Breastfeeding Science Denialism: Unpacking a Hidden Harm

In the digital age, misinformation about infant feeding threatens decades of public health efforts to revive breastfeeding. Increasingly sophisticated marketing exploits cultural knowledge gaps, serving commercial interests and exacerbating food insecurity from climate change and migration. Public health literature acknowledges that suboptimal breastfeeding rates are due to systemic failures, not personal ones. However, our social responsibility to parents includes promoting public literacy in infant feeding and breastfeeding and lactation science. Recognizing breastfeeding misinformation as science denialism unlocks field-tested communication tools from domains long-targeted by denialism, such as climate change and vaccines. We describe five breastfeeding denialism strategies that echo tactics historically used to manufacture doubt about scientific consensus: minimization of breastfeeding's importance, misrepresenting research, misrepresenting clinical standards, appeals to individualist values, and leveraging authority through influencers and industry credentials. These practices contradict evidence that lack of breastfeeding access increases disease risk, costing over $500 billion annually. We call for research and suggest actions for clinicians, public health professionals, policymakers, and organizations to protect parents from misinformation. Supporting informed decision-making requires comprehensive medical curricula, organizational statements addressing denialism, policies enacting parental leave and education, and cultural normalization of breastfeeding.