aibu to be sick of seeing bfing vs ffeeding debates?

[ImNotABarbieGirl]

That's it really. I've just turned the tv on and AGAIN...there it is! It just infuriates me.

I still bfeed dd (22 months) I already live with friends and family making me feel uncomfetable, ignoreing little funny jokes/comments about it. I really do not need to turn the television on and hear some woman spouting how its disgusting etc on national television.

It annoys me moreso (sp?) That it is never a fair debate. It is always two extremest type people who just want to point out how wrong, disgusting etc the other party is.

Surely most people have access to information and support out there to make an informed choice about what's best for them. So what is the point of all this then? It seems its just another way for us to belittle eachotherparenting choices


Please excuse grammer/spelling

[KissMeHardy]

ini - Lets hope you never find yourself in a position where breast feeding doesn't work out

My son was lactose intolerant. No matter how hard I tried, and I tried desperately hard, I could not produce Soya Milk.

Stop banging on Mini and think of the rest of us who cannot follow your dyed in the wool ways.

[theodorakisses]

It's a good read and I strongly recommend it to those of you of the 'I can't understand why anyone cares how a baby is fed' persuasion.

Mini, I am going to google lots of crap and link it to you on the "mind your own business you are not cleverer than everyone else" persuasion.

[Crowler]

theodorakisses - I think this is probably an online vs RL distinction. I probably fall on the extreme BF side of the debate (though not extremely vocal) - but this part of me really only exists online. For example, of all the friends I have made post-babies, I don't believe I know if any of them BF or FF. It's not an issue.

People who approach this as a public health debate take the view that if it breastfeeding, rather than FF, was normalized - then more women would BF. Here's an example: we don't consider it normal to give tiny babies rice cereal, it's not good for them. The mother assumes she won't give the baby rice cereal until much later (if at all). Then the baby develops symptoms of reflux, so she consults her doctor and introduces rice cereal as a treatment for reflux.

I think it would make more sense for formula to be the exception like rice cereal in the example above. The reasons for formula don't have to be strictly medical; maybe the mother is simply not coping, whatever. But the point is that breastfeeding is normalized & the mother assumes she'll BF and doesn't really consider the alternative until she must. Not because anyone is telling her to do this, it's just a cultural norm.

In this case the political debate is effectively killed, and feeding does become simply feeding (as you suggest). The reason it's political is because of the for-profit formula industry and the inroads they've made.

[myrubberduck]

Minifingers

"First off - it concludes that breastfeeding protects against obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and it is associated with better cognitive function in later childhood. Yes - the benefits are 'modest', but that's exactly what you'd expect given that the VAST majority of the studies included in this analysis include in the 'breastfeeding' arm of the trial, mainly mixed fed babies, a good number of whom will actually be predominantly ff, and babies who are classified as 'breastfed' on the strength of less than 4 weeks of mixed feeding. And yet, bizarrely, studies STILL find differences in blood pressure in children who are likely to only have had a minimal amount of breastfeeding YEARS down the line!"

Its not enough for you to entirely misrepresent the conclusions of the recent WHO meta study, you have to go scrabbling around for possible reasons as to why the study did not find even MORE than you say (wrongly) that it did which was;

Cholesterol - no effect
Blood pressure - no effect
Diabetes- Evidence conflicting and inconclusive.
Obesity - Evidence conflicting but probably no effect of any significance.
IQ - "Modest" effect (2 points).

I am not saying this study is right or wrong but the point is that not only have you clearly misunderstood it, you seem to think that is saying the opposite of what it actually says

Biased would be a kind description , Crazy would be more accurate however.

[Wheresmycaffeinedrip]

And you failed to address why ff stats are so high compared to bf. even if you convinced thousands of woman to try it theres still a huge amount of people who it's impossible for. Adoptive parents, foster children, single dads, children with certain disabilities and medical conditions who need high calories food through tubes. The increase in ivf couples- leading to higher rates of multiple births. Breast feeding quads must be nearly impossible especially as they are always born premature.

Or maybe these people should just not have kids. Or maybe babies should be left with abusive parents cos get at Least they get breast fed who cares what drugs go through the milk to the baby.

Would you stand over these people and think that it's their fault the babies are sick cos they weren't breasted and people may copy them and choose not to breast feed after seeing how easy formula can be.

Whatever you think of it mini formula can and does save lives.

[theodorakisses]

crowler, you sound lovely and very normal

[SpecialAgentCuntSnake]

Thank you for the link Mini, I have bookmarked it for later.

Just want to defend DM, she didn't smoke during pregnancy, she never has.

Childish need to protect mummy

[DropYourSword]

cuntsnake

[SpecialAgentCuntSnake]

Haha yes. I stole it off a twunt who declared MNers 'not vipers, but cunt snakes.' Was too funny to resist.

[Bonsoir]

I liked breast feeding because it made me very slim and cost nothing and I had the means to stop my baby crying at any time.

[cory]

brettgirl2 Wed 21-Aug-13 22:17:51
"my dd ended up in hospital because she was breastfed......."

Mine too.



Which underlines the point that every woman who makes a decision has to make a decision about her individual baby, not about the health of the nation in general.

I, as it so happens, was thinking more about the principle in general (and my sense of superiority as an immigrant from one of the major breastfeeding nations in the world). So I made the wrong decision.

[cory]

Crowler's rice feed analogy makes a lot of sense.

What would have helped me would have been to have been able to say to myself "look here, there is something different about your baby, she is not the norm and you need to just forget about the norm".

[Bonsoir]

I don't think that enough information is put out on the terrible infant mortality rates when breast milk was the only means of feeding babies. Formula is, for a significant minority if babies, a life saver. No one need feel guilty about FF.

[MoominsYonisAreScary]

" it involves the health and wellfare of the weakest most vulnerable members of society, who have no voice to advocate for themselves"

And you know better than the mother right?

No wonder those who ff get pissed off having to listen to that crap

[DropYourSword]

bonsoir That's would actually be a really interesting point to look into further. Personally I think it might be more likely to be due the possibility that general healthcare and medical knowledge improves all the time. Does anyone know when formula first really became available?