Spelling Things Out

Now that I have more television stations than one knows what to do with, in the rare instances where the girls nap, I find myself occasionally watching something really, really stupid. Take "Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood" for example. Tori Spelling, of "90210" and 'being a daughter to a ridiculously wealthy TV guy' fame, and her spotlight seeking husband have a reality show chronicling their lives.

Watching it, I had a thought. She really isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, is she? The weird thing to me is that I haven't pretty much seen, thought of or noticed Tori Spelling since "90210" went off the air like a decade ago. But she recently wrote a book dishing all about her crazy upbringing and so she's back in the public eye, and besides on her reality show today, I've seen her on "The View" and the "Tyra Banks Show" recently (I realize confessing to this isn't making me look much better than her.)

Apparently when her Dad died awhile back, he left her $200,000 in his will. Although I could do a LOT of things with two hundred grand, you have to admit it'd be a bit of a slap in the face for someone whose Dad was worth like $500 million and hired snow making machines to fill their L.A. backyard with snow for Christmas and for someone whose childhood Halloween costumes were created one of a kind by famous designers. Especially when you figure that he left $25,000 in his will for the family manicurist.

She talks about getting ready for a family portrait when she was 12 years old, and getting frustrated with her bangs not cooperating. She says, "I couldn’t get them to do whatever a twelve-year-old in 1985 wanted bangs to do." Remembering the '80s, even her family probably couldn't afford the necessary hair spray. Anyway, she went into her parents’ bathroom, all dressed up, her hair done to the best of her ability, and asked her mother, “Am I pretty?” Her Mom looked at her and said, “You will be when we get your nose done.”

How much would that screw a person up? Around that same age my Mom once told me I needed to put on deodorant before I left the house for school, and I didn't get past it 'til . . . well, I'm sure I'll be over it soon. Even if growing up as a pampered multi-bagillionaire, working with Shannen Doherty and the chemical effects of that many hair bleaching incidents didn't mess you up, you wouldn't stand a chance with a Mom like that. I kinda feel sorry for her.

On her reality show I watched today, Tori was really freaking out about her husband's new masseuse. Her friend is all reassuring, "He's married to you, he's not going to fall for some other girl." Tori points out that that isn't all that reassuring when both her and her husband were actually married to different people when they originally hooked up. If that doesn't cause some serious trust issues, I don't know what does.

But if there was one topic Tori could've commented on that would've annoyed me enough to ignore the little pangs of pity I have for her, and cement my view of, "Well, now I have no choice to see her as anything but an idiot," she picked it on "The View" a little while back. The heavy estrogen and a couple of recent mothers on stage made it impossible to avoid the topic of breast feeding. Tori said (and I had to watch the stupid clip like 10 times to get it all, since I couldn't find it anywhere online already all typed out. What good are you Google?!), "There's all these studies now that they say you really only need to give the baby [breast milk] for the first two weeks, where they get the essentials . . . they're showing that it's less and less time that the baby really needs the breast milk, now there's so many, like the Enfamil, that really mirrors the breast milk."

And nobody corrected her or commented or anything. Stupid suck up co-hosts. They all just nodded, like they were fascinated by the wit and wisdom of Tori Spelling.

Even though this country is seeing a much needed increase in breast feeding and breast feeding-acceptance, the idea that 'as long as the baby gets colostrum, that's all that is important' is still thrown out there as if breast feeding past three or four days (and later, six weeks, and then six months) was all that it takes to get the full benefit of breast feeding. Despite the fact that multiple health organization in our country and throughout the world encourage breast feeding through at least a year, and as long as it is mutually desired by mother and child.

OK, I'm grateful for how amazingly far formula has come. Mothers have the option of feeding their baby a healthy, nutritious substitute for breast milk when their bodies, schedules or personal preferences make breast feeding anywhere from undesirable to impossible. But don't give me the whole 'they're the same thing', or worse, the idea my Grandmas' generation was fed, that 'science can one up nature' on this. If formula was so perfect, then why are they constantly 'perfecting' it with each new version. Things like DHA, which is all the rage in being 'more like mother's milk' wasn't in a single formula how recently? (And even in that, there's a segment of the medical community claiming that babies react negatively to this additive and it should me removed.) If formula was 'just as good', why do many mothers have to go through formula after formula after formula, trying to find one that is actually tolerated by their baby's body. Every so-called 'improvement' of formula doesn't make it better than breast milk, it is merely correcting a deficiency that formula has always had.

It annoys me that anyone, blonde ditzes included, can get up and spout off 'facts' about breast feeding that make absolutely no sense, and nobody does or says anything in way of correction. It annoys me even more that doctors, trying to be PC I guess, don't even try to encourage breast feeding in new mothers. And even more that doctors will actually encourage mothers to stop breast feeding at the slightest sign of trouble. I've talked to multiple new mom's lately who's doctors decided their babies weren't gaining fast enough, so they 'prescribed' supplementation with formula. Rather than encouraging increased time at the breast, more frequent feedings, pumping to increase supply, changes in diet, change in positioning, herbs, any number of things that will increase milk supply and naturally help bring a baby up to a more appropriate weight. It bugged me that my daughter was given formula in the nursery at the hospital a mere hour after birth without me even being asked if that was OK. It annoys me that the medical community as a whole doesn't seem to have the respect and trust in a woman's body that 95% of the time will work perfectly if the woman has confidence in and dedication to breast feeding her child.

Breast feeding won't work for everyone, but that doesn't mean it's not the best of the positive options.

Does formula adapt to the nutritional needs of your child as he/she grows? Nope.
Does formula give your child the immunity benefits of mother's antibodies? Nope.
Does formula give a mother and baby the close physical contact that promotes additional bonding? Not unless you're incredibly dedicated to bottle feeding in a 'as much like the breast' fashion as possible.

Protein in breast milk is mostly whey, which is much easier for humans to digest than casein (the main protein in cow's milk). Breast milk protein also contains high amounts of amino acids that play a big role in brain and eye development. Something that only more recent generations of formula are even trying to replicate.

Fats in breast milk are pretty much self-digesting, due to enzyme's in the milk that's sole purpose is to break down fats. Breast milk also contains ample amounts of certain omega-3 fatty acids, long before they were all trendy.

Vitamins and minerals in breast milk are bioavailable -- meaning they get well absorbed.

Immune Boosters are delivered to the baby through millions of living white blood cells that fight off diseases. My favorite part, these antibodies are 'custom' . . . each time the mother is exposed to a germ (like if their two year old brought a bug home from nursery), the mother's significantly more mature immune system kicks in and the specific antibodies are fed to the baby. Even cooler, if the baby gets a bug that the mom hasn't been exposed to, the baby's saliva basically infects the mother, and her body starts to produce the necessary antibodies. The idea that only colostrum contains this is completely false. Pre-milk (colostrum) contains the highest concentration of immunoglobulins, during the first three to five days of life; but after that, for at least a year, the milk produced contains Secretory IGA, which attaches to the lining of the nose, mouth, throat and GI tract to fight the attachment of specific infecting agents. The levels of IGA against specific infections and bacteria increase on demand, based on what the mother is exposed to in her environment.

"There are 4,000 species of mammals, and they all make a different milk. Human milk is made for human infants and it meets all their specific nutrient needs," says Ruth Lawrence, M.D.

No matter what Tori Spelling has to say on the subject.