Stupidest article about extended BF ever?

[EauRouge]

Here.

Warnings- DM link, idiot comments from a doctor (and possibly from readers once they get going). Get your bingo cards out, you'll need them.

Ignorant comments from lay people are enough without an actual doctor spouting loads of bullshit.

Oh FFS Im sick of this shite, there is no evidence about extended breast feeding, because there is NO research!

crap mumsnet thread about how we are setting our children up to be groomed

another crap thread about EBF being wierd.

I just feel terribly sorry for all the women who are now going to get shit from their DM's and DMIL's because so idiot with Dr. in front of their name said EBF is wrong.

most EBF have tough skins :)

Or maybe we're just too narcissistic

Gah! Why, why, why

I give up.

She's misquoted the WHO guidelines. Bit worrying that a medical doctor is deliberately misquoting guidelines to back up her own prejudices. I'm glad she's not my GP!

There is something wrong with a society that baulks at the idea of a mother feeding her child milk but happily encourages all society to consume the milk from a completely different species.

I'm also perturbed by this pervasive move to couch the act of feeding a child something with sexual undertones.

This Doctor needs to spend less time spouting and more time thinking.

yes that bit sexualising young children in relation to breastfeeding is horrendous.

It's annoying that a GP is allowed to write what is essentially her opinion but pass it off as medical fact.

I think that ignorance of how it actually works is a big problem - so many people seem to think that BM is providing a big part of the child's food intake, or that they're feeding every few hours like a younger baby. When the reality is that it's normally just a couple of times a day as part of a morning or bedtime routine.

People go on about how once they have teeth/can ask/can walk over and push up a shirt etc. but again that's just ignorance of how early teeth come through/how soon a baby can communicate/determinedly shuffle over and burrow.

I can't believe it says that children are sexually aware from a young age!! I have a 5 and 3 year old and they certainly aren't sexually aware yet.

Every single argument I have ever read against extended breastfeeding basically boils down to 'ew'.

Can we irritate her on Twitter?

The article is shocking, and saddening.

There are so many errors and opinions in it - nothing is backed up with evidence, and what 'evidence' there is, is misunderstood.

Who are the developmental psycholgists concerned with this ? Apparently there are 'many' who are 'worried' about it.

"Dr Sears even claims that allowing a baby to cry for too long can cause them brain damage." Leaving babies to cry for too long is harmful....this is not controversial. I don't think anyone would say that very occasional lengthy crying because of issues beyond the parents' control is brain damaging, but lengthy crying does affect a baby biochemically, and persistent neglect of crying does change the baby's brain....not in the least a new idea and not something anyone, least of all a doctor, should be dismissing.

Sears does not claim that all the bells and whistles of 'attachment parenting' are 'essential' to attachment, either. She (author) goes in to dismiss this: "proper bonding is supposed to nurture better emotional health and make the child more intelligent, calm, secure, confident, empathic and independent." Eh? We know parent-child bonding does all that stuff!

Rubbish and annoying rubbish, too :( :(

She has form for ignorance about bf:

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1375193/DR-ELLIE-CANNON-Dont-scold-mums-breastfeed.html

Words fail me. Her argument about 'children starting nursery at age 3' I mean, what came first?! And don't get me started on the sexual development of 3 year olds. I have a 3 year old DD and she thinks bums are funny and breasts are for feeding her brother (and her toys). Definitely no sexual undertone there.
As for narcissism, she's the one who is writing her opinions 'as a doctor' (yawn) and passing them off as medical fact. And she's not even done her research properly.

Amazed that she is a doctor. She is clearly an idiot. I just don't get people who have a problem with this or where it stems from.

NEWSFLASH! Some parts of the body have a dual purpose! Next thing she will be arguing we can't give birth vaginally because it's 'sexual'. Or that men can't use their penis to wee!

I don't understand her point about children in nursery aged three - yes, many are, and some of them will be bf, at home. Bf at three does not mean the kid won't be able to go to nursery school.....

I commented on the other thread but wanted to add that I think this article is pretty poor.

Essentially her personal view is that nursing past about 12 months is a bit yuck. Of course there is no actual evidence that there is anything wrong with it and quite a bit to suggest that it might actually be a good thing but let's not let that get in the way of a good rant.

I breastfed DS for 24 months until he self weaned (probably because I was up duffed with DD and my milk dried up). DD at 7 months is bfed and will be for the foreseeable future. But like the vast majority of bfing moms I am squarely in the your body, your baby, your choice camp. Breastfeed or don't for as long as you like but don't fling insults at other moms (narcissist? Implication of sexual abuse?) for their perfectly legitimate choices.

Why are these stories always in the DM too? Is it because other papers don't want such nonsense.

Is she a medical doctor?

I bf'd til ds was 2 and I hate to see these articles in the mainstream media, but I unfortunately have met the odd person here and there who I think was ebfing for narcissistic reasons. Very rare, of course, but unfortunately it probably props up ideas like this.

The most extreme one who springs to mind was a woman who was feeding her 18 month old by pretty much forcing her on the boob every time she demanded any attention and talked endlessly about her childrearing/attachment philosophy while actually being very unresponsive and oftentimes cruel to her child's demands on her attention in reality. I wonder some years on now whether maybe she had PND or something like that and was just doing her best to try to give her child the best start and this was what she hung on to but it makes me sad to think of, and sad to think of how much she will have wanted to just get everything perfect for her child yet how it came across.

I don't know how much I liked the provocative pose in this Time article.. I am all for self-weaning etc but it makes a different sort of statement I think and I am as disappointed with that photo as this article. I just wish we could get to "breastfeeding is normal" without all this controversy...

Having tried unsucessfully to leave a comment at the end of the DM article I've Facebooked her with it.

Nothing much to add except my crossness!

Having read her other article I'm even crosser.

I think it's unfair om both breastfeeding and formula feeding parents to allow what is essentially lies to spouted as medical fact.

Oh and cross about the cosleeping jib too.

I couldn't see anything on her FB page apart from stuff about vaccines. She sure loves the sound of her own voice, doesn't she?