To think breastfeeding is less important than a healthy diet?

We went on holiday, recently and I did notice that a lot of children are incredibly overweight, though. It was a shock tbh.

How do you know that Instagram is a realistic representation of what they eat all week??

people are more likely to post treats on SM than the boring raisins and healthy foods their child takes to school.

I've seen this a few times.
Mums who BF for well over a year, then allowed their children to eat shite and get overweight, and are still overweight in their teens.
It is a bit weird.

My DM conducted an ad hoc field study in this. The number of participants enrolled in study mean that her work is unlikely to be published in a journal of note…

I was formula fed - couldn’t latch at all, probably tongue tied but this wasn’t checked in olden times. Identical twin was BF for under a year. Fast forward many years, we are roughly the same (healthy) weight, height, in good health and had similar academic and career outcomes. I am however, very short-sighted and despise olives. She suffers terribly from hayfever. Take from that what you will.

Edited for typo. Twin wouldn’t have made that mistake. Maybe there is something in it!

@Alltgetreesarebrown23 BF doesn’t necessarily mean BF on demand. I BF on a routine with both of mine from a pretty early stage. This was actually the most usual way of BF for my parents’ generation. Even when people say they EBF, most kids do get themselves into a routine pretty quickly. Not all babies are feeding around the clock for months on end. Most women would have to stop when they went back to work if that was the case. Also didn’t have any issues with weaning either of mine.

And I might get flamed for this but I do feel the regularity of bottle feeding at set times etc helped introduce set meal times and less snacking etc. The ebf on demand babies I know tended to snack and like easy to eat snack type food when weaned. Its not a huge sample size and I'm not claiming anything universal! But although Im very sad I could not bf, it definitely made weaning easier for our family

For me actually there was a correlation. I was adamant I would BF but turned out to have a medical condition (diagnosed etc) that meant I produced virtually nothing. When I was weaning my babies therefore I went out of my way to give them the best food possible. They both eat everything now as teens, we were pretty vehement about fsmily meal times etc. One would prefer rubbish if that was possible but is too concerned with gym etc not to eat well.

I don’t think you were looking very hard at the evidence. I hated every minute of BF, it hugely exacerbated my PND, but the evidence was clear, BF was important enough I had to proceed.

That was a long time ago now and I have no regrets. The long term health of my children was more important than my short term comfort. I wouldn’t say I’m a ‘child centred’ parent at all, I’ve made lots of selfish decisions for myself over the years, but the evidence for BF was so abundantly clear to me.

Scientifically speaking based on gut microbiome, brain development, immunity etc etc bf is more important. But bf wont outweigh a life time of unhealthy food

I’d be interested to see some stats on this. Of all the women I can think of who I knew who BF only one was obese (no longer, due to WLI) and her children were skinny as anything. I’ve not witnessed what you’re describing at all.

It is surprising the amount of pro bf mothers who are obese and once their dc are weaned they too become obese.

Yes, bf is of course great if the dm wants to and is able but fgs a good healthy diet is far more important for long term health benefits.

It also often leads to amazing hassle free way to feed babies.

Do what?

I think on average women who breastfeed probably feed their children a healthier diet later. But the women you're describing OP might be the gentle parenting type- they are very, very into breastfeeding and also into a very 'child centred' way of parenting which would include letting them eat whatever they want to eat. I'm not trying to stereotype all gentle parents, just a subset who are loud on social media!

Sometimes getting a child to actually eat a healthy diet can be difficult. I still breastfeed my nearly 3 year old son. He has additional needs and some sensory issues so his diet while not terrible can be quite limited. He’s offered healthy food all the time and usually will eat it at home if it’s made a specific way that he likes. We do allow him things like biscuits and crisps occasionally if we’re out to eat and I know there’s nothing else there he’ll eat. Breastfeeding I think is a good bonus for him on days when he might not have eaten the best.

I know overall breastfed babies are supposed to eat a wider variety of foods.

Mine was an absolute nightmare with weaning and I don’t think breastfeeding on demand helped. She didn’t want to eat anything and coupled with being constantly ill over the winter ended up in hospital due to low iron. At one she would have been getting most of her calories from breast milk. I felt like a failure and had honestly tried every thing.

To start with she started taking more of the processed crap (no doubt people on here would judge for that) but now at 3 she has a very balanced diet and I’m very conscious about her iron intake. Although it costs a fortune, her favourite foods are berries, salmon, lamb and prawns 🤪

Both were hugely important to me. No point arguing over which is better.

I think you’re getting confused with birth weight and prematurity.

A premature baby may be more prone to health issues throughout their lives than a full term baby. When my almost 5 year old has a health issues we get asked about his birth and if he was premature because these things make a difference longer term.

A baby who is 10lbs because of gestational diabetes is also more likely to have health issues later down the line.

Babies weight percentile can absolutely change from their birth weight. My son was around the 40th percentile when he was born, just under 8lbs but by 3months old he was up to the 95th percentile (breastfed) and tracked that until he was around 3 years old. Equally I know people whose babies were born on the 60th percentile but by 3 months were around the 20th and tracked that for years into childhood.

People will feed their children junk if they are that way inclined.

It’s probably healthier to be breastfeed and then fed junk than formula fed and then fed junk. Though a childhood of being fed healthy food probably has a bigger impact on overall health than whether the first year is breastmilk or formula.

But I don’t how you really know what people’s children eat day to day though. My kids have a fruit shoot at a kids party because it’s often the only drink that’s provided for children. They might have a McDonald’s if we’re travelling or something. It doesn’t mean they’re raised on a unhealthy food.

Breastfeeding is the holy grail and will give your child so many health benefits and the absolute best start in life.
It can never be compared to formula, its like day and night.

It's too early to tell if there will be any long term effects but I'm glad I breastfed both of mine for a long time...DS1 has a healthy diet/eats anything but DS2 has turned out to be mega fussy (we are working on it but it is slow going).

What would you say it is? Genetics? Who knows. But if my husband ate like me he’d be absolutely huge.

Clutching at straws as I don’t know anyone who has done this to the extreme that op is describing but I suppose it depends on why they breastfed. For some its cost, it’s free to breastfeed (if you don’t pump) or attachment. So maybe it was never about nutrition.

Do you have an evidence for this?

I would be more worried about the 10 pound baby honestly, in case of undiagnosed gestational diabetes.

Bizarre to be upset about having an 8 pound baby.

Is it pure luck?