“Not In My Backyard:” Southern Concern on Northern Bottle-feeding Canadian scientists imported much of the discourse concerning the “commerciogenic malnutrition” occurring in developing countries to examine the issues of infant health in the Canadian north. In 1980, in an article in Globe and Mail, Dr. Schaefer argued that the “trend in the Third World towards the use of infant formula, with corresponding increases in malnutrition, infections and death, was also occurring to a milder degree ‘right in our own backyard, the Canadian North.’” Thus, the very real issues with bottle feeding were no longer presented as external to Western society but internal in the Canadian north. Discussions of Inuit lifestyles, northern environments, and southern Canadian action are echoed throughout the printed media during this period.
…show more content…
Articles from The Globe and Mail highlight the southern concern with Inuit feeding practices in the North. One article, published in 1979, discussed the need for “northern Indian and Inuit mothers to breastfeed their babies.” According to Dr. Shaefer and Dr. David Morwood, an ear specialist practicing in Yellowknife, the cause of “crippling ear infections” among Inuit and other native infants in the North. Here, southern doctors, either through research or practice, were importing themselves and their views about bottle-feeding onto Northern indigenous health issues. Although scientific evidence supported the correlation between bottle-feeding and disease, this particular article blames Aboriginal’s “wild years” of illegitimacy for the continued use of bottle-feeding within Inuit and “Indian” communities. As shown with the case of toxic milk in media, it is Inuit lifestyle that is ultimately to blame for the issues
Articles from The Globe and Mail highlight the southern concern with Inuit feeding practices in the North. One article, published in 1979, discussed the need for “northern Indian and Inuit mothers to breastfeed their babies.” According to Dr. Shaefer and Dr. David Morwood, an ear specialist practicing in Yellowknife, the cause of “crippling ear infections” among Inuit and other native infants in the North. Here, southern doctors, either through research or practice, were importing themselves and their views about bottle-feeding onto Northern indigenous health issues. Although scientific evidence supported the correlation between bottle-feeding and disease, this particular article blames Aboriginal’s “wild years” of illegitimacy for the continued use of bottle-feeding within Inuit and “Indian” communities. As shown with the case of toxic milk in media, it is Inuit lifestyle that is ultimately to blame for the issues