'Checking out at the store,

[Raksha]

138. Re: Breastfeeding babies, your time frame is a little bit off.

From the 1940s to the 1960s, bottle-feeding was the norm and was encouraged by pediatricians, except for health-nut parents like my own. But I was very much the exception (I was born in 1946).

By the time I had my own children (1973 and 1978), the younger progressive women were just starting to get back to breast-feeding. Again, I was the exception because it had always been the norm in my family. So there was nothing to get "back" to--we were always too old-country to feed babies any other way.

What was very disturbing to me personally, especially on the issue of breastfeeding, was the tendency of the other young trendoids (sorry, I have to call them that) who were just then rediscovering breastfeeding to turn it into a religion, as they did with pretty much everything. What I mean is that a mother who had to supplement her breast milk with formula for whatever reason was made to feel like a traitor and a failure. It was almost considered a kind of "sin."

That was one of the biggest differences I remember between me and the other young mothers of the 1970s. We all breastfed or tried to, but not all of us turned it into a religion.