to wonder which formula company sponsored this article?

[nittynittynora]

yano.co.uk/2013/03/breast-is-best-or-is-it/

It just seems so anti-breastfeeding! Surely the health benefits of BFing are proven - there's nothing political about saying that it protects against disease, for example.I agree that of course you can form a close bond with your baby when FFing but the rest of the article seems determined to bat away all the 'supposed' benefits of BFing and focus on any perceived 'cons'.

Chunderella, you don't want to believe in the benefits of breastfeeding.

Perhaps you'd like to tell the parents of tiny babies in the special care units who would have died without breastmilk and its unique protection, that differences are minute, and it's all a hypothesis.

I certainly don't have time to sit here all evening and try to convince you. You don't make the rules, thankfully, but you certainly seem grimly determined not to give an inch here.

You are determined to cling on to this, chunderella. Yes, the language used is 'associated with' not 'caused'. Given however that the researchers controlled for confounding factors and still found a big difference in the health outcomes between breastfed and formula fed babies, I think we can reasonably and intelligently assume that breastfeeding must be playing a part somewhere?

I notice, too, that you are studiously ignoring this, despite Shagmund referring to it earlier.
www.iser.essex.ac.uk/d/119

I agree with Cherry. Too tired to formulate own words.

OK, chunderella ... also too tired to formulate any more words. Believe what you want to believe - I think you're fighting a losing battle though as it's pretty much universally accepted by people with a lot more knowledge and smarts than you I dare say that breastfeeding is extremely beneficial for babies and mothers.

Disclaimer: I'm not yet a parent, so have no axe to grind.

I skim over these threads and there are a couple of names who always appear, posters desperately peddling their view and how it is right and the only way.

For those who judge FFers, (and despite what some may say, there are judgments on this thread) I might pop over and see how you feed your older children. I wouldn't outwardly say anything like "why do you let your children eat X cereal? It's full of shit and they'll be grumpy by 10 am, not to mention at higher risk of catching a cold" but I might say "oh I feed my children Y cereal which is full of nutrients which help at school, must be why they're top of the class and haven't missed a single day ever". I might quote some studies and still hammer my point even if you say you can't afford the cereal or your children prefer toast.

Chunderella I would give up if I were you it is like trying to discuss evidence for/against the existence of god with theists. These people 'believe' bfing is the only choice therefore no amount of rational evidence will persuade them otherwise !

Still waiting for the rational evidence snowfedup.....

Yes, we do believe breastfeeding is the best choice for babies, as it has been proven to be time and again, though obviously Chunderella is about to rock the world of science with her revelations that the cat is out the bag and we've all been sold a huge lie. I'd start by emailing those clever bods at the University of Essex to tell them they've got it all wrong!

crashdoll -

I really hope if some posters do indeed have DC that they are all living advocates of the choices they vocalise here, model students, a healthy weight, etc etc etc.

I've read it Chunderella, and taken it in. It's you that seems determined to cherry pick the parts of the literature that suit your argument. However, I really am tired now and know that no study could possibly convince you of the benefits of breastfeeding, because for your own reasons you don't seem to want to know.

I FF my eldest by the way, and was FF myself. But it is very clear to me that breastfeeding is the best way to feed a baby - it amazes me that there are those who are simply determined to believe otherwise. I suggest those people direct their energies into something positive such as better support for BFing mothers rather than gleefully picking apart respected and well thought out research, seeking nuances in the language used and ignoring important parts to draw their own skewed conclusions.

crashdoll exactly the same point you raised was posted on yet another feeding thread a couple of weeks ago. As you might imagine there was some brief discussion then it was back to the judgy stuff. As I said in a previous post I'm quite new to MN but staggered by the fact that the same posters come back and post almost the same points on different threads. It's nice when a voice of reason like yours pops up

I really don't think threads like these help the debate tbh. Evidence and counter-evidence get slung around until the salient points are lost. Meanwhile anyone who came looking for advice or info gets stuck in the middle.

Yanbu, formula companies would love to see breastfeeding decline even further.

These bf/ff threads are Zombie Threads I've decided. It's like a race to see who can link to the most studies/external websites.

Instead of braiiiiiins it's liiiiiiinks! Liiiiinks!

seriously,
why would bfing upset anyone enough to write that? What actually is
wrong with it? Because as far as I can see, this pointless article
doesn't, in any way, say that bfing will have a negative effect on a
baby... which we all knew already.

Surely it's like comparing a healthy diet of fruit and veg with a lab-made vitamin-fortified-for-all-your-needs milkshake?

What's better?

Not on about social/emotional aspects. There are reasons women feel they need to stop/not do it for their wellbeing. It's a two way thing breastfeeding isn't it?

Not on about sub standard breast milk either, or if there's not enough breast milk.

Just optimum breast milk v formula. In that respect it's better. That's fact.

I
have no problem with ff, I intend to use it to 'top-up' my rapidly
growing 13wo, but can anyone who has a 'so there' attitude re the
article tell me, why is ff BETTER than bf?

Ooh good point Whatsthebuzz

Like you mean it's not to be condemned/vilified but silly to hold it ABOVE BFing?

I don't think anyone is saying that ff is better than bf, but there are some benefits that you don't get with bf... Dads being able to do some of the feeds, takes less time, you know exactly how much they've had etc.

The issue seems to be that the bf team can't admit that there are these benefits and they can't see that bf is not best for all babies. I cant be bothered to go into my whole sorry story but my GP told me that bf was killing my baby (her actual words) so dd was ff. It irks me that the pro-Breastfeeding folks can't see how militant and patronising they are, especially to those of us that desperately wanted to bf.

Surely though there's no denying the nutritional benefits of optimum breast milk v formula. But when other factors come into play perhaps BFing not always best in that way - eg. low supply.

So yes always (nutritionally) best (for baby) if no problem with supply/quality.

No not always best for mother due to wellbeing etc - which could of course impact on the baby.

Is that fair?

Can they not sell sterilised breastmilk? Oh dear God I'll make millions rubs hands