Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Saturday, February 10, 2007
BACE meeting
I was invited to attend a BACE meeting (Breastfeeding Action Coalition of Edmonton), an informal get together to discuss the 2007 Breastfeeding Challenge. I love attending the Breastfeeding Challenge. BACE organizes the yearly event, and puts alot of work into planning and gathering door prizes and booths. However, the 2006 Edmonton location had less than 30 registered participants and I KNOW that we can do better than that in 2007.
It turned out to be a really informal meeting, as I was the only one who could make it. I met a great lady named Nicole, and her husband, and discovered I have lots of common with them in regards to our attachment parenting values, and society's attitudes towards breastfeeding in general. I offered help with the 2007 Challenge in any way I can. I thought it would be a great idea if I or a BACE member could put together a small bf'ing challenge flyer, and I could hand them out in my gift bags at the Mom, Pop and Tot Fair. Just to get the name out there, and make more nursing moms aware of the event.
We'll see how it goes.
It turned out to be a really informal meeting, as I was the only one who could make it. I met a great lady named Nicole, and her husband, and discovered I have lots of common with them in regards to our attachment parenting values, and society's attitudes towards breastfeeding in general. I offered help with the 2007 Challenge in any way I can. I thought it would be a great idea if I or a BACE member could put together a small bf'ing challenge flyer, and I could hand them out in my gift bags at the Mom, Pop and Tot Fair. Just to get the name out there, and make more nursing moms aware of the event.
We'll see how it goes.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Janurary, 2007
It's the end of January and I haven't heard back from any of the four daycares I sent letters to. Due to the fact that I have a tonne of work to do next month for the upcoming Mom, Pop and Tot Fair, this project will have to go on the backburner for now.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Early January, 2007
One of the wonderful breastfeeding moms on LinkingParents.com was planning a part-time return to work, and needed part-time care for her daughter. There are very few quality daycare centres in our city, and even fewer that accept infants. After calling the daycares to enquire about care, she was told each time that they would not accept her breastfed baby daughter. If the baby is not on formula, she will not be welcome at the daycare. The daycares' reasoning? A breastfed baby needs to be fed more often than formula fed, and the breastmilk is apparantly harder to deal with than formula. They also seemed quite concerned about the possible touching of bodily fluids.
What the hell? A daycare doesn't want to deal with bodily fluids? I would think that breast milk would be preferable to poop, pee, puke and snot, and the plethora of other liquids that child care workers have to deal with. Sorry, I don't buy it. And a breastfed baby needs to be fed more often? And it's harder to deal with than formula? For pete's sake, you are working with BABIES.....as a child care staff, that is your JOB. Dealing with babies with allergies, constipation, reflux, colic, asthma, excema, stomach troubles, lactose intolerance, formula intolerance, colds and flus (all at higher risk from NOT breastfeeding) would be harder to deal with, in my opinion. Plus, breastmilk smells a lot nicer than formula. (Admit it, have you ever tasted formula? Yuck! Case in point: when airlines were banning all liquids, and requesting mothers to taste the formula they were bringing on the airplane for their babies, and the mothers refused? Yep. But I digress.)
Well, I'm not going to go on any longer about how I feel on this issue. Below you can read a copy of the letter I sent to all 4 daycares involved.
Here is a link to a similar issue that made headlines recently:
http://thelactivist.blogspot.com/2007/02/city-kids-daycare-chain-charges-mom.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/158956/city_kids_daycare_discriminates_against.html
What the hell? A daycare doesn't want to deal with bodily fluids? I would think that breast milk would be preferable to poop, pee, puke and snot, and the plethora of other liquids that child care workers have to deal with. Sorry, I don't buy it. And a breastfed baby needs to be fed more often? And it's harder to deal with than formula? For pete's sake, you are working with BABIES.....as a child care staff, that is your JOB. Dealing with babies with allergies, constipation, reflux, colic, asthma, excema, stomach troubles, lactose intolerance, formula intolerance, colds and flus (all at higher risk from NOT breastfeeding) would be harder to deal with, in my opinion. Plus, breastmilk smells a lot nicer than formula. (Admit it, have you ever tasted formula? Yuck! Case in point: when airlines were banning all liquids, and requesting mothers to taste the formula they were bringing on the airplane for their babies, and the mothers refused? Yep. But I digress.)
Well, I'm not going to go on any longer about how I feel on this issue. Below you can read a copy of the letter I sent to all 4 daycares involved.
Here is a link to a similar issue that made headlines recently:
http://thelactivist.blogspot.com/2007/02/city-kids-daycare-chain-charges-mom.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/158956/city_kids_daycare_discriminates_against.html
The Daycare Letter (January 2007)
A copy of the letter I sent to the 4 daycare centres on the south side of Edmonton who have a policy not to accept breastfed babies. (Written with help from some MBC lactivists)
To Whom it May Concern:I am writing regarding your policy to not accept breastfed babies into your daycare facility. It has been brought to my attention that children are being turned down for care because their mothers would be sending expressed milk for them to drink, as opposed to formula (artificial baby milk).I cannot think of one good reason for this policy to exist. You may have the right to discriminate against these families (I am confident that in many cities, you'd have numerous lawyers breathing down your neck), but there is simply no need for it. Expressed milk is no more difficult to handle than ready-to-feed formula, and is in fact easier to handle than powdered milk, as there is no mixing and measuring involved. I'm sure that your facility has refrigerators on site, but even if that is "too inconvenient", milk can be kept in a small cooler provided by the family, or even at room temperature for up to eight hours if it has been freshly pumped by the child's mother.Human milk is often stored in plastic bags. After time, the fats rise to the top of the bag, separating from the "skim" milk. All that needs to be done to remedy this is for the care-giver to gently swirl (not shake) the milk to redistribute the fats. Milk can be heated by running under warm water (not in a microwave, but of course, you know to never microwave formula either). Milk can then be poured into a bottle, and fed to baby, or if using a Playtex Nurser type bottle, the bag can be slipped into the holder and nipple attached. Quite easy, and takes less time than measuring the correct amount of powdered formula and shaking with warm, sterilized water.We all know that breastfed babies are exponentially more healthy than their formula-fed counterparts. In a daycare setting, healthy babies are a rare commodity indeed. One would think that your facility would be encouraging all working moms to continue to breastfeed, as it would keep the illness down in your nurseries. You are hopefully aware that the Canadian Pediatric Association recommends exclusive breastfeeding (meaning no formula supplementation or complimentary foods) for the first six months of life, and continued breastfeeding for at least a year. Additionally the American Academy of Family Practitioners and the World Heath Organization recommend at least two years of breastfeeding. Shame on you for pressuring parents into ignoring these recommendations so their child can be cared for when they return to work. I do hope that you will reconsider your stance on caring for breastfed babies: babies who are being fed the food that nature intended.
Please contact me in regards to this matter.
To Whom it May Concern:I am writing regarding your policy to not accept breastfed babies into your daycare facility. It has been brought to my attention that children are being turned down for care because their mothers would be sending expressed milk for them to drink, as opposed to formula (artificial baby milk).I cannot think of one good reason for this policy to exist. You may have the right to discriminate against these families (I am confident that in many cities, you'd have numerous lawyers breathing down your neck), but there is simply no need for it. Expressed milk is no more difficult to handle than ready-to-feed formula, and is in fact easier to handle than powdered milk, as there is no mixing and measuring involved. I'm sure that your facility has refrigerators on site, but even if that is "too inconvenient", milk can be kept in a small cooler provided by the family, or even at room temperature for up to eight hours if it has been freshly pumped by the child's mother.Human milk is often stored in plastic bags. After time, the fats rise to the top of the bag, separating from the "skim" milk. All that needs to be done to remedy this is for the care-giver to gently swirl (not shake) the milk to redistribute the fats. Milk can be heated by running under warm water (not in a microwave, but of course, you know to never microwave formula either). Milk can then be poured into a bottle, and fed to baby, or if using a Playtex Nurser type bottle, the bag can be slipped into the holder and nipple attached. Quite easy, and takes less time than measuring the correct amount of powdered formula and shaking with warm, sterilized water.We all know that breastfed babies are exponentially more healthy than their formula-fed counterparts. In a daycare setting, healthy babies are a rare commodity indeed. One would think that your facility would be encouraging all working moms to continue to breastfeed, as it would keep the illness down in your nurseries. You are hopefully aware that the Canadian Pediatric Association recommends exclusive breastfeeding (meaning no formula supplementation or complimentary foods) for the first six months of life, and continued breastfeeding for at least a year. Additionally the American Academy of Family Practitioners and the World Heath Organization recommend at least two years of breastfeeding. Shame on you for pressuring parents into ignoring these recommendations so their child can be cared for when they return to work. I do hope that you will reconsider your stance on caring for breastfed babies: babies who are being fed the food that nature intended.
Please contact me in regards to this matter.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
December, 2006
As I entered Zellers in Northgate Mall to look at nursing bras, I was greeted by a huge red and white poster hanging directly in the entranceway. It was a sign for furniture or appliances, and depicted a dad bottlefeeding a baby, sitting next to a refridgerator stuffed full of bottles. Normally, I would just mutter and grumble to myself, but I was feeling extra lactivishy that day, so I stood in line at customer service. Being one of the last shopping days before Christmas, it took a few minutes, but I had a mission.
When it was my turn, I explained to the baffled customer service rep that I found one of the posters offensive, and I would like to speak to a manager. She said that he was in a meeting. I was willing to wait, and found myself a seat. "Would you like a candy cane?" she asked meekly.
After voicing my concerns to the manager, he said the best I could do was fill out a customer comment card and it would be sent to the head office in Toronto. That didn't sound very promising, and I said so, asking for the number or email address of a higher up. He still said he couldn't do anything else, but promised to courier my comment card myself. Well, it was a start, so I agreed.
I thought that was the end of that, but shortly after Christmas, a gentleman named Gary Mader called me from The Hudson's Bay Company in Toronto to discuss my concerns. A short game of telephone tag followed, and we finally spoke directly, on January 9th. I am ashamed to say that my lactivism got the better of me (which surprised me, since I am usually very articulate on the phone), and I was so flustered and frustrated with his words, I couldn't get my point across. At one point in the conversation he actually said, "you do know that ALL moms eventually bottlefeed". WTH? "No, they don't" I told him. "Yes, they do," he continued to argue. After telling him I had 3 sons, none of whom have ever taken a bottle, I asked him why they didn't portray a breastfeeding family in their posters. "We don't use breastfeeding in our advertising...it wouldn't be appropriate". "But you find it appropriate to use bottles." Blah blah blah, we went back and forth, with him repeating over and over that he found my concerns valid, and he would bring the issue to his superiors and promised to get back to me with the outcome. Yeah, this guy's in customer relations, he knows how to talk. I hung up the phone, very disgruntled, thinking I would never hear from him again.
Wrong! Less than an hour later, he called again and told me.......they're changing the poster! Well, you could've heard my jaw hit the floor. Seriously. Flabbergasted, I thanked him profusely, and said I would let everyone know how accomodating he had been.
A follow-up letter to Mr. Mader was sent, with a copy of the World Health Organization's Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, just to inform the Hudson's Bay Company that they are in violation of the agreement, which both Canada and United States has signed.
*see the code in full here****** http://www.ibfan.org/english/resource/who/fullcode.html
Below are some pictures of the store and the posters....sorry I couldn't get them any bigger.
When it was my turn, I explained to the baffled customer service rep that I found one of the posters offensive, and I would like to speak to a manager. She said that he was in a meeting. I was willing to wait, and found myself a seat. "Would you like a candy cane?" she asked meekly.
After voicing my concerns to the manager, he said the best I could do was fill out a customer comment card and it would be sent to the head office in Toronto. That didn't sound very promising, and I said so, asking for the number or email address of a higher up. He still said he couldn't do anything else, but promised to courier my comment card myself. Well, it was a start, so I agreed.
I thought that was the end of that, but shortly after Christmas, a gentleman named Gary Mader called me from The Hudson's Bay Company in Toronto to discuss my concerns. A short game of telephone tag followed, and we finally spoke directly, on January 9th. I am ashamed to say that my lactivism got the better of me (which surprised me, since I am usually very articulate on the phone), and I was so flustered and frustrated with his words, I couldn't get my point across. At one point in the conversation he actually said, "you do know that ALL moms eventually bottlefeed". WTH? "No, they don't" I told him. "Yes, they do," he continued to argue. After telling him I had 3 sons, none of whom have ever taken a bottle, I asked him why they didn't portray a breastfeeding family in their posters. "We don't use breastfeeding in our advertising...it wouldn't be appropriate". "But you find it appropriate to use bottles." Blah blah blah, we went back and forth, with him repeating over and over that he found my concerns valid, and he would bring the issue to his superiors and promised to get back to me with the outcome. Yeah, this guy's in customer relations, he knows how to talk. I hung up the phone, very disgruntled, thinking I would never hear from him again.
Wrong! Less than an hour later, he called again and told me.......they're changing the poster! Well, you could've heard my jaw hit the floor. Seriously. Flabbergasted, I thanked him profusely, and said I would let everyone know how accomodating he had been.
A follow-up letter to Mr. Mader was sent, with a copy of the World Health Organization's Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, just to inform the Hudson's Bay Company that they are in violation of the agreement, which both Canada and United States has signed.
*see the code in full here****** http://www.ibfan.org/english/resource/who/fullcode.html
Below are some pictures of the store and the posters....sorry I couldn't get them any bigger.
Zellers Major Appliances Advertising Campaign
The advertising campaign at Zellers/Hudson's Bay Company portrayed a small refridgerator packed wall to wall with bottles. This is in direct violation of World Health Organization's International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.
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