Rating: 
Summary: This author just hates breastfeeding
Review: I was given this book by a well-meaning friend who had not read it. I have since thrown it out. This author is just angry and misinformed. Her "medical" information is misleading and often downright WRONG. It's really sad when a book like this becomes popular. If you want real information on bottlefeeding with love, read the bottlefeeding chapters from Dr. Sears' The Baby Book.
Rating: 
Summary: A message I needed to hear
Review: Since the choices are one star or five, I just have to weigh in with a five-star review in hopes of tipping the average a little higher. I read this book two years ago when my daughter was born, and it saved my sanity. I found it to be a very logical reasonable argument, and to the extent that she bashed breast-feeding extremists, I think they give as good as they get, as evidenced by dozens of reviews here. And now for the confessional section of the review... I had completely internalized the breast-is-best message. My mother breast fed me. All the women I ever knew breast fed their children, and I couldn't breast feed mine. I had to take medication which the doctors all said would poison my daughter. So there I was with poisonous milk feeling like a horrible horrible person. It's a long story, but it didn't make sense for me to go off the medication. My daughter is fine. She's been in day care since three months old and never had a problem with ear infections. More anecdotal evidence. This issue is so puzzling. Why is this such a loaded topic? Bottle feeding obviously isn't child abuse. I think it has more to do with what women think of themselves than how much we care or don't care for our children. Looking back on it, the book was a help, but what I really needed to do was get over myself and do what was sanely and logically the best for both me and my baby, which in this particular case was to bottle feed. Breast feeding isn't who you are. It's something you do.
Rating:
Summary: "Is this how I am going to feel about someone who chooses to
Review: I read it, when I was considering switching, and I had a bit of a different feeling about it I thought the book made a few good points, but I was really concerned with the huge amount of the book spent on making breastfeeders look like they belong to a cult, comparing them to a variety of negative things, all to discount any evidence that breastmilk is an the most appropriate food source for a baby.
I actually thought, "Is this how I am going to feel about someone who chooses to breastfeed their baby if I decide to quit? Am I going to become this filled with disgust and disrespect for thos who were able to breastfeed their children when I decided it was too much for me to handle?" That book was one of the reasons I decided NOT to quit. I was so afraid of hating breastfeeding so bad that I never wanted to try it again because I wanted to do it so badly for my DS even though I was scared to death and had no clue what I was getting myself into. I also did not find it to be a source of good medical information on formula use, which was what I was looking for at the time. It didn't give you any information, any how-to's, and simply served to validate a formula using mother's feelings by bashing on breastfeeding the entire time. It included a section that was meant to confuse mothers regarding research on infant feeding methods. It spent an entire chapter drawing the relationship between breastfeeders and members of a cult, and it really bothered me. I am curious to know how other people who have read the book felt because as a person who was hating breastfeeding at the time, and considering the switch, it scared the (...) out of me. I didn't want to hate breastfeeding mothers that much. I wanted help figuring out what would happen to my child if I switched, and it didn't give any information on that.
Rating:
Summary: A Negative Book
Review: This book just left me w/ negative feelings. It seems to me that the author is very angry and is set on defending herself against women who choose to breastfeed and are successful. She assumes that those successful women are all anti bottle feedding zealots. It is not fair to judge people by the way they feed their child. Nobody can know their true feelings. I think that the authors obvious anger makes her book very biased and so it does not give out good information. I would like to see a book about bottle feeding and positive mothering without making the book into a breastfeeding bashing session, which this book clearly is. The idea was great, but this woman is just too emotionaly involved to write an unbiased book.
Rating:
Summary: Breastfeeding is NOT as easy as some would make it seem!
Review: I had my son and was going to BF. He ended up having to stay in NICU for a week and I was there constantly, trying and trying to get him to latch on. I had nurses and LC's working with me and I was not ever able to get him to latch. Not once. I TRIED AND TRIED AND TRIED until I was in tears, my baby was in tears, and I was at my wit's end. I also never had a good supply of milk. I pumped and pumped, every 2 hours using both a hand pump and a piston pump and I never got more than 2 oz of milk *total* from both breasts. So don't say that I didn't try my damned best. I did. I was on fenugreek and then regulan. It just wasn't mean to be. Ater 2 weeks of this (and having to supplement my son with formula, because what else could I do? 1 to 2 oz of MM was not enough to keep him alive :P), I was a total wreck, emotionally and physically. I felt like a horrible failure as a mother becase I couldn't even do something that I had been told was so easy, so basic ("*everyone* can BF, you just have to keep trying...") and here I couldn't do it. It was a very dark, very bad time for me. In the midst of this, I found this book. It was a lifesaver, making me feel that it was OK that I wasn't able to do this, and that even if I couldn't BF, I was still doing the best I could for my child. I needed to hear that at the time *so* badly. It was an immense help to me. I do not feel that Ms. Robin is against BF. She is against the many people who I call "BF Nazi's" that try and make women feel like they are complete scum if they don't BF for whatever reason. It is not always a choice for some people and I wish these "Nazis" would realize that and just shut up already. A woman who has just given birth has enough to deal with and doesn't need to have a guilt trip put on them. They are feeding their child, and regardless of how they are doing it, they love their children as much as any other mother. Who are *you* to say how much a mother loves her own child? Who are you to say that by feeding formula instead of MM, that mother is abusing her child? You people are NOT God, so stop trying to judge everyone else.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: I wanted to breastfeed, but my sone was born early and needed to be in NICU for a week, and by the time he was out, he wouldn't latch on, and despite pumping, pumping and trying everything (included LCs) to get him to latch on, it didn't happen for me. The guilt I experienced from this was horrible. I felt like a total failure as a mother because I couldn't even feed my son. Post-partum hormones do not help. Reading this book really made me feel better about myself and the fact that bottle feeding was ok and I shouldn't beat myself up for it. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is having problems breastfeeding or for those who simply do not want to. It lets you know that it's OK!! You're still doing the best for your child, either way. Period.
Rating:
Summary: Too much negativism and misinformation.
Review: I purchased this book when it first came out (1995) and was amazed at how negative Ms. Robin was and how she uses her own spin to put out misinformation about breastfeeding. At times I made notes on the page margins where I was incredulous about her reasoning. Some of these are: 1. Ms. Robin's book is based on interviews with women who responded to an ad in a Washington D.C. newspaper called "Parenting." This ad asked specifically for responses from "mothers who received unsolicited advice, comments, or pressure about their decision not to breastfeed." She continues on by saying, "Nearly every caller began with words like these: 'Oh, how I've wanted to talk about this to someone!' Or: 'I've felt so guilty!'...'Some people treat me as if I'm guilty of child abuse!' I'd clearly touched a raw nerve in a great many parents." Actually, in her endnotes, she states that "31 out of 64 women who responded" expressed relief at finding someone to talk to or frustration with the breastfeeding community. This is out of the entire Washington D.C. area. If you do the math, then out of all the responses she received, less than half were responses from women who met the criteria that she specifically asks for in her book. To me, that doesn't signify "a great many parents." 2. Out of her "38 Reasons for the Bottle" I found #21 to be a very sound reason to breast feed. It regards a severely allergic baby and states how a nursing mother may have "to follow a course of trial-and-error elimination of suspected allergens such as dairy products" and other foods. If you have a severely allergic baby then dairy products are high on the list of products a nursing mother needs to avoid. However, formula is a dairy product so starting your baby on formula would not help this type of baby. It would then be trial-and-error of trying to find the right formula. Of course Ms. Robin has the answer by stating, "rather than spend several weeks or months experimenting with her diet, she may instead _simply_ opt to put the baby on a hypoallergenic soy-based formula, made with predigested protieins and easily broken-down fats for maximum digestibility by even the most sensitive babies." What she fails to mention that this is not a _simple_ option for even formula fed babies. Doctors usually go through a trial-and-error experimentation of finding a formula that a baby can tolerate and the formula Ms. Robin specifically describes is extremely expensive which is not a _simple_ option for most parents. After all, something that is "predigested" is not easy to come by. 3. The main thing that I disagree with in this book, is that Ms. Robin views La Leche League, an international organization founded to provide information to breastfeeding mothers, as a cult. This is so unwarranted that I consider it slanderous. For instance, at the beginning of the third chapter she writes about "The Breastfeeding Movement and Nine Characteristics of a Cult." Under this heading she mentions La Leche League by name and many authors that have written books for La Leche League. At the bottom of this page she has a footnote (the only footnote at the bottom of the page in the entire book; the rest are treated as endnotes at the back of the book) she states, "I am indebted to Larry Kahaner, a private investigator who is expert on cults and the author of a book ('Cults That Kill') for his help in compiling this listing of cult characteristics." To me the styling of this page is intentional to have the name La Leche League and the title "Cults That Kill" to be linked. But I guess I'm just being oversensitive and since I'm probreastfeeding I've probably been brainwashed by the breastfeeding movement and am now severely paranoid. I wish I had more time and energy to review this book, but I hope these three examples will show that: 1. Ms. Robin started this book with her own experience and 31 others in the Washington D.C. area. Not such an overwhelming majority as she leads to believe. 2. Information in her book may be flawed and she puts her own personal spin of what parents _simply_ can do. 3. She makes no bones about calling a non-profit organization that has helped millions of mothers worldwide breastfeed their babies a cult that is trying to undermine a woman's right to choose whether or not to breast or bottle feed. If you are truly wanting information on bottlefeeding, find another book.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for any bottlefeeding mom
Review: When I saw messages posted about this book, I thought I would see comments from bottle feeding mothers who found Peggy Robins book useful and educational, as I did, but once again, this book review platform was taken over by breastfeeding advocates. I swear no place is safe. In any case, I want to say this book is a must read for any woman, regardless of her circumstance, who is bottlefeeding. It is full of wonderful information that debunks information (most unproven and without any kind of scientific, longintudinal research) about breastfeeding that is jammed down the throats of millions of women. My son was bottlefed and is a happy, healthy child - yes, this is possible! I have found that there are so many other critical decisions about his well being I have to make, than what is put in his mouth the first year or two of his life. For anyone who wants information about bottlefeeding, buy this book - and don't let anyone make you feel like less of a mother for not breastfeeding!!!
Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK
Review: Fact: U.S. taxpayers unwittingly support and encourage bottle-feeding by spending over $500 million each year to provide 35% of the infants in the U.S. with free formula. Fact: If every newborn in the U.S. were breastfed for just 12 weeks, the health care savings from avoiding non-chronic diseases in the first year of life alone would be $2-4 billion yearly. Fact: The U.S. has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates and one of the highest infant mortality rates in the industrialized world. Fact: Federal health officials have estimated that in 1992 alone, 8,168 deaths occurred as a direct result of withholding breastmilk. Fact: Insufficient Milk Syndrome is a disease that virtually did not exist years ago, and is now being diagnosed more frequently. Women become increasingly convinced that they are incapable of breastfeeding their child, while the fact remains that it is practically unknown for a mammal in her normal environment to produce live young and not be able to suckle them. This is borne out in many traditional societies, where the rate of mothers successfully breastfeeding their young is near 100%. Fact: Human breast milk is the ONLY source of PERFECTLY nutritious, safe, and natural food for human babies. Please do not buy this book. Make the right decision for your baby by doing what comes naturally: breastfeeding. Besides, breastmilk is FREE!! (Above information adapted from Milk, Money and Madness by Naomi Baumslag, M.D., M.P.H., and Dia L. Michels (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED).
Rating:
Summary: I realize this isn't a debate board, but ....
Review: to the LA poster I agree that women who breastfeed should not be criticized or judged." and bottlefeeding mothers should? And bfers should not be criticized if they are rude and mean spirited to bottlefeeding mothers? Yeah, that's right a bfing mother should never be criticised. And btw MS Robin was criticising a particular type of bfing mother, not all of them. Have you read the book? Just curious. However, there are a lot of claims to breastfeeding that are true, and the author practically denies all of these claims. " No, she does not, she offers some commen sense particularly to some of the more outlandish claims. Bm biggest advantages are it's immune properties, but has been said before US children seem to be doing swimmingly even when they don't receive them so we could argue whether it's absolutely imperative every child receives them. She's definitly reaching at every angle she can to bash breastfeeding. It is a bad message to new mothers who want to do the right thing." Oh give it a rest, the right thing.So there are no instances where bottlefeeding is the right thing. Look lady, I would submit most parents want to do the "right thing" for thier children, it just does not mean the right thing is always bfing. Again she's not bashing bfing, just the culture of bfing very different. The woman that mentioned that we will just be stuffing McDonald's doen our childrens throats in a few years, "so what does it matter" is mistaken. Breastfeeding offers many advantages that last for life that formula cannot offer. " So you are saying that stuffing Mcdonald's in a kids mouth won't have any harmful effects if they have been bf? Not sure of your point. Bottle feeding is not bad if you cannot breastfeed, but we certainly should not be writing a book to encourage people that it is "superior in some cases" as she states in the book." You just completely contradicted yourself. If bottlefeeding is not bad if you can't bf, than the logical conclusion is it is not bad for anyone using it. And yes, when women have already made the choice they deserve some encouragment. What do you propose, we constantly browbeat women who are bottlefeeding? why? In addition, it is extremely unprofessional for her to bash La Leche League as she does." No, it's not, they are an advocacy organization. Like any, they often make outlandish claims to support thier cause. ANYONE has a right to criticise an advocacy group. It keeps them honest imo. She's obviusly feeling a tremendous amount of guilt for not breastfeeding her second child, otherwise why would she be coming up with excuses not to breastfeed, like when you have a sleepy baby? Get real. America is being poisoned by her thoughts. Shame on her." Oh please, just because someone does not agree with a zealot like yourself does not mean they are guilty. This is the type of thinking that actually is the problem with this stuff. You are your own worst enemy bfing zealots. I'd dare say you turn me off more than any book on bottlefeeding could to bfing.
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