FFS yet another reason to feel guilty about formula feeding!

[BigMommaOfAlmost4]

So in addition to potentially lethal bacteria, some formula milks also contain dangerously high levels of aluminuim.

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1308517/Health-fear-Up-40-times-aluminium-formula-milk-breast-milk.html

Just what I needed to read with a 6 week old DS who will not breastfeed fulltime (uses me as a dummy and then screams for a bottle as well) as I was in such agony with bleeding nipples that I had to run out to Asda in tears in the early hours of the morning to get him bottles and formula and of course since then he prefers bottles!

Of course the article says that there is less aluminium in the powder but I have been giving DS the ready made cartons to avoid the risk of the bacteria in the bloody powder!!

AIBU in being fucking furious that formula milk manufacturers cannot provide a product that will not potentially harm my baby? Apparently the aluminuim residues come from the packaging. Why can't they sell it in glass jars then? I am positive that people would not mind paying extra for that.

Oh apparently they've know about this for years so at least my other 3 DCs who were all on FM at some point have all been potentially poisoned too not just this one FFS.

Where are the government is all this? I know they are promoting breastfeeding but some people can't and have no option but to buy formula. Why are these companies not more tightly controlled?

BigMomma - Please dont beat yourself up about it. The Daily Fail will get you down whoever you are and whatever you do because thats what it does best!

Do what is best for you.

Ski - :o

LOL Ski.

OP, congratulations on your new baby. Ignore all the nonsense and make sure you're both happy. Don't forget that the majority of baies in the UK are given formula and funilly the life expectancy is fairly high.

"there may be a lot we don't yet know about benefits and risks of FF."

Formula has been around for ages. I survived to a grand old age of 40-ish as have my brothers and none of us had a drop of breastmilk. There are risks in everything in life and the Daily Mail is overly fond of making us paranoid. Enjoy your baby!

Ummmmm

I didn't feel one iota of guilt about feeding my HEALTHY, HAPPY dc formula.

And they have not been poisoned. To the best of my knowledge.

Good grief.

So the consensus is we don't want to know when it is discovered that FF is contaminated or carries some risk.

Because we have survived/our babies have survived just fine thank you very much.

And the second an individual mother gets angry at formula companies (which could lead to consumer pressure/political pressure/regulation/re-formulation/etc) we rally behind her and tell her to stop being angry, thereby ensuring there will never be a consumer campaign to make formula safer?

OK!

Why not join OP in a little bit of anger? Start a MN campaign to see what can be done to make formula safer, and to make BFing support more available so that fewer women end up making emergency ASDA runs to feed their babies?

"The more I read this shit, the more it gets my heckles up and makes me think formula from day one for my next child."

Will that really make you feel better ?
Bit nose off to spite your face wouldn't you say and since it's not your nose but the baby's a wee bit unfair.

Next time I'll starve my baby to death rather than give formula. Or would that be cutting off my baby's nose?

Yeah obviously that's what I meant you should do.

Agree with Egypt.

In reference to SM's comment on being told formula poisons babies, I have been told on mn that formula kills babies, with a study from 1984 to "back up" the claim. That made me feel good about my ff baby.

Re formula generally my mum was adopted and so ff. She's 70 and fine. Can you imagine what they were giving her in the 40's?!! I'm sure it's a lot safer now.

Just feel comfortable with your choice.

when someone shows me actual people who are [for example] obese DIRECTLY from having formula as a baby [so a perfectly healthy diet/excercise after being FF] then i'll believe all the crap that is said about what you feed your child in the first year impacts their entire life.

seriously, if someone can point me to an actual case where doctors have said to someone 'yep, your immune system is low because you were FF, here are the test results to prove it' then that would be great. thats an actual individual person, not a massive test study with too many other factors to even start to consider.

'thats an actual individual person, not a massive test study with too many other factors to even start to consider.'

So you prefer anecdotes to actual evidence then lemony

I don't know about feeling guilty but the formula companies need to sort it out.

Oh the anti-formula hysteria is plain old fashioned misogyny. The point is, it's just another way to make sure that women feel guilty and scared and NEVER FORGET that they exist for other people's benefits and any attempt to make their own lifes better or easier is both wicked and Carries All Sorts of Risks. Successful BF is the best option (as long as mother not HIV+ or an alcoholic), but FF is better than BF which is an agonizing struggle.

"when someone shows me actual people who are [for example] obese DIRECTLY from having formula as a baby [so a perfectly healthy diet/excercise after being FF] then i'll believe all the crap that is said about what you feed your child in the first year impacts their entire life"

One day they probably will be able to do that though, science and medicine are improving daily. You have to remember smoking was once thought to be ok and there are people in their 80's who've smoked since they were 15 and they are fine, doesn't mean most us would be though.

What should happen is that women should be truthful with each other, yes breast feeding is difficult for almost everyone I've ever met and yet you read that it's the most natural thing in the world, well it's certainly not easiest.

no, sorry i got carried away, apologies.
i mean it like this. for example, if you had a group of 1000 people, 500 BF 500 FF, and there were significantly more obese people in the FF group, assuming that obesity is caused by FF is a bit daft right? because youd then go on to look at other factors, for example, in that FF group how many people lived in socially deprived areas [with higher rates of unhealthy eating] or how many of them had obese parents who overfed them over their lifetime. if i eat a chocolate bar and a month later get a spot, i wouldnt blame the first chocolate bar, i'd blame all the other chocolate bars i'd gobbled in the meantime

i just want to know if there are any cases out there on someone [lets call him Fred] so Fred is 35 and has a low immune system. he goes to the doctors to find a cause, and out of all other factors [family history, environment etc] doctors say 'yes, Fred, your low immune system is caused solely by the 9 months of FF when you were a baby, here is the test we did to find that out, and here is the evidence'

and the reason people bring up anecdotes around BF and FF is because they are relevant, i've never heard of anyone on these threads come up with an anecdote saying 'yep, my brother was FF and was obese at 28 and doctors said it was definately the FF and not all the pies'
its different to smoking for example, because as far as i remember when my great uncle caught lung cancer they could prove it was directly caused by his smoking?

im going to be honest, im not an expert on BF or FF, i BF and FF my 3 girls. i just get a bit confused to why people dscribe FF as poison, when as far as i know noone's died as a direct result of FF bar choking or allergy yet.

there aren't many diseases/conditions that are directly attributed to a single cause though. That's why all we can say is something increases the risk of a disease - same as smoking and lung cancer

YABU providing safe baby milk is what your boobs are for. It is not possible to come up with something that will replace thousands of years of evolution. Contact LLL or the NCT or your health visitor for bfing support.

Well most studies are controlled for things like socioeconomic background, maternal age and education, maternal weight etc. But no you are never going to control for everything and you are not allowed to do a randomised controlled trial so we will never know to that extent.

Very few things lead directly to something else (if any). There are always going to be a multitude of factors affecting everything. There are hundreds of factors which lead to obesity - formula just increases the risk - it doesn't mean that it directly means for sure that your baby will end up obese.

Pretty much why you have to work everything out based on all the factors affecting your individual family. So breastfeeding reduces the risk (or formula increases the risk of things) - so how does that balance out in your individual situation

Lemonysweet - the anecdote about a GP saying or not saying that a particular illness is or is not related to FF is often quoted on these topics. People who are diabetic might say 'well no ones ever asked me how I was fed as a baby so it obviously doesn't matter' But the 'scientific' studies, (as opposed to the anecdotes) and which prove the links between infant feeding and adult diseases are often specifically designed to take account of the factors that you do mention. And such studies are carried out on individuals specifically included in research studies, not random individuals who pitch up to their GPs with various health problems which may or may not be related to FF. So a GP who is treating Joe Bloggs for type 2 diabetes may not actually care about how Joe was fed as a child, because it doesn't change the type of treatment that he needs or the outcome of his illness. But the 'scientific' research informs policy making and health promotion guidelines for organisations like WHO and the DOH who are trying to improve health outcomes for future generations.

"AIBU in being fucking furious that formula milk manufacturers cannot provide a product that will not potentially harm my baby?"

indeed YANBU. if they spent that money on proper testing instead of marketing, maybe less of this would happen - there is a campaign to make formula safer because of this.

yabu

You made a choice to ff. Who's making you feel guilty? Noone but yourself. You've made a choice and that's that.

I find it odd that people blame news stories/anecdotes/other peoples' attitudes for their guilt.

You just have to do whatever gets you through, and ignore everything else. If that involves using formula, then use formula. If you breastfeed alongside, then great. If you don't, it's not the end of the world. TBH, the amount of chemicals we put into, onto and near our bodies with cosmetics, dry cleaning, packaged food, toiletries, paint, air freshener etc. I'd be really surprised if breastmilk didn't have the odd nasty floating around in it too.
So chill, enjoy your baby and concentrate on being the best mummy you can be to all of them, no more, no less.

"In defence of formula-feeding mummies battling verrucas, bunions and failure to share the remote control, formula feeding has been proven to improve dress sense. Studies have shown repeatedly that BF mummies wear ill-fitting tents woven from lentils.*"

Whats the point in that sort of post? Its just silly and immature SkiHorseWonAWean. It smacks of nothing more than jelously. I shall reply with an equally immature comment.

Formula feeding mothers usually take a bit longer to lose the pregnancy weight and have to wear maternity clothes for much longer.

Anyway formula feeding for some families is the best option. That is OK, and its good we live in the 21st century where mothers don't have to continue with breastfeeding if they hate it, or have their baby starve to death if they can't manage to breastfeed for whatever reason.

It seems to be a pity that we can't genetically engineer cows to produce human breastmilk or make artifical breast tissue to produce breastmilk for babies who cannot get breastmilk the conventional way for whatever reason. I am sure that science will fone day find a way of producing breastmilk without breastfeeding.

It is tricky getting the balance between persuading mothers to attempt to breastfeed without making bottlefeeding mothers guilty.