Whoever You Are.. Know that I Love You

 It's 3am and I can't sleep. I really really wanna leave this Similac recall issue alone to die but a fellow new mom and friend of mine wanted to know other comparable alternatives to Similac Sensitive and Enfamil Gentlease for her gorgeous little boy.

So I started looking and chanced upon an article regarding Enfamil Restfull (which is pretty much the same as the formula I use for Yuna which is Enfamil AR) and its correlation with SIDS.  Now I'm not gonna post the link to this article, because the last thing I'd like to do is drive more traffic to this author's site which could potentially misinform other people.  Besides, it's a load of crap anyway.

All it is is an attack towards Mead Johnson for producing a formula that helps babies sleep through the night, claiming that babies who tend to be "good, deep sleepers" are predisposed to SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).  Now I don't know about y'all but I love me some sleep.. and I do know that infants need a good night's rest in order  to develop their little brains. Yet, to add insult to the injury, she went on and on about how formula is completely devoid of the glyconutrients needed to protect babies from SIDS and blah blah blah.. oh what the heck, let me just post an excerpt from her article :

"All of these SIDS causes are especially true for babies born premature, or those who were induced to birth or electively c-sectioned, rather than triggering labor in their own time (when lungs are fully 'done' and birth hormones kick things into high gear naturally). Babies who trigger labor on their own experience the protective hormones that flood an infant's brain during labor/birth ~ another protective feature against SIDS. Unfortunately, artificial induction, elective c-section, and premature birth (along with formula feeding) is ubiquitous across the United States today. These are major components in why we have the highest rates of infant morbidity and mortality in the entire developed Western world.

Many reliable, valid, peer-reviewed studies show that formula fed babies have DOUBLE to TRIPLE the risk of SIDS due to the above mentioned factors. Formula was designed to be a survival tool for babies who absolutely could not get the human milk they need from any other source. Formula keeps babies alive more often, and for longer, than feeding straight non-human animal milk. However, it is severely lacking from what babies need to optimally grow and maintain their health. The new "RestFull" formula only promises to intensify all of these factors, in turn leading to a higher rate of SIDS.

If you absolutely must formula feed, have baby in the same room as his/her non-smoking mother to sleep and wake to feed baby throughout the night. Babies require night-time parenting for their optimal, normal, health and wellbeing. This consists of parents losing out on full nights worth of sleep. Sometimes for many months on end. It is just part of being the caring, in-tune parent of an infant. If these things do not sound appealing to you...don't have a baby."

 Dumbass, right?? Basically, all she's saying is that if you:
1. Formula Feed
2. Had a premie
3. Had a c-section
4. Had an induced labor

Then you might as well ditch that $200 video monitor and stay up day and night watching over your baby, because God forbid if you so much as blink, your little one might just fall prey to SIDS.

To my dismay, she was successful in gaining the attention of ass kissers who shared the same sentiments and congratulated her for coming up with such a "brilliant" article. I was just about to post a very unpopular response to this until I saw this comment:

by So Over Your Santimonious Crap 3 weeks ago

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I can't get over the faulty logic behind an article that first states that the product could not possibly operate as promised, and then bemoans the damage that would be caused if the product were to actually deliver....if it doesn't actually work, then there is no danger, right? I fed my daughter a couple of ounces of this, and I didn't really notice a huge difference. Then again, she's also slept on her tummy from day one with a big fluffy blanket draped over her and her white-noise giraffe, so what do I know about SIDS? I would be interested to find out how many cases of SIDS occurred while the child's parents were genuinely following the suggested guidelines.

On a personal note, I think its hilarious that you all whine about how tired you are because you place your babies on their backs and would NEVER even THINK about feeding your precious little ones something as "dangerous" as rice-starch-enriched baby formula (aren't you martyrs all breast-feeding anyway?) because it "could" increase the risk of your babies dying, yet you all seem to have LOADS of time to stand around thinking up problems that don't really exist, forming committees and action groups, blogging about your "campaigns" to "educate" otherwise adequate and loving parents about the "dangers" of a restful sleep, a full tummy, or laying on your side or belly to sleep, and attacking companies who are attempted to create products to assuage your ever-evolving "needs" as ego-driven parents. You expend so much energy convincing yourselves and the world that you are superior....and why? What good does it cause? This is why every single piece of equipment that I own for my child is covered front to back with warning labels; because well-intentioned people who want to protect children have been replaced with ego-maniacal safety-Nazis with very little grasp on reality (I've been there, I really have, ladies...blah blah blah)....

You have cranky, hateful, worldly kids with diaper rashes, allergies, over-bites, and braces who have never ever eaten a bug, slept outside, ridden something with wheels (without putting on $200 worth of pads and a helmet first, anyway) or stuffed their faces with cake ("Organic, gluten-free, lactose-free, sugar-free, hormone-free, free-range ONLY for MY little Johnny!") You're brats. All of you. You're so utterly frightened at the prospect of just doing the best you can that you feel the need to judge other parents, compare their methods to your own, and then scare the crap out of those of us who are simply having a better time at parenting than you are.

If you're having a hard time or you're scared, then say so. Its ok. I don't actually ENJOY parenting for about 2 hours each day (laundry, and bedtime) so its OK to say that you don't like it. But don't create YET ANOTHER "threat" to the safety and well-being of with this stupid rice-enriched formula, that you have a CHOICE not to buy, just to have something to do. I'm too tired, and my daughter is too happy for me to read one more article about how some brilliant mother has uncovered a marketplace conspiracy to murder our children in their sleep. Do you people realize that over 100,000 children WORLDWIDE actually died of something REAL last night: starvation????

"I would never (__________________) to/for/at/with/without my child"...is the first sign that you're stuck on yourselves and your own perceived parental brilliance. Just hush.

Whoever you are, LET'S HAVE COFFEE, HOMIE!!