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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that the formula companies are succeeding with their campaign to promote formula to be as good as breast milk...

462 replies

MissyKLo · 01/03/2011 14:12

...when it isn't?

this article rang true in so many ways

www.analyticalarmadillo.co.uk/2010/10/how-breast-is-best-came-to-be.html

Breast milk is of course, full of amazing antibodies and nourishment etc that formula can never replicate - but the formula companies are winning in their campaign to make people believe that formula is as good as breast milk aren't they? A lot of people don't see bf as a big deal and that babies are 'perfectly fine' on formula. But what about all the benefits of breast milk and the fact that so many babies don't ever get these?

Breast milk cannot be beaten on so many levels so why are the formula companies allowed to get away with this?!!!!!!

OP posts:
MilaMae · 01/03/2011 23:22

Angry about what exactly?Hmm

Gemsy83 · 01/03/2011 23:26

I think she's more amused about your obsessional inflammatory ranting about something that has zero impact on you and your family...

MilaMae · 01/03/2011 23:29

Got it in one Gemsy,well I'm off to bed now,lets leave her to her to it.Smile

gaelicsheep · 01/03/2011 23:34

So many people seem to have a lot of trouble understanding why anyone would care about an issue that does not directly affect them. I find that very very sad, if unsurprising. I agree with HBW, thank God some of us do care. Without the support of some of the lovely Mumsnetters who can find it in themselves to see past the ends of their noses, I would be unhappy formula feeding mum for a second time.

Original poster
MissyKLo · 01/03/2011 23:35

gaelic
those links and articles were great, thanks for them!

OP posts:
Original poster
MissyKLo · 01/03/2011 23:35

you talk loads of sense gaelic! night x

OP posts:
gaelicsheep · 01/03/2011 23:36

There was only one Smile but yes, it's a real eye opener of an article.

Original poster
MissyKLo · 01/03/2011 23:37

ah yes, sorry i looked at a few links - liked your one a lot

take care and speak soon no doubt! x

OP posts:
Cleofartra · 01/03/2011 23:38

MilaMae -

Your feelings about how you feed your baby are yours to deal with. We are talking discussing a commercial product, how it's produced and marketed and some of the issues surrounding its use.

Do you really need to defend it in the way you are?

Original poster
MissyKLo · 01/03/2011 23:39

no point engaging with some people cleo, no point at all!
loved your posts though!

OP posts:
Gemsy83 · 01/03/2011 23:40

But not everyone who formula feeds is unhappy- not all people who breastfeed care or judge other peoples reasons for formula feeding- I cant see why people get so obsessed by it- I dont think smoking in a car/room with kids is in anyway good parenting, however if I repeatedly made threads saying so i'd be thought of as a bit of a looney...

Original poster
MissyKLo · 01/03/2011 23:41

cleo and gaelic, have messaged you :)

night!

OP posts:
gaelicsheep · 01/03/2011 23:49

If there was truly total freedom of choice then I would take the point. But nobody can say that every woman, or even most women in this country or throughout the world, has complete freedom of choice over how they feed their baby. I didn't with DS. So some of us care about the factors that conspire against that freedom of choice. Lack of good knowledgeable support is one, a bottle feeding culture is another and unethical formula promotion is yet another.

Every woman who chooses not to breastfeed because she has been told it's too difficult, or gives up because she thinks she hasn't enough milk, is one more woman who may pass on the same misinformation to her friends and her daughters, thereby spreading the misinformation ever wider and deeper. So some of us want to arrest and reverse that pattern for the benefit of other women and their babies. What is wrong with that?

And people may mock, but the ecological argument against widespread bottle feeding becoming the norm is actually very powerful.

Gemsy83 · 01/03/2011 23:51

But how is judging women who choose to feed because it suits them/they dont want to breastfeed going to do that? Why even waste the energy to analyse it?

gaelicsheep · 01/03/2011 23:56

What am I saying that makes you think I'm judging? The term is banded about on these threads all the time, but what do you mean?

Gemsy83 · 02/03/2011 00:03

I dont specifically mean you- I refer to the poster I am not allowed to engage with so wont mention saying 'all I see is women who choose to ff because its easier' and other remarks.

Really and truly why does it matter if women DO think that? Or maybe they tried to bf, felt a failure and would rather use that as an excuse. Either way judging other people's parenting choices that dont affect you in any way shape or form OR help more people WANT to breastfeed is just a waste of time and energy and would be better invested into ones own parenting surely?

gaelicsheep · 02/03/2011 00:17

Well I don't agree with judging on a personal level. I don't agree with the statement you mention, and not least because it is factually inaccurate because it certainly is not easier (at least not if bf works how it should).

I can't explain any better why I think it's important to try and enable mothers' freedom of choice. I just do. Some women really aren't bothered but some really are, and it isn't always easy to tell who's going to fall into which camp, which is why the support needs to be there for all.

Diablo82 · 02/03/2011 00:20

Gosh, so many militant women on here using very inflammatory language and spouting propaganda to cover their baseless statements. Yes bubbleymummy I'm talking about you. I's very difficult to have a rational debate with people when they are so resistant to any deviation from their dogma. I do wonder what is missing from your life if you can summon up so much vitriol towards FF mums.

LibraPoppyGirl · 02/03/2011 00:22

I've been lurking on this thread and am going to de-lurk in a small response to your post Gemsy

...OR help more people WANT to breastfeed is just a waste of time and energy and would be better invested into ones own parenting surely?

I am so grateful that there are women who care. My DM didn't BF me or my sibling and so I wasn't brought up with that image or it being something that was done.

When I had my DS1 in 1997 I had a very traumatic and long labour of 36 hours, I ended up with an EMCS and was out of it on morphine for nearly three days. DS1 was FF by the hospital nurses and I was in such bad shape that I continued with this. When I tried to BF he wasn't having any of it.

He had a milk intolerance and reflux which made the following months absolute hell and I do honestly believe that had I been able to BF then it would have helped both him and me.

I'm now 26wks pg with my second and I really want to BF, no matter what happens. My midwife is 100% supportive which is fantastic.

BUT if it wasn't for other women out there, who do care and WANT to help women like me then I'd be lost. I can't tell you how many sites I have gone to, just to read and find out different women's stories. Until coming to this thread, I'd never seen HowBreastFeedingWorks around before, now I have saved the link to the site she posted and I shall read up some more.

I have the NCT book on BF and I shall join their classes.

So from a Mum who FF and does not feel guilty about it but who wants to do it differently this time, I thank HBW and gaelicsheep and MissyKlo for taking the time and having the passion to care. Smile

balloonballs · 02/03/2011 00:35

Another one here who had no intention of bf when I fell pregnant. Then I read up on it prompted by threads on here.

I had support from tictoc and others in the early days and successfully bf until dd was just over a year.

Doesn't make me better than anyone but just wanted to say the that the information that I found on here made a real difference to the choices I made.

foxytocin · 02/03/2011 01:19

Diablo, I don't understand why you have singled out bubbleymummy for "using very inflammatory language and spouting propaganda to cover their baseless statements."

That is a personal attack imo but I won't report it because I do believe you have a right to explain yourself and for others to see what was said.

If you think that there are 'militant' Hmm women on here then I expect that they are on both sides of the debate, no? Hate that militant word too. I haven't see women making anyone breastfeed or ff at the end of a barrel of a gun, have you? (also imagining them wearing big boots and camo.)

LadyFannyofBumStreet · 02/03/2011 03:41

MissyKLo,

YABU for posting an article that was written in October 2010 Grin. Still it is a good article and YANBU for thinking that breast milk cannot and should not compete with formula. Breast milk has components that Scientists still haven't been able to understand so how can they claim to have a product that is equal to or superior? Smile

Original poster
MissyKLo · 02/03/2011 06:46

Libra - thanks for your post and good luck with your second baby the birth and your desire to bf! If I can be of any support, please dint hesitate to pm me!

OP posts:
peppapighastakenovermylife · 02/03/2011 07:22

Milamae 'Sorry I fail to see how.If you eat crap and don't exercise you'll be overweight period, bf won't save you from size 18 clothes,sorry.'

No I didn't say that - in fact I specifcally said the opposite. If you were breastfed and ate crap from there on in of course you would be overweight.

However, being breastfed may well decrease your risk of going off and eating crap - through encouraging better appetite regulation, introducing new tastes very early on, making you more likely to accept a wider diet etc etc. BF babies are less likely to put on excess weight in early infancy linked to consumption of fewer calories, protein differences etc etc. This can have a knock on effect.

And yes I realise this is in an overall population and is about level of likelihood and risk not actual definitive links.

peppapighastakenovermylife · 02/03/2011 07:23

And of course I realise there are hundreds (maybe even thousands) of other contributors to obesity. Doesn't mean that BF doesn't play a role.