CNN Cares About Molly's Teeth

This is one of the stupider things I've read today: A CNN article fawns over a study that recommends that babies transition "off the bottle" at 9 months in order to prevent tooth decay. If you read the article carefully, you will note that the author of the article (Miriam Falco) expands this recommendation to include weaning from breastfeeding, though it is not clear to me whether the study in question makes that claim.

Forget that the WHO recommends that babies continue to breast feed for up to two years (6 months exclusively, then gradually tapering off during the transition to an all-solid diet) and the AAP recommends a full 12 months. These recommendations do not appear in the CNN article, nor does any discussion of infant nutrition. It is solely focused on tooth decay.


It just seems like another example of the trend toward cutting people up into discreet symptoms instead of treating them as whole people. This researcher set out to study tooth decay, found that tooth decay in toddlers is often linked to the way they imbibe fluids, and concludes that pediatricians should change the way toddlers drink. Nutrition is not important because that was not the focus of the study. Then, Miriam Falco at CNN writes a lazy article that does not provide any additional information, lumps in bottles of juice with breastfeeding, and publishes it. Today, 10,000 fretting grandmothers are emailing the story to new parents whose kids are perfectly happy still breastfeeding at 1 year. Hopefully, the parents have the reading comprehension skills to notice how silly this article is.

Breast Milk Cheese?

"You can milk anything with nipples."

No Boobs in Church

Virgin and Child

Dieric the Elder Bouts, c. 1465

via The Awl, a strange letter from the Washington Post:

"Dear Amy,

While attending the 4 p.m. Christmas vigil mass at my church this year, I was shocked.

I look beyond the fact that no one dresses up for church and that talking across the pews seems to be a normal occurrence, but what happened this year is beyond me.

During the Holy Communion mediation song (with only 10 minutes left to the service) the women behind me started to breast-feed her baby."

The nerve of some people, desecrating our celebration of birth, hope, and motherhood by feeding their babies. And get those paintings out of here, too!

At first, I found this letter funny, but the more I thought about it, it's just sad. Who looks on a natural, intimate act of motherly love and is revolted? Who cannot distinguish between a breast being used to nourish a child and one exposed salaciously? It must be very isolating to live that way — appalled at displays of affection, unable to distinguish between lunchtime and pornography.

Also, I was raised Catholic and, in our church, you weren't supposed to turn around and stare at the people behind you during the service.