yesterdays's Guardian article on formula - odd BF statistics?

[thehouseofmirth]

Is it just me or do the stats on breastfeeding at the end of this article seem totally wrong or at best misleading?

they must be wrong

"Gail Johnston, educational and professional development adviser at the Royal College of Midwives, said mothers with concerns should talk to their health visitor before changing in case there were specific reasons for their babies being on a particular formula."

wouldn't the mother know if that was the case?

how utterly moronic. what a fuck-up on the part of the journalist.

copied from article...
'The NHS encourages mothers to breastfeed if possible. Its last big survey, in 2005, suggested 76% of mothers did so for at least six months, up from 69% in 2000. Half of all mothers continued breastfeeding after six months.''

six months! surely if anything they mean 6 days! or weeks.

Yes, I thought this. Must mean weeks, surely? I expect to see something in Corrections and Clarifications tomorrow...

I've emailed them.

Hmmm, this might include mixed feeding?

But the stats sound unduly high, yes. I made a bit of a face at the paper yesterday.

Ah, right, this article says 76% of mothers start out breastfeeding. Less than half breastfeeding at 6 weeks, 25% breastfeeding at 6 months.

God, that's depressing.

You wouldn't get these sloppy stats in Bad Science.

"A third poster said: "Companies will capitalise where they can in order to keep their profit margins and with formula it is a captive market as no one has the choice not to feed her baby."

I have been quoted by the Guarnaid. heh heh.

Aha, found the other thread talking about the article.

A journalist who only read the opening paragraph of a summary and doesn't understand the word "initiation" apparently.

wooh, 2 threads on the same thing - I too thought it should be 6 weeks (posted on the other thread}; the stats NQC has quoted seem much more likely from what I remember.

They've printed a correction here. It should indeed be the stats NQC quoted.