to think MN shouldn't support boots co-advertising newborn bottle sets and "follow on" milk

[ICBINEG]

when there's a national campaign on to promote BF?

Presumably this advert passes the letter of the law regarding the non-advertising/non-special offers on formula for new born's but it defies the spirit in every way possible.

AIBU to expect a little more social responsibility from MN?

"What I did (and I suspect this is so left field and crazy that no one out there will have thought of it) was see which one my baby tolerated best"

Luckily for your baby then the first one you tried didn't result in vomiting or constipation. I'm glad I breastfed and didn't have to embark on that sort of experiment with a newborn.

And given that some of these formulas have novel ingredients which are supposed to promote immunity, and brain and eye development - it's quite important surely to have some idea about whether these claims have scientific validity isn't it? Wouldn't you want to optimise your baby's development in these areas?

I think some of you are missing the massive difference between those mums who want to breastfeed and can't and those who don't try, just buy bottles and don't think anything of it.

YABU to park your 4x4 in a disabled bay to bottle feed fruit shoot to your DC while DH earns £8m a year.

Oh sorry, my Mumsnet-o-matic went crazy there.

It is socially irresponsible not to inform people of their options and if, like me, breast feeding fails for whatever reason why should we not be able to make a choice.

The fact that breastfeeding is so heavily promoted to the point where bottle feeding is seen as a pariah is what the problem is. Yes breast is best but dictating to people is not.

"I'm glad I breastfed" yes we can tell

The research shows more ff babies go to hospital with tummy trouble and that's about it. It's a small number of babies either way.

The rest of the research is pretty piss poor but I'm sure there was already a research war upthread.

Luckily for your baby then the first one you tried didn't result in vomiting or constipation

It did actually

So we tried another one

The fact that breastfeeding is so heavily promoted to the point where bottle feeding is seen as a pariah is what the problem is. Yes breast is best but dictating to people is not.

this

i think some of you are missing the massive difference between those mums who want to breastfeed and can't and those who don't try, just buy bottles and don't think anything of it.

Not missing it no just not bothered because its none of my business.

"It is socially irresponsible not to inform people of their options and if, like me, breast feeding fails for whatever reason why should we not be able to make a choice."

It's not socially responsible to allow a situation where women are reliant on ADVERTISING when it comes to making a decision as important as this.

"The fact that breastfeeding is so heavily promoted to the point where bottle feeding is seen as a pariah is what the problem is"

OFFS - 98% of UK babies have formula by the end of their first year!

Formula feeding is the way the majority of babies over 6 weeks in the UK are fed.

Millions and millions and millions of pounds is spent on formula marketing. VASTLY more than is spent on breastfeeding promotion.

Stop squealing about ff mothers being victimised. They're not. They're in the majority and NOBODY puts any barriers in the way of them choosing to ff their baby if this is what they want to do. If only we could say the same for breastfeeding.

How come if Breast milk is so good for the tummy loads of bf babies stil have reflux?

I haven't managed to read all the pages of this thread, so apologies if I am repeating something that has been said before, but in my experience it is HCPs who have Far greater influence than advertising in women's decisions to bf or ff.

Hospitals usually encourage bf, and quite rightly so. However, what they frequently seem to lack are the resources to support women to bf. I have heard a lot of women, in real life and here on mn, say that they really wanted to bf, were told that they they should by midwives/HV etc, but then there is no follow up. I was able to bf my ds because I had a lot of help from a community nursery nurse that my HV arranged for me. My SIL desperately wanted to bf, but was told at the hospital that although breast is best, they didnt have time to help every new mother learn to breastfeed so she just had to get on with it. Unsurprisingly, she ran into difficulties and ended up ff. She got no support at all from the hospital on how to do this safely.

Advertising helped her to choose which brand which formula she used, but it was the lack of breastfeeding support that led her to ff in the first place.

So rather than attack advertising - which going by the evidence on this thread is not helpful or supportive to women making difficult choices about how to feed their children- would it not be better to actively work together to call for more resources to support women who bf?

I never found society put any barriers in the way of me breastfeeding.

No, I don't want to optimise my baby. He's not an iphone.

This delusion that each individual decision we make will somehow determine our child's fate is the curse of modern parenting.

In real life I see no one breastfeeding on tv, no one breastfeeding in films, none of my friends or family breastfed past a few months if at all. They regularly ask me when I am going to quit. Told me that my baby couldnt possibly be getting enough milk because she couldn't go three hours between feeds.

Before I got pregnant I had never seen someone breast feeding their baby except a baby sized shape under a cover or scarf. Now I breastfeed my 11 month old I'm told its weird and that she needs to be on bottles or she'll still want to feed at 5.

But on MN it's breastfeeding that's forced down everyone's throats?

I don't care how anyone else feeds their babies, I'd just like breastfeeding to be a little more normalised so people stop giving me grief about how I feed mine. Not judgy looks, or tuts but actual comments.

My baby may not be nutritionally superior

No baby is 'nutritionally superior'. Breastfeeding is just the normal way to feed a baby. So what's your point?

Source! Are you for real? Um, the millions of people who were FF and are totally fine? Jayzus.

Not really. The long-term effects of not being breastfed are only beginning to be understood. Blood pressure, cholesterol levels, obesity, allergies, diabetes and academic performance are all starting to be linked with how we were fed as babies. We have more vision problems, intestinal problems, colds and flu, dental problems, heart problems, and cancer than we need to.

Because reflux is caused by a weak valve at the inlet to the stomach.

However, breastfed babies with GER tend to have it less severely than had they been bottlefed, because breastmilk empties from the stomach quicker than formula (which is less easily digested).

I think, rather than banning FF advertising, banning "breasts are funbags for men" style advertising would be more useful.

Shagmund, that is simply untrue. I live in a posh part of town, am university educated, older first time mum. Not one mother in my family or peer group ff. I felt absolutely awful when I made the choice to FF at 12 weeks - not for my ds who thrived on ff, but because it just isn't the done thing round here.

You could say that nobody stopped me from ff,you'd be right. But nobody is stopping anyone from bf either, and where I live anyway, it's promoted and supported exclusively. I felt huge pressure to bf.

Yawn

That's my experience Morris.

Totally.

Depends on where you live I would imagine.