Pat Hartman | Childhood Obesity News

Addiction and Consequences

Pat Hartman June 8, 2022 No Comments

Dr. Pretlow has said that “both addiction and obesity result from repetitive foraging and ingestion behaviors that intensify and persist despite negative and (at times) devastating health and other life consequences.” Whether the problem is substance use, gambling, or compulsive overeating, a classic hallmark of addiction is that the person persists in the destructive behavior despite an array of negative outcomes.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

That saying is usually attributed to Albert Einstein, but according to QuoteInvestigator.com,

[B]ased on current evidence the saying originated in one of the twelve-step communities. Anonymity is greatly valued in these communities, and no specific author has been identified… The linkage to Albert Einstein occurred many years after his death and is unsupported.

It is an excellent working definition of addiction, where the results are inevitably bad and yet are reinforced by toxic habituation. The person might lose a job, a career, or a love relationship; they might be disinherited from the family fortune, or develop open sores over 90% of their body, but none of that counts, compared to the rewards of the habit.

In dialogue with Duncan Trussell, media celebrity Dr. Drew said of addiction,

The hallmark is progressive use in the face of consequence. By consequence, it’s got to affect important spheres of the life — work or school, finance, health, relationships, or legal status.

Delineating her view of the four stages of food addiction, obesity researcher and author Dr. Zoe Harcombe named health consequences like diabetes and obesity, but there are plenty of others. She wrote:

4) We suffer consequences — only these tend to drive people to seek help.

For someone whose problem is overeating, the consequence that wakes them up might be finding out that they can no longer travel in a passenger plane. A shock less drastic than killing someone while driving drunk, it still could be enough to set change in motion. This has something to do with the spiritual side of addiction, which one authority has helpfully pointed out, may or may not dwell within lab rats.

People with addictions will lie, steal and betray loved ones. They might spend the mortgage payment on dope and render their family homeless. Would a heroin addict or a compulsive gambler do those things? Absolutely. And what about a person hooked on overeating? They might not throw away the house payment but will certainly drop a friend who is sick of their messed-up ways. An eating addict would probably not rob a bank, but might easily do a little shoplifting.

Even if not ashamed of himself, the addict may “project” by being ashamed of friends and relatives, the dummies who let him get away with inexcusable behavior for the dozenth or hundredth time. There is a mindset like, “Honestly, they are so gullible, they deserve to work a second job to pay for me to go to rehab.” Addiction can foster some really twisted thinking, and people who are hooked on eating are no exception. Children are not exempt, either.

The whole point here is, unhealthy dependence on a substance or behavior never comes to a good end. That kind of attachment, like so many other human conditions, is a multi-factorial thing, and not easily sorted out.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Insanity Is Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Again and Expecting Different Results,” QuoteInvestigator.com, undated
Source: “Episode 133: DR. DREW!,” DuncanTrussell.com, undated
Image by Geoffrey Fairchild/CC BY 2.0

Shame and Guilt, Guilt and Shame

Pat Hartman June 7, 2022 No Comments

Of the two emotions, shame is deeper and more generalized, and has the capacity to be triggering and cause relapse. This emotion is not limited to grownups. In Dr. Pretlow’s book Overweight: What Kids Say, there is a whole chapter on secrecy and shame. In responding to his Weigh2Rock website, over the years, many children and teens have mentioned it:

— I was a compulsive overeater, and very ashamed of the way I looked.
— i weigh close to 265 pounds i am so ashamed
— i hate that my bf broke up with me beacuasw he said i was too fat, i hate that i broke up with my other bf when he liked me fat , because i was too ashamed of my bodysize,
— I have been on this site before but have used various names to cover up my shame from other people I may know
— I’m ashamed. I am a compulsive overeater. I need help. I’m suicidal. I just want to be normal. I’m a prisoner.
— I have a set of scales in my room but most of the time I’m too ashamed to even stand on them. ..
— I want to look and feel better about myself, and not be ashamed of my body any longer.
— im to ashamed to let anyone see me run because i feel so big.
— when i go [to the doctor] and i’ve gained weight i feel so ashamed

On the most basic level, guilt is more objective. In a courtroom, guilt can be shown by items that are entered into evidence, by the sworn testimony of witnesses, and so on, and ultimately be decreed by a judge or jury. Shame is amorphous and diffuse. Guilt is an arrow; shame is a thick obscuring fog. Guilt is objective and can be disproven; shame is subjective and can only be dispelled.

Another source, Makana Path, carves out even more distinctions:

Generally, guilt causes addiction and addiction causes shame… Violence, aggression as well as eating disorders are common causes of shame. Depending on how bad the levels of shame are, one may suffer mental problems, such as depression or substance abuse.

This organization also points out that according to some therapists, guilt is good, and is in fact “a recovering addict’s greatest weapon.” Another program, Caron, endorses this view with “In Addiction and Recovery, Guilt Heals While Shame Poisons.”

Guilt, including regret and remorse, is a necessary tool with which to evaluate our behavior. How does guilt heal? Because it is connected to specific deeds and behaviors, there is a clear path: Do not perform those actions, and do what is necessary to repair the damage caused by performing them in the past.

As we have seen, when it comes to experiencing guilt and feeling overwhelmed by shame, kids can do those things just as readily as adults. But even a young person can wrestle guilt into becoming an asset rather than a liability. A 17-year-old young lady wrote to Dr. Pretlow’s website,

I’ll occasionally have a cookie or a little bit of ice cream, but usually the guilt I feel afterwards makes it not even worth it. ..right now I weigh 130 pounds, for a total weight loss of 140 pounds!

Effective therapy teaches coping strategies to defang destructive emotions. Ideally, these techniques lead to asking for forgiveness from others we have harmed, and ultimately, to forgiving oneself. The most useful therapy also recognizes that, while the addict is the designated patient, actually the whole family is the patient.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Understanding Guilt and Shame in Addiction Recovery,” MakanaPath.com, 11/13/19
Source: “In Addiction and Recovery, Guilt Heals While Shame Poisons,” Caron.org, undated
Image by a200/a77Wells/CC BY 2.0

Similar Emotions, Different Results

Pat Hartman June 6, 2022 No Comments

A few years back, NPR published an interview with Neil Steinberg, author of books on addiction, who points out that when an addict eventually reaches out for help, it is usually because of a very regrettable precipitating incident. They wrecked the car, ruined their sister’s wedding, or did some other unacceptable thing that resulted in outside intervention, or at least in some self-reckoning. He says, “I think most people are deeply ashamed of their addictions” and children are not exempt from human emotions, so this aspect needs to be taken into account.

Keep it low-key

Another obstacle presented by public opinion is that most recovering addicts have no wish to make a big public deal of how well they are doing, because as Steinberg reminds us, “relapse is always waiting under your feet.” That is why people “slip,” and if anybody is looking, the person with the problem feels like either a laughingstock or an object of pity. Again, children possess these emotions too.

And if something really bad happens, like a fatal overdose, it is likely to also turn the addict’s family into liars, because they do not exactly want to go public about the true cause of death. Steinberg then quotes Russell Brand:

It is difficult to suffer the selfishness of a drug addict who will lie to you and steal from you and then forgive them and offer them help. Can there be any other disease that renders its victims so unappealing?

There may be guilt for lying, stealing, etc., which of course calls for more substance-assisted oblivion to bury that guilt. Still, the good news is that guilt as an emotional “first responder” can be beneficial, like the different sounds that car tires make on the road’s shoulder, and the warning to get back in the lane. Guilt can serve as a “note to self” that behavior needs to be corrected.

Two things

Is there a difference between guilt and shame? Northstar Transitions runs programs to help people get off alcohol, street drugs and prescription drugs. Their uncredited writer says,

Guilt is the feeling you have when you’ve done something terrible or said you would do something and then didn’t.

This definition resonates with the ancient Catholic concept of sins of commission and sins of omission — either doing something you shouldn’t have, or not doing something you should have done. Guilt is about doing a bad thing, while shame self-defines a person as being bad.

Shame […] is about internalizing that guilt and believing that you are a terrible person because of what you did.

Are kids included?

The issues surrounding these emotions are not the exclusive property of reflective adults. Guilt is a biggie. In Dr. Pretlow’s book, Overweight — What Kids Say, he quotes messages from many teenagers:

— [T]he thought of getting together with friends just makes me feel fatter, grosser, guiltier.
— I can’t control myself! I eat too much and feel so guilty afterwards!
— You pig out and eat a ton. in a effect you feel incredibally guilty and then to feel better and feel like you didnt mess up, you make yourself throw up…
— There are two types of feelings when it comes to food — craving the food and then the inital guilt that comes after overindulging.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Shame, Guilt Pose Significant Hurdles For Those Recovering From Addiction,” NPR.org, 07/15/17
Source: “What roles do guilt and shame play in addiction?,” NorthStarTransitions.com, 01/23/21
Image by Purple Slog/CC BY 2.0

Deep Emotions, Useful and Otherwise

Pat Hartman June 3, 2022 No Comments

Whether it is called a moral, ethical or spiritual matter, messing around with substances tends to affect our inner beings. This is where animal experimentation around the problem runs into a snag. In “Addiction: The View from Rat Park,” Prof. Bruce Alexander pointed out, as a basic premise, that rats are rats, and went on to ask,

How can we possibly reach conclusions about complex, perhaps spiritual experiences like human addiction and recovery by studying rats?

Surely, some critics must have asked him what on earth he meant by that. What does shooting up in an alley have to do with our interior spiritual selves? Only everything! Dr. Pretlow has written,

Disordered overeating and obesity in youth appears to be a psychological problem, suggestive of an addictive process. Disordered overeating and obesity should be considered an eating disorder and treated by psychologists/psychiatrists.

He is not the only expert to have noticed that in these cases, psychological factors are inevitably at work. Be that as it may, the sad state of affairs is that mental health professionals who specialize in treating obesity, whether child or adult, are rare.

An essay titled “Shame and Addiction” by an uncredited Gateway Foundation author outlines the symptoms of shame (perfectionism, low self-esteem, people-pleasing, and guilt) and also lists the beliefs that someone may be led into by a sense of shame. These include convictions that the self is bad, defective and unlovable, and a failure undeserving of happiness.

Counterproductivity

The article says that shame “can trigger a dependency on alcohol or drugs as a method of escape,” which of course is no help at all when dependency on a substance (or on behavior associated with substance use) is the underlying problem in the first place. Dr. Pretlow often speaks of vicious cycles, and this is one of them.

The article goes on to specify how the addiction recovery process is impacted by shame. The person may keep quiet and hide the truth about matters that would better be explored aloud. Shame can destroy a person’s sense of worthiness, and convince them that their dreams can never be achieved. To get better, the person needs proper guidance and a safe, supportive environment. But those side effects are the very factors that prevent so many people from seeking help.

Then, the Gateway Foundation includes instructions for healing, which can be accomplished with proper guidance in a safe and supportive environment:

Recognize shame
Face the root of your shame
Accept self
Make amends and let go
Be kind to yourself
Find a safe space
Develop a support network

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Addiction: The View from Rat Park,” BruceKAlexander.com, undated
Source: “Shame and Addiction,” GatewayFoundation.org, undated
Image by CPSU/CSA/CC BY-SA 2.0

Painful Emotions Complicate the Problem

Pat Hartman June 2, 2022 No Comments

Rightly or wrongly, moral baggage is carried (or not!) by most humans in their every interaction with the world. Many people spend their lives drowning in guilt and shame about something or other, and that is a problem in itself. Now, what about spiritual or moral qualms regarding one’s attachment to a behavior, like compulsive overeating, for instance — especially if it is identified as an addiction?

Regret is probably the mildest sort of moral reaction to one’s own actions. Dr. Pretlow and co-author Suzette Glasner, Ph.D., addressed this in “Reconceptualization of Eating Addiction and Obesity as Displacement Behavior and a Possible Treatment,” saying:

Activation of the (irrepressible) displacement mechanism may explain why individuals feel compelled to overeat or binge in the face of a rewarding cue yet feel substantial regret afterward. Regret felt by individuals after a binge episode could also be, at least in part, due to social pressure, diet culture, and potential effects on body weight. Regret would not occur if it were simply a matter of reward.

Many professionals in the field of disordered eating have remarked on these emotional quandaries. According to neuroscientist Dr. Billi Gordon, who was morbidly obese for most of his life,

Holiday binge and compulsive eating, like drug addiction, causes guilt, self-loathing, and psychological distress. There is consistent and considerable co-morbidity between compulsive overeating and substance abuse. Hence, the predisposition for compulsively overeating voluminous amounts of food, suggests an underlying neurobiological process similar to addiction.

In “The trauma behind the addiction,” counselor and therapist Sam Coleman discusses the many studies through which Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, have been linked to substance misuse in adults. For most addicts, their journey into darkness begins with the simple effort to self-medicate the bad memories out of existence. The secrecy they had to maintain throughout their childhood added an extra burden, and by the time they grow up enough to be able to reveal those dark secrets, it is of course far too late to do anything about the abuse. The person gets all wrapped up in layers of self-judgment and self-condemnation.

This category of experience, whether caused by simple violence, sexual abuse, or even sustained and inescapable emotional abuse, tends to breed in the victim a sense of shame and an inner conviction of unworthiness. They feel isolated from what they perceive as a normal society made up of people who are not haunted by such demons.

This is one reason why even the most basic forms of group therapy can be helpful, at least as a beginning step. It is often a revelation to learn that other people are coping with similar difficulties. Coleman says,

The word “addiction” derives from the Latin word which means “enslaved to”. Anybody that has suffered with addiction will fully understand this. You become a slave to the drug of your choice. It fills your thoughts and everything else fades into the background.

We will be talking more about the two emotions of guilt and shame, because people who know about these things have taken the trouble to carefully differentiate between the two. Briefly, shame is like being shackled, while guilt can actually be the key that unlocks the chains.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Reconceptualization of Eating Addiction and Obesity as Displacement Behavior and a Possible Treatment,” ScienceGate.app, 2020
Source: “Christmas Cookie Blue,” PsychologyToday.com, 12/06/13
Source: “The trauma behind the addiction,” Medium.com, 02/13/20
Image by Anthony Easton/CC BY 2.0

Moral Factors in Addiction

Pat Hartman June 1, 2022 No Comments

How does DSM-5, the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, define addiction? In the simplified addiction criteria, there are four subheadings, one of which encompasses social problems. This includes such matters as the neglect of relationships and their ensuing responsibilities, like keeping the rent paid and taking care of the necessary life tasks at home, or in educational or employment settings. Maintaining an addiction will cause a person to give up the activities they used to care about unless purposes can be combined. A parent who can score dope at their child’s sports event has exceptional life-management skills.

Another whole category of “tells” concerns ignoring risk in the pursuit or use of the addictive substance. Getting a supply from another parent at a park is not quite the same as driving to a bad neighborhood at night to meet a stranger. This escalating behavior includes not only dicey environments but stubborn persistence in the destructive habit even though it causes obvious problems.

Similarities

It is easy to picture a heroin addict doing any of those things. But with just a bit more imagination, it is also possible to conceptualize a food addict making the same mistakes — perhaps not on such a large scale, and not with large consequences like prison — but still, life-damaging bad decisions.

Indeed the consequences may seem, to an outsider, trivial and even ridiculous. Friends make fun of each other’s eating habits, often as a caring gesture, because it is one of the few acceptable ways to address another adult’s potentially destructive habits. But to the person burdened by those habits, it is no joke. Here are some excerpts from a piece by Anita Badejo, in a series of confessional articles by people with eating disorders:

Eventually, my mom realized I was sneaking food and she started hiding sweets in the kitchen in hopes of curbing my steady weight gain. Instead, I became an expert at climbing on countertops, calculating how much I could eat of something before she would notice, and burying wrappers in the trash. Often, I’d throw away the balanced, nutritious lunches she’d pack me […] in favor of pizza and curly fries.

This was obviously someone who did not suffer from insatiable hunger, but selective hunger. Otherwise, she would have consumed both the healthful lunches and the fat-filled and fried meals. By climbing on kitchen counters, Badejo risked a fracture or a concussion. That her mother would be disappointed or angered by the lies (and the wasted good food) did not faze her. But what really caused her to focus on the idea that her behavior was not normal was the realization that “I thought more about what I’d eat when I got to my friends’ houses than the time I’d spend with them.” Then,

I hoped going to my dream college would somehow absolve me of my lack of self-worth and, with that, my eating habits. Instead, I spent much of my freshman and sophomore years […] feeling like a fraud and making full use of my unlimited meal plan by stuffing to-go containers and eating alone in my dorm room.

This was both a social problem and, in terms of health, a calculated risk. Very close to the end of her essay, the author admits,

I’ve come to realize I eat the same way I hit my snooze button every morning: just a little bit more. Tired when I should feel energized, so empty despite being so full. Food is still the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about before I go to bed. I still spend much of my time trying to hide just how much I eat it.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “DSM-5 Criteria for Addiction Simplified,” AddictionPolicy.org, 08/20/20
Source: “I’m Mending My Broken Relationship With Food,” BuzzfeedNews.com, 02/26/15
Image by airpix/CC BY 2.0

Breastfeeding Steadily Gains Traction Against Obesity

Pat Hartman May 31, 2022 No Comments

The introduction to an online interview with Dr. Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello says,

Imagine if there were an organ in your body that weighed as much as your brain, that affected your health, your weight, and even your behavior… There is such an organ — the collection of microbes in and on your body, your human microbiome.

Dr. Dominguez-Bello is known as the expert on both the effects of C-section births on a child’s development and on how breastfeeding affects the baby’s microbiome. It’s known to affect many physiological processes “ranging from adiposity/obesity, to energy metabolism, blood pressure control, glucose homeostasis, clotting risks or even behavior.” A 2019 paper by this researcher and three others, with 111 listed sources, is peppered with interesting statements like these:

Infants develop during the first 6 months under the selective pressure of milk shaping the gut microbial communities…

[E]vidence suggests that longer duration of breastfeeding is associated with decrease in risk of overweight.

Obesity risk has been epidemiologically associated with C-section birthing and early antibiotic exposure.

Our previous post discussed how C-section births are often associated with the decision not to breastfeed, so this all ties in together. Other studies indicate that breastfeeding for the first five months is “associated with an approximately 25 per cent lower likelihood of being overweight or obese in childhood.” This is only one reason why various experts have described breastmilk as irreplaceable, perfectly customized food, the gold standard, nature’s superfood, and the ultimate in personalized medicine.

While serving as executive director and chief medical officer for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Dr. Chris Urbina announced that the state is the foremost in breastfeeding, saying, “Breastfeeding is one of our best protections against childhood obesity.”

Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist indicated that “gut bacteria and its interactions with immune cells and metabolic organs, including fat tissue, play a key role in childhood obesity,” adding that…

[…] a series of studies over the past decade has confirmed that the microbes living in our gut are not only associated with obesity but also are one of the causes… In addition, having a better understanding of the role of the gut microbiome and obesity in both mothers and their children hopefully will help scientists design more successful preventive and therapeutic strategies to check the rise of obesity in children.

Adrain Corbett, the founder of GutGeek.com, wrote:

Baby’s new microbiome is topped up several times a day through breastfeeding… Again this prevents the wrong bacteria getting established and taking over.

Studies show that babies born via C-section start off with random bacteria from the hospital, rather than the special ones from Mum. “Swabbing” baby with microbes taken manually from Mum may help to counter this!

In 2020, Dr. Jorge Chavarro wrote,

The results of our study highlight the need to be even more vigilant about decreasing the overall rate of cesarean deliveries, especially in the absence of a clear obstetric or medical indication, as adverse health effects on the offspring could even manifest decades later.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Web interview: Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello,” undated
Source: “Role of the microbiome in human development,” BMJ.com, 2019
Source: “Large babies born to moms with gestational diabetes face nearly triple the risk of childhood obesity: study,” Folio.ca, 12/11/18
Source: “Colorado ranks No. 1 in breastfeeding,” LamarLedger.com 08/05/12
Source: “Gut bacteria is key factor in childhood obesity,” ScienceDaily.com, 10/30/19
Source: “Kickstart Your Kids’ Gut Health,” GutGeek.com, 07/05/21
Source: “Do C-Section Babies Become Heavier Adults?,” UCLAHealth.org, 04/14/20
Image by Maja/CC BY-ND 2.0

Everything You Know About Breastfeeding Is Wrong, Continued Again

Pat Hartman May 27, 2022 No Comments

Following the two previous posts, this one is about to go deeper into two sub-topics, the first being birth by surgery, and the second being the suspected reason why that seems to contribute to childhood obesity.

Overweight mothers are very likely to have large babies. The baby’s size is a strong determining factor in the medical decision to deliver by cesarean section. Also, C-section mothers are statistically less likely than vaginal birth mothers to breastfeed their babies, or if they do, they tend not to continue with it for as long. In addition, obese women, in general, are “less likely to start breastfeeding […] and less likely to breastfeed for at least 6 months,” according to the American Journal for Managed Care. These four related facts create a complicated and often self-perpetuating group of circumstances that conspire to add to the overall prevalence of childhood obesity.

Birth by surgery

For The Atlantic, economist Emily Oster and physician W. Spencer McClelland wrote,

Evidence and expert consensus are consistent on the message that C-sections, on average, come with greater risks than vaginal births: more blood loss, more chance of infection or blood clots, more complications in future pregnancies, a higher risk of death. Even if serious complications don’t occur, C-section recovery tends to be longer and harder.

[H]ospitals’ C-section rates vary from 7 percent to 70 percent. Differences in patient complexity cannot account for that spread.

Whatever challenges may be present with vaginal birth, a C-section intensifies them. In the U.S., almost one-third of births (over 30%) are surgical. Many people feel that this happens for the convenience of physicians, who would prefer not to come out in the middle of the night for deliveries. Yet despite life being made easier for them, the financial rewards are greater, so this is a very controversial subject. If C-sections were limited to medical necessity, the World Health Organization feels that the rate would be more like 10% or 15%.

For these post-op mothers, whether they are obese or normal weight, feeding the newborn becomes even more complicated, which is why such guides as “10 Tips for Breastfeeding After a C-Section” exist. Its author, nurse and lactation counselor Shantel Harlin, mentions that whether a C-section is planned or decided on after labor has already begun, the baby’s nutrition is affected. Apparently, women who deliver by predetermined C-section frequently have no intention to breastfeed anyway, or if they start, they only keep it up for about three months.

The role of the microbiome

All this increasingly points to a connection between breastfeeding and the trillions of tiny organisms that live inside us and evidently control large portions of our lives. It is strongly suspected that C-sections cause obesity in infants because these microbes are not given the chance to play their appointed role in preventing it.

The theory is not universally accepted, but the last post in this series will quote some of the many experts who have adopted this way of thinking. Childhood Obesity News has briefly touched on the subject before, citing…

[…] studies that have observed increased obesity rates in children delivered by caesarean section. During a vaginal delivery, the baby is supposed to pick up microbiota on the way out, collecting a starter kit of bugs as the basis for its own colony. When a child is surgically removed, the opportunity to acquire those valuable bacteria is denied. What if it’s true that C-section kids get fat because of an inadequate microbiome? A lot of assumptions would have to be questioned.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Understanding Why Women With Obesity Don’t Breastfeed,” AJMC.com, 01/12/19
Source: “Why the C-Section Rate Is So High,” TheAtlantic.com, 10/17/19
Source: “10 Tips for Breastfeeding After a C-Section,” KindredBravely.com, 08/11/20
Image by Marc van der Chijs/CC BY-ND 2.0

Everything You Know About Breastfeeding Is Wrong, Continued

Pat Hartman May 26, 2022 No Comments

This continuation makes more sense if the reader first checks out the previous post based on an article by Aubrey Hirsch that goes into exquisite detail about the actual expense involved in breastfeeding, which is believed to help prevent obesity. For instance, a breastfed baby will not overfeed, because when hunger is satisfied he will voluntarily unlatch, or fall asleep.

Even when it is feasible, no one should be lulled into the false idea that this is an economical choice. On the most mundane level, there is the cost of supplies and equipment — a breast pump, for occasions when the milk is ready but the baby is not, or the mom is away from home; and milk storage bags; and bottles for milk that has been expressed by hand or by a mechanical pump. And nursing bras, and nipple cream, among other amenities. Prenatal vitamins should be continued, and a mom who serves as a feeding station needs to fuel up with an extra three to four hundred calories per day.

Natural?

Contrary to popular belief, breastfeeding does not come naturally or easily to every woman. To help with that, there are classes, and in an extreme case, the services of a lactation consultant can be hired for $200 per hour.

Plutus Foundation has determined that breastfeeding, in the first year, runs about $950, which includes all the startup coats, so it works out to less in the second year. About six months is the average time for exclusive breastfeeding, before other nourishment is introduced. But in this country the average maternity leave, if indeed such an amenity is offered at all, seems to be about 10 weeks, or two and a half months. Formula, by the way, runs about $1,200 per year.

Even though the annual price tag for breastfeeding decreases, not many have the chance to appreciate this, because the indirect cost — for instance, of not having gainful employment — goes up and up and up, which ties into another concept that Hirsch mentions:

And breastfeeding is only “free” if you think lactating parents’ time is worthless…. [The] amount of time spent breastfeeding (or pumping) in a year is nearly equivalent to the hours worked in a full-time job.

Her calculations also take into account the toll on the mother’s body, and even though some of these negative consequences have been mentioned here already, let’s just list them all, the better to appreciate the full effect.

The breasts themselves can suffer plugged ducts, fungal infections, mastitis, engorgement, and cracked nipples, while the rest of the body is subject to inadequate sleep, back pain, cramping, osteoporosis, and carpal tunnel syndrome. Oh, and let’s not forget emotional health, including significant loss of time, and bodily autonomy, along with exhaustion, and being targeted by strangers with negative judgments.

Also, there is the pain of being misunderstood by friends and family members. When a well-meaning person says, “At least there is no cost,” how does a mom feel, knowing that person totally discounts the value of the work she put in and the toll on her mental and physical health?

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “The Many, Many Costs of Breastfeeding,” Vox.com, 05/17/22
Image by Sacha Chua/CC BY 2.0

Everything You Know About Breastfeeding Is Wrong

Pat Hartman May 25, 2022 No Comments

In recent weeks, it would have been difficult to avoid knowing that in many places, the baby formula shelves were empty. This is pertinent because Childhood Obesity News has published several posts on the topic of nature’s solution, breastfeeding, as it relates to obesity.

Many experts are of the opinion that feeding an infant the old-fashioned way helps prevent obesity, for various reasons. This current, heavily politicized supply chain problem nevertheless presents an opportunity to make several points that families will want to take into consideration when planning to breastfeed an expected baby as a stopgap against obesity.

For Vox.com, Aubrey Hirsch put together an amusingly illustrated guide to the ins and outs of the practice, subtitled “Breastfeeding isn’t free — and it isn’t a solution to the national baby formula shortage.” Her first important point is that the people who have the most to say are, as usual, the ones who do not know what they are talking about. Total novices hop onto social media platforms to scold parents for wanting to buy formula in the first place, because if they were good people — especially if they were good mothers — they would not dream of doing such a thing. As in so many cases, critics take a patronizing, superior attitude regarding a subject with which they have zero familiarity.

What’s stopping you?

There are cases where breastfeeding is literally impossible, maternal death being one that Hirsch did not darken our day by even mentioning. But never fear, there are plenty of other possibilities. The child may be immediately adopted or placed in foster care.

If the mom has had surgery to remove cancerous growths, that could be a problem. In some cases, a mother was born with a mutated BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene, and sacrifices her breasts to prevent cancer. And what about implants, elective cosmetic surgery that can, in a shockingly large percentage of cases, make breastfeeding dauntingly difficult, if not impossible?

One factor would be the type of surgery, and the amount of damage done to breast tissue and nerves. The glandular tissue might have been not quite up to the job of producing milk in the first place. The size of the implants can also affect the outcome, as can scar tissue, which is capable of causing complications like mastitis and blocked milk ducts. Among other things that can go wrong, the tissue around the implants may harden.

The baby might have medical problems, including allergies, or other urgent issues that must be dealt with, and rule out the possibility of breastfeeding. The mother could be on medications that should not be passed through to the baby. Or the unfortunate mom might simply have an inadequate milk supply to offer. And some might be unwilling or unable to embark on such a project, for other than strictly medical reasons.

Is that the end of the bad news? Not even close.

(To be continued…)

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “The Many, Many Costs of Breastfeeding,” vox.com, 05/17/22
Source: “Breastfeeding With Implants,” breastfeeding.support, 06/18/20
Image by SUN Movement/CC BY-ND 2.0

Addiction and Consequences

Shame and Guilt, Guilt and Shame

Similar Emotions, Different Results

Keep it low-key

Two things

Are kids included?

Deep Emotions, Useful and Otherwise

Counterproductivity

Painful Emotions Complicate the Problem

Moral Factors in Addiction

Similarities

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