'Breast is Best'

[OddSocksandRainbowDocs]

It's National Breastfeeding Week and I've seen the phrase 'Breast is Best' banded about quite a few times.

Whilst I agree breastfeeding is scientifically better, some mothers (myself included) physically could not breastfeed so chose to formula feed instead. I was made to feel like a failure by a midwife for choosing to do so.

My little one is now one and a half. She is happy, she is healthy.

I don't know who needs to hear this but 'Breast is Best' isn't always the case. 'Fed is Best' is most definitely the case. It doesn't matter how you feed your baby, as long as the baby is fed, that is all that matters

@Confession101 but the benefit is tiny - so small it can only be ‘seen’ on a population-wide level. I don’t feel too bad telling you that as 1. It’s fact, 2. Your ‘any old shit at Tesco’ was pretty mean.

but yeah, sometimes effort isn’t proportional to results.

@Confession101 statistically, it is the same when you consider it on a case by case basis.

The benefits of breastfeeding over formula feeding are marginal and only observable on a population level.

It will make no material difference to any individual child.

The government should fund formula

Here in Mexico the government used fo fund formula, then that policy was cancelled and the levels of breastfeeding soarded.

As for the complaints about pro-breastfeeders commenting on this thread, it is National Brestfeeding Week

Think you might need to go to specsavers.

as any old shit that you can buy at Tesco and pour into your baby.

What a shitty comment.

Only for the things they actually measure at a population level.

Breastmilk contains all sorts of things that formula doesn't that can be beneficial to health. It was shown that covid antibodies passed through breastmilk, that's pretty useful in a pandemic as a way to give your babies a little protection. Breastmilk has prebiotics that can help the gut biome - the research is only just scratching the surface of how important the gut is to overall health. There's a lot we don't know. But milk designed for human babies is clearly the best thing for them, rather than the altered milk of another species. It's amazing that we have devised a food that can be a pretty good substitute, but that doesn't mean it's just as good or only marginally less good. It contains the bare minimum of things it needs to mimic breastmilk and sustain babies. Just as taking vitamins is a reasonable substitute for eating no vegetables, but you miss out on a lot of other stuff by not eating whole vegetables.

One of the reasons why I carried on bf was that when covid came researches said that bf babies would get the protection from their mums. And in the event of catching the virus it would help them. They said something similar after the vaccines that it would protect them.

not sure whether true or not but despite being around a lot of + cases my son hasn’t caught the virus.

so for those saying it’s the same , it’s not. Breast milk you like it or not will provide the child some protection against viruses.

But it is only marginally better than formula 🤨 just because you don’t like it, doesn’t mean it isn’t true - you can’t say, ‘oh but there are probably loads of benefits we don’t know about yet’ because that isn’t the evidence right now.
Formula has been around long enough now that if there were any really stark differences we would know about them.
and you’re forgetting just how much of a person’s health and intelligence comes from other sources - genetics, lifestyle, food, exercise, education, medical care… breastmilk is such a tiny and temporary part of that.

@EasterIssland You cannot be 100% certain that breastfeeding helped that though. My daughter hasn't had it and as you know, she was formula fed. I've had it and on a different occasion, so did my husband. She's been in contact with people who have tested positive literally hours after being with her. She goes to nursery, with children who don't know to cover their mouth.

Saying that, my friend's daughter who was breastfed, has had covid, really struggled with it and has had every infection going.

I'm not trying to be 'goady' as previously suggested, just pointing out my experience.

That’s why I said “not sure whether true or not”

thars what research says. And also in the event he would have catch it the milk would have adapted to give him some protection. This is not my words. This is research words

Yes, lovely use of anecdata when there is actual research on the topic if you want to have a serious conversation.

@karmakameleon So I'm not allowed to share my experience now?

@karmakameleon Lets

Of course you can. Just as I can point out that if you were genuinely interested there is research on to topic.

@karmakameleon But it's always good to share people's experiences too.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/breastfeeding-and-bottle-feeding/breastfeeding/benefits/

This explains why breast is best

@karmakameleon Apologies, the last post wasnt meant to be but

@WatermelonSugarSigh I have never said breast isn't best, I personally believe that 'fed is best' would be more beneficial to all mothers

I did wonder why you’d tried uncharacteristically made a pleasant remark / joke to someone who disagrees with you but yes, clearly an error

Your child is 18m old, move on for Christs sake.

Breast is best but it doesn't mean anyone should be belittled or judged for choosing not to BF.

@karmakameleon I am a nice person in real life, I'll have you know

@Patapouf My child is 18 months, yes. But there are plenty of new Mum's who are feeling the guilt for not being able to Breastfeed. The whole point of this thread is to say that formula feeding is fine.

Fed is best. Completely agree with you. I breastfed for 5 weeks, until my DS refused and I wasn't expressing properly (midwife tried to help me numerous times) and it just wasn't happening. It was stressful. The midwife at the beginning was with the same mantra "breast is best" and was making me feel bad that I was thinking of formula feeding instead

I eventually decided to go onto formula, as it was either that, or my DS could potentially become extremely malnourished, which wasn't a risk I was willing to take. The midwife eventually did a complete U-turn and was like "oh well, yes, fed is best" and I was sitting there like yes I know Then had the cheek to say I now had pnd. You think?! If you hadn't made me feel so bad in the first place, let alone all the other challenges that comes with having a newborn, then maybe I wouldn't be in this predicament? It made me quite unwell. I still remember it 6 years on

Formula is expensive and if I could have breast fed longer, I absolutely would have. But I couldn't

nor should they be judged for bf past the 6m mark

@bippityboppity87 Do you think the PND was down to the breastfeeding saga?