Aibu? to be pissed off at this: "The cost and social implications of using an infant milk should be considered when deciding how to feed your baby."

[Selyna]

WTF do Hipp mean by social implications?

Both methods of feeding a baby are acceptable so fuck off with the whole acting like ff is poison! my dd is perfectly fine but i hate this constant making me feel like a failure because i failed to bf although i tried so so hard!

hillywallaby that's a very interesting post. I'm sorry you had so much pain when bfing.

I mix fed for 18 weeks until Ds refused to bf. in those desperate hours early on trying to make ebf work for us I often wondered why in the olden days people used 'sops' and wet nurses when apparently these days 99% of women can bf with no problems if they just try 'hard enough'.

I still feel guilty about ff. can't wait til he's weaned and I can forget about it all :)

I wasn't saying that ff was as dangerous as not wearing a seatbelt but merely pointing out that as there are risks to formula feeding that actually it is a similar scenario but the perception and level of risk are different as the consequences may be more vague, less directly linked and may not affect everyone. After all, back in the 1970's we would hear people say, well I'm not going to wear a seat because if I'm in a crash I will be trapped in the car or simply thought that they were unlikely to have an accident. It's about knowing the risks and understanding and being able to weigh up the risks. My main point is that people shouldn't feel guilty about formula feeding if they know the risks but so often there is so much misinformation about and people who say there are no risks or those risks only apply to developing countries are perpetuating myths rather than being sensible about it all.

More women should be breastfeeding, but that's rarely (nevrr?) Down the woman not trying hard enough. Lack of support. Lack of help.

hillywallaby, no one is talking about banning formula at all. That would indeed be ridiculous. What some people are talking about is a blanket ban on the advertising of formula. That is what they did in Norway, as well as introducing a years maternity leave on 80% of pay and breastfeeding rates have gone up to 98% at birth and 90% at four months. That's pretty high. Formula is still freely available in the shops.

I didn't think there were any actual risks involved in ff?

So its as good as bf then?

I agree with stealth - it's not about women not trying hard enough, it's about lack of support. There are plenty of countries where breastfeeding rates are far higher than they are in the UK. I know a lot of women say that they "couldn't" breastfeed, but actually they probably could if they were properly supported.

hilly you saved me a post, excellent post.
i dont bf for any length of time because i loathe it. i dont feel guilty. i love my children they love me. how i feed them is in their lives on of the tiniest problems that i will have to cope with that i gave it a whole 3 minutes thought each time i made the decision to stop.
the fact that their are woman....woman out there that then come along and say to other woman you are wrong and you are harming your children. you should frankly be ashamed of yourselves for the treatment of each other on this thread and life in general if this is how you treat people that ff their children for what ever reason. women love there children and are doing their best in there daily lives and you come here and in some weird attempt at bizarre superiority complex to put other peoples personal choices down. i can see why the op mentioned poison when we have had formula likened to cancer and not wearing a seat belt. i really dont see why any woman should be made to feel guilty by any small minded person that cant see past their own breast.
i also dont see why any woman that didnt breast feed for any reason should feel guilt but that is personal choice and hope the women that do come to terms with it soon and just enjoy their lovely children as the time goes by so quickly and its not worth worrying about in the grand scheme of things. kids remember stories and hugs and holidays and love and affection. not a boob or a bottle in their face.

Yes, there are risks, this is the problem. Women aren't been given the facts and therefore end up feeling guilty instead of making an informed choice. If you've weighed up the risks and know about the risks you can try to mitigate the risks.

What risks?

duffedup, that is what I like to read - a woman who has made a choice and does not feel guilty about it, getting on with the job etc.

This however, "kids remember stories and hugs and holidays and love and affection. not a boob or a bottle in their face." is utterly beside the point.

Was that comment directed as me stealth? Apologies if not but I have already stated that I know it's preferable to breastfeed which was my preferred option. I didn't realise there were actual 'risks' to ff other than what I already know and therefore am interested to hear more about that. I hope your not just going to say from unsterilised equipment as that would be like putting a warning on a babygros saying if you put this on upside down your baby may suffocate!

I know no-one is suggesting we ban formula on this thread, but I have seen it suggested before, (one charming poster suggested FF was akin to child abuse) and I'm sure many of the most ardent and passionate supporters of BF would not be sorry to see it banned if they were completely honest.

All I am saying is that people who think FF is a Very Bad Thing To Be Discouraged are somewhat naive if they think that a world where all babies were BF would not be without its own very real problems.

Just like people who avoid vaccines, or fluoride in toothpaste, or preservatives in food or GM ingredients - they come at it from a very privileged angle of having only lived in the modern first world, where we have pretty much eradicated all the problems these things were designed to alleviate. It is much the same with FF. Of course it's not perfect, or without its associated problems, but life without it was not so perfect either - especially not for the mother. Let's not forget that.

These risks...

www.infactcanada.ca/RisksofFormulaFeeding.pdf

See, people don't even know there are risks, how can any mother make a properly informed decision.

That's just really rude actually. Breastfeeding was my choice that I made after looking at the facts. So to accuse me of making an ill informed choice is totally rude & out of order. You know nothing about me or my medical history. You should take more care before making comments like that.

So if its preferable to bf, isn't it "anti preferable" to ff? Why might that be?

The fact then that some people have no other choice than to ff, yet hospitals are not permitted to help them ff safely puts babies at risk.

pickles, if you have looked at the facts, why didn't you know there were risks to FF?

I think this phrase is the arse-covering equivalent of the awful "enjoy Nestlé chocco caramel crunchy lard as part of a balanced diet/healthy lifestyle"

I haven't disputed any health claims etc I have made a point about not bullying people who can't breastfeed. So I don't know what point your making with me? I wanted to breastfeed my baby, I couldn't do it, get it?

I think the whole point is that is it 'preferable' for the child from a nutritional point of view, for antibodies etc. However, no-one is saying what is 'preferable' for the mother, and a miserable, unhappy mother is no good to any baby, no matter how well fed he is.

It's all a question of balance, like eveything in life.

increased risk of???? is not the same as saying it will happen and as a person with common sense most of that sounds like utter bollocks.
can you tell me what child spacing means by the way?

Because I had no intention of ff! I didn't even consider it as an option! Ffs!!!!

I was 19 when I had my first baby. I BF for ten days, then because I thought he was too hungry (he was actually displaying normal newborn behaviour, but no midwife or HV told me this) I switched to FF. The internet was very new then and I didn't have it and it didn't occur to me to ask a health professional for advice on FF because the instructions were on the tin, I'd made up formula for younger brothers/cousins etc before and pretty much everyone in my family had FF at some point.

The same applies now, most women do or have FF, so it's easy to get advcie from others and now we have the internet which is full of advcie and guidelines on how to correctly make up formula.

Preferable for me. My choice. My preferred option. Really trying to score cheap points from the words I choose to use is not really helping your argument.