Cancun, you should understand that while breastmilk is slightly better than infant formula in most situations (not all-- e.g., mothers who are HIV positive should bottlefeed), the emphasis is on the "slightly". It is quite possible to get plenty of infections as a kid despite being breastfed (I am actually an example of someone who did); it is also possible to be perfectly healthy despite being fed infant formula. And, of course, when you get past that, the effect of breast- or bottle-feeding on adulthood is extremely attenuated.

The point is, breastfeeding is beneficial on the margins. And yet breastfeeding activists portray it as if to feed a kid formula is the equivalent of not using a car seat or carrying the baby by his or her feet or something. Those are obviously bad analogies-- the likely result of not breastfeeding a baby is going to be either (a) nothing or (b) some minor infections and the like.

Further, there's way too much judgment of mothers' motives here. What some people decry as "convenience" is often a mother trying to have time for her own needs, her marriage or relationship, her job, etc. Having a mother who is stressed out or upset is probably a lot worse for a child's development than being fed formula from a bottle.

A better comparison with breastfeeding might be the decision of a mother to take the baby shopping rather than hiring someone to do it or ordering groceries by delivery. A mother who does that creates some risk-- after all, the baby is safer at home than he or she is in a moving car or out at the supermarket or the parking lot. And yet nobody would condemn a mother for running those relatively minor risks. And that's why. Because they are minor.

A lot of the debate about breastfeeding is actually tied up in all sorts of bigger issues, such as whether mothers should stay out of the workforce and take care of their children, whether we rely too much on processed food and have abandoned the natural, whether our society has improperly made breasts about sex rather than food, whether corporatism has gone too far, etc. These are all serious issues deserving of serious debate. But you can see, in the serious emotions that the breastfeeding debates generate, these broader debates resonating within this issue.

Everyone needs to calm down. Breastfeeding mothers need to be given the support needed to breastfeed. Bottle-feeding mothers need to be given the support for their choices as well.