Messing with the Six Months Exclusive Breastfeeding Recommendation: Hidden Boobytrap

Irresponsible reporting of findings--shouldn't AAFCS have something to say about this?  Research findings funded by baby food companies seem to imply that infants shouldn't be breastfed exclusively for 6 months, as every health organization one can think of (WHO, APA, Health People, ADA, etc.) recommends. This information is going to be misunderstood by mothers and mothers-to-be, and certainly there's enough confusion and misinformation out there already about breastfeeding. We need to give good and accurate health and consumer information to consumers. The 6 month exclusive breastfeeding recommendation still stands. It has not changed. I certainly hope that mothers do not discontinue breastfeeding earlier because of the hype around this study, since the study itself does not suggest that would be wise. Family advocates, health educators...you know what you need to do. Get the word out!

Messing with the Six Months Exclusive Breastfeeding Recommendation: Hidden Boobytrap

BMJ Careers - Emotional intelligence

Do doctors and other healthcare providers need emotional intelligence? How can we instill/teach/train or otherwise provide a more comprehensive (and sensitive) skill set to healthcare? BMJ Careers - Emotional intelligence
If we define health as physical, social, and emotional wellbeing, and not just the absence of infirmity, then surely we must train our healthcare practitioners in a much more interdisciplinary, comprehensive, and holistic way. We must truly bring a feminine sensibility to the masculine dominated environment of healthcare!

Health

Human Ecology units are often combined or somehow reorganized with Education or Health. Either combination has the potential to work, depending on the cultures of the units involved and the leadership's commitment to making the new configuration work. Often it makes no practical difference at all. Different dean, same programs, life goes on.

As we talk about how we fit into health focused colleges, which I am not in principle opposed to (and which I think is consistent with the overall philosophy of our discipline), we need to be actively engaged in the process. If we are to fit into some new transdisciplinary concept of health, it helps to have a good definition of health to guide our leadership as they determine what fits with what. I suggest WHO's definition:
WHO definition of Health
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
The correct bibliographic citation for the definition is:
Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June, 1946; signed on 22 July 1946 by the representatives of 61 States (Official Records of the World Health Organization, no. 2, p. 100) and entered into force on 7 April 1948.
The Definition has not been amended since 1948.
http://www.who.int/about/definition/en/print.html.