I formula-fed my daughter, starting from the first hour of her life. I loved it. And I would do it again. Do you hear me, Mayor Bloomberg?

New York City already has an aggressive program to promote breastfeeding called Latch On NYC, and the city’s health department has convinced most hospitals to stop distributing free formula samples to new parents. But that apparently still made it possible for some mothers to bottle-feed their newborns. So starting September 3, the city will urge hospitals to put formula under lock-and-key. Parents who want to bottle-feed their infants will have to convince a nurse to sign out formula for them by giving a medical reason for every bottle. They’ll also have to endure a lecture about why they really should be breastfeeding instead.

This breastfeeding madness has gone far enough. Not just because holding it up as a universal ideal shames those mothers who physically can’t nurse their infants. And not just because the expectation adds further stress to the lives of women who have jobs that aren’t compatible with pumping. But because it is pure and simple snobbery.

What about the studies proving that breastfed children are smarter and healthier, you say? Doesn’t everyone know that “breast is best”? The only disagreement is over how long to breastfeed, right? The U.S. Surgeon General, the World Health Organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics all agree that breastfeeding is the ideal choice. So many experts can’t be wrong, can they?

That’s what my husband wondered as well when he realized that I was serious about formula-feeding. He is, to put it mildly, neurotic. Once we knew I was pregnant, he had our house tested three times for radon—and we don’t even have a basement. He made me leave the kitchen whenever the microwave was in use. If I let him, he would still leave the windows open to air out paint fumes from two years ago. So to get him on board with formula-feeding, you better believe he checked out all the relevant research findings.