Breast Milk

The new mother was determined to nurse her son, despite her discomfort after a Cesarean section. But a nurse, without asking, fed the infant formula while he was in the hospital nursery. That was upsetting enough, but then, when given the chance to nurse her baby, the young woman couldn't get her newborn to latch onto her breast. She was nearing despair in the way that only new mothers can understand when Mayra Morales appeared at her bedside.

Keep it short and to the point. And above all, don't embarrass the boss. That's the message of a series of official Saudi directives restricting the activities of clerics who issue bizarre fatwas or deliver long-winded sermons, including some who have been accused of simply ripping off sermons from the Internet and reading them aloud. The kingdom's top cleric this week ordered one preacher to shut up after he issued a fatwa , or religious edict, calling on the faithful to boycott a chain of supermarkets because it employs women as cashiers, according to an article posted Friday on the website of the pro-government Arab News.

Almost half of all babies born in the United States -- 47.2% to be exact -- are still breastfeeding at 6 months, and the rate at which mothers are initiating breastfeeding of their newborns has had its highest jump in a decade, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday. That news comes on the day that a provision of the Affordable Care Act takes effect that will make breastfeeding easier and less expensive for mothers who spend part of their days away from their babies.

Breastfeeding is universally recommended as the superior method for feeding infants because it's linked to long-term prevention of various illnesses including asthma, diabetes and obesity. A study released Monday puts more emphasis on breastfeeding by showing it may have a lasting impact on metabolism. French researchers analyzed three years of data following 234 children and how they were fed after birth. One group of children received only breast milk for the first four months of life.

Is it nutritionally risky to put babies and children on a vegan diet, or is it the best thing for them? "When a mother eats meat, her breast-fed child's brain grows faster and she is able to wean the child at an earlier age, allowing her to have more children faster," according to a new article by Swedish researchers in the journal PLoS One that links eating meat to evolution. The article doesn't speak to whether mothers should still eat meat for their babies' health.

What could be healthier for a baby than feeding him nothing but breast milk for the first six months of his life? Not relying exclusively on breast milk for the first six months of life, according to a small group of experts on pediatric health from the United Kingdom. Writing online this week in the British Medical Journal, they question whether it makes sense for parents in developed countries to follow the World Health Organization’s advice to provide six months of exclusive breast feeding.

I was disturbed but not surprised to read that central to retiring California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed's " new Master Plan ," as he wrote in his Times Op-Ed article last Tuesday, is a push for "year-round, online" education. As a full-time professor at Cal State Northridge, I am getting a bit worn out by this push (or should I say "shove"). What bothers me most about Reed's promotion of online education as part of the state's Master Plan for Higher Education is his absolute lack of candor.

Time magazine fanned the flame around the "attachment parenting" debate Thursday with its provocative cover of a young mom breast-feeding her almost 4-year-old-son. Imagine the controversy the cover would have sparked if she were feeding him vegan breast milk? Oy . The New York Times broached this topic on Room For Debate last month, pitting former child actress and attachment parenting advocate Mayim Bialik against, well, working women. In Motherhood vs. Feminism , the moderator asked: “Has women's obsession with being the perfect mother destroyed feminism?