...We don’t usually stress the benefits of immunising children against major diseases, ensuring they are transported using safe car-seats, and not subjecting them to cigarette smoke. On the contrary, we focus on the nature and degree of the risks incurred if we fail to engage in these health-promoting behaviours.
There is certainly more than adequate information to reaffirm energetically the multiple benefits of breast milk and breastfeeding, even if “everyone” supposedly already knows this. But it’s time we also emphasized the steadily expanding evidence about the short- and longer- term risks associated with routine non-emergency artificial feeding; they should surprise no one given how fundamental a deviation from the biological norm it is for the young of our species to be ingesting a paediatric fast food prepared from the milk of an alien species.
Most people are unaware just how damaging routine artificial feeding is both for today’s children and tomorrow’s adults and the soaring price we pay for our collective ignorance. Postpartum child development, for better or for worse, is nutritionally programmed at the base level of still-maturing tissues and organs (1). It should be clear that achieving our genetic potential – including in terms of brain development, visual acuity, even longevity – is not going to happen by forgoing human milk’s unique, species-specific properties. ...
...The highest remaining hurdles to more and longer breastfeeding are neither scientific nor epidemiological; they are primarily political, socio-cultural, economic and organizational. It’s time to move more aggressively and sure-footedly on all four fronts. And as we do, let’s not forget the singular advantage that we have over anyone who would still dare to promote a routine deviation from the hominid blueprint (2). Embracing breastfeeding automatically places us on the right side of history.
