastfeeding for about 6 months, followed by continued breastfeeding as complementary foods are introduced, with continuation of breastfeeding for 1 year or longer as mutually desired by mother and infant." Where it previously recommended continued breastfeeding "for 1 year or longer", it now "supports" (wtf does that mean, is the AAP paying women for their time? No, they are just trying to use another word for recommending) breastfeeding for two years and beyond. If you are being generous you could say the AAP is reducing its "recommendation" from 1 year to 6 months, but nowhere else in the document does it indicate that, rather they are doubling down on all the previous recommendations including numerous ones that are based on flimsy evidence and/or have been shown to actually harm women and babies. |
If you read your own quotes, it will help. If breastfeeding is not something you want, which it clearly isn’t, then these recommendations are not about you. |
What were the actual survey questions? And of course women are going to say they wanted to BF longer due to all the messaging. Of course I wanted BF to be the magical experience (falsely) sold to me: blissful, easy, bonding. But it was not. It was an exhausting grind and I never made enough milk and it added an incredible amount of stress and discomfort to new motherhood. There’s no way I could have known that in advance. And if you’d ask me when we started using formula if I “wanted” to continue to exclusively breastfeed sure, I might have said yes, because the ideal would be great. |
Why is there no recommendation that pediatricians and workplaces support other feeding choices? Other feeding choices can involve a lot of time or be less common, like a vegan diet. |
fetishization of maternity as a locus of public health expert control. |
What a mother "wants" is often defined by what they think is good for their child. Many of us follow recommendations because we want what is best for our children. We power through the exhaustion and discomfort. Too bad the evidence for the recommendations suck. |
+1 great question The whole "mutually desired" thing is a smokescreen to pretend they aren't strongly pushing one feeding choice over others. They are liars just like so many posters on this thread. |
If you read the link the survey questions are provided. It’s not about what the mothers wanted in advance, it is about what made them stop and whether they wanted to continue. The factors that made them want to stop are some of the factors that AAP is trying to address, like the challenges of pumping in the workplace. |
Ok so now women are not capable of deciding whether they desire to breastfeed? We’re just automatons to Big Lactation? If that’s true why do we so easily disregard other AAP recommendations without starting huge, moderately deranged threads about them? Do I *want* to roomshare with my child for a year? Nope! So I didn’t. And when the AAP suggested I did I did not start a thread about how my sleep was being undervalued due to weak evidence. |
What evidence exists that pediatricians and workplaces routinely impose barriers to a vegan diet? |