MAHA Wants Breastfeeding. Its Moms Should Demand Paid Leave.

Abby McCloskey, Bloomberg, September 29, 2025

“Here’s a big, pressing problem: America’s children are not healthy. Not by any metric of chronic disease, obesity or mental health. It’s more than overdiagnosing and food dyes. It feels deep and systemic and beyond parental control. We’re not really sure what to do about it, for the kids or for ourselves. But the trend lines are moving in the wrong direction.

Given the complexity of the problem, the Make Our Children Healthy Again strategy released this month feels a bit like spaghetti thrown against a wall. The report’s dozens of recommendations range from “promoting innovation in the sunscreen market” to “ensur[ing] flexibility for farms to manage manure.”

But one of the report’s more straightforward recommendations doesn’t require rewiring the medical or food systems. “USDA and HHS will work to increase breastfeeding rates,” the report states, “Whether through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children or other policies that support breastfeeding mothers.”