subject: French Cultural Norms Create Sickly Children [print this page] According to a recent magazine article in Parents France, it was revealed that French children experience more illnesses than other babies throughout Europe. According to a French translation service that translated the study to English, one of the main factors is likely to be the fact that only 65 percent of French women breastfeed their babies at birth. Three months after birth, only 38 percent are still breastfeeding, and the number falls to 23 percent after six months post partum. This is an extreme deviation from international recommendations that call for women to breastfeed for the entire time for the first six months at a minimum. However, France has made progress in this respect. In the 1970s only 36.6 percent of French women breastfed their babies at all.
This is in stark contrast to other European nations where breastfeeding is viewed as essential and a natural part of life. In Norway, for example, more than 98 percent of women breastfeed their babies at birth. At the three month mark, 90 percent are breastfeeding, and at the six month mark, 80 percent continue to breastfeed. Its simply a difference in how breast feeding is viewed. In Norway, for example, it is difficult to find formula in a grocery store. However in France, feeding babies formula has become the accepted norm. As a result, Norwegian children experience fewer illnesses due to lowered immunity than do French children. Sociologists have also argued that children who are breastfed during the first six months of life experience a stronger infant-maternal bond.
