Relationship Between the American Academy of Pediatrics and Infant Formula Companies

"Over the course of the next several decades, for a variety of reasons, formula became seen as modern and scientific and breastfeeding as old-fashioned. According to historian Jacqueline Wolf,1 “older pediatricians…came to believe that their fight for milk reform had been too successful” because “mothers and a new generation of pediatricians mistakenly presumed that breastfeeding was wholly unnecessary.” By 1972, only about 1 in 5 new mothers in the United States were attempting to breastfeed.2 During this period, according to Greer and Apple,3 a “comfortable symbiotic relationship” between physicians and formula companies developed. Formula companies provided research grants, sponsored medical meetings, and supported leading educational series such as the Ross Roundtable."