Breastfeeding Medicine Editorial misses the mark

What a sad day. This editorial, its author, the publication, and the entity that publishes it has shown in recent months that they cannot even uphold the most basic of standards regarding conflicts of interest. The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine accepts industry funding for advertising and sponsorship, it promotes industry-funded speakers at its conferences and it allows industry-funded folks to populate its leadership team. Clearly it is unable to opine with any credibility on an initiative that is built on the foundational principle of insulating infants, their families and their caregivers from industry influence. Without this credibility, at best this editorial reads as arrogant and out of touch. At worst It provides fodder for industry-fuelled skepticism. Whatever happened to, “first, do no harm?”