Breastfeeding petition for new growth charts

[kreamkrackers]

Came across this petition and wondered if anyone on here wants to join me and sign it

petitions.pm.gov.uk/growth-charts/

Here's the information for it.

This is a petition to ask the government to stop wasting time and introduce the new breastfeeding friendly child growth charts.

The World Health Association have produced growth charts for babies based on breastfed babies, a huge step forward from the current outdated growth charts based on formula fed babies. The government are wasting time as they could have and should have been implemented months ago.

The current centile charts cause dread in breastfeeding mothers as they are based on formula fed babies who grow faster.

This is causing many breastfeeding mothers to feel inadequate and be pushed into giving up breastfeeding or topping up with formula as their babies are classed as "underweight".

The government are all talk when it comes to the "breast is best" campaign, its high time they stop talking and start putting it to practise.

We all know that breastfeeding is recommended up until a baby is 6 months old so why are we charting our children's growth based on formula feeding?

Please sign this petition and give breastfed babies a fighting chance at child health clinics of being seen as normal for their age. Who knows it might even put a stop to the child obesity epidemic.

[pud1]

bump, have just signed.

[StealthPolarBear]

I think bf babies put on weight faster to begin with - for about the first six months.
Not only that, but the current charts do not differentiate - they are not based on formula feeding.

[StealthPolarBear]

sorry, that should have said "formula fed babies"

[lulumama]

AFAIK, the charts are not based on formula fed babies

if you do a search for Tiktok's posts about the centile charts , she explains more about this.

so am not signing.

however i would sign something to support HVs going on yearly breastfeeding training so that they don;t give out potentially damaging advice about breastfeeding.

[scorpio1]

I am pregnant and the HV explained that the charts in the health record i have been given ARE the breastfeeding ones.

[scorpio1]

as opposed to last time i had a baby (3 years ago) when they were FF.

[ruddynorah]

when i had dd i read somewhere that new WHO bf charts were available so i asked my HV to update my red book with those instead of the generic any way fed charts. so that's what i got. are these charts different? this was 2 years ago.

[VictorianSqualor]

The charts were based on both types of babies, formula and breastfed.
You can find specific breastfed or formula fed charts AFAIK but tbh charts are just guidelines anyway, I'd prefer there to be no bloody charts and other ways of seeing if a child was thriving, so I'm not signing either.

[terramum]

AFAIAA the new charts are being trialled somewhere in the UK at the moment. A lot of HV's training & understanding of how charts work, however 'accurate' the charts actually are, is usually very poor so it is sensible to check that using the new charts actually helps mothers & their babies.... so I can't see the point in this petition tbh.

Won't be signing it anyway as it isn't accurate - current charts are NOT based on formula fed babies but babies whose feeding method wasn't differentiated.

[BouncingTurtle]

I asked about mine and my HV said it was based on ff babies. She told me they are planning to being in charts for bf babies. My HVs seem to be quite clued up - ds has dropped from 9th to 2nd centile, but they are not concerned because they know he is bfed.

[BouncingTurtle]

being = bring

[VictorianSqualor]

TikTok knows about the charts, maybe she'll tell us, but I'm sure she has said before theyre based on both types of babies.

[VictorianSqualor]

Here we are.

[tiktok]

Please, please don't sign that petition. I wish whoever had written it would take it down. I am dismayed it is still doing the rounds

It is very misguided, as well as ill-informed. Not to mention badly spelled and badly written. These things matter. If people want to be take seriously, they should do their homework on the issue, and make friends with a proof reader, too.

The newer charts are being trialled in the UK at the moment, and this is the correct way to go about changing practice - do a study in a limited area, observe the results, see if it brings any training needs to the fore, and then introduce any other changes (eg training, or the vocabulary used in the charts, or the way they are presented, or whatever....).

The existing charts in use in the UK are not 'based on formula fed babies'. Many of the babies will have been on at least some formula, of course, but in fact this is not the issue. The newer charts will show slow-gaining breastfed babies as gaining even more slowly, at first, anyway, so the newer charts will need to come with extra training and understanding.

The government are not 'wasting time ' - what a daft thing to say. The charts will be used in the UK, all in good time. You can't just introduce a whole new way of assessing babies on a whim - you need to trial it first and make sure you do it right. You need to ask questions about their use - what happens, for instance, to babies who are mixed fed? What happens to babies who still look smaller on the charts? What happens to babies who stop being breastfed, at whatever age? Do you chart them differently? Only a properly constituted and evaluated study can begin to come up with answers. Otherwise we are making it up as we go along

If anyone knows who started this petition, can they direct them to this thread here on mumsnet?

[tiktok]

I'm bumping this to get it to the top again, in the hope that whoever set up this petition can see the thread, and consider very seriously taking it down.

[kreamkrackers]

I'm really sorry I signed it now and asked others too. You make a lot of sense tiktok. I think when I read it I wasn't really thinking, it sounded so good and I thought it would help mums bf their babies for longer. All I know is a Miss Eloise Cartwright started the petition and now it has all 200 signitures they will look into the petition but I think they'll just tell her everything you just said as you make a lot of sense!

Again sorry

[tiktok]

kream, thanks for responding!

I am pretty sure everyone who signed it signed it in good faith, without thinking...it's a very alluring prospect, to alter something so more mums will have confidence in breastfeeding their babies for longer, after all.

But, as I said, not good

[ib]

I just want to second what tiktok said - please please don't sign this. The way the WHO charts were compiled is completely different from standard charts and - very importantly - leads to a pronounced upward bias. If they are to be implemented a LOT of training on interpretation needs to be done or it will result in the undermining of bf mothers.

Really not what is needed!