To start a thread about boots not giving "points" for formula

[Kab13]

Saw someone complaining about how she had breasted for 10 months and went into boots to buy some formula and couldn't collect points on her boots card because boots don't allow it (when buying formula for under 2's I believe).
I'm breastfed for 12 months then moved onto formula & it never really bothered me that boots didn't give points out for buying formula for children under two.
I kind of get it but can't help but feel if you really struggled to breast feed and chose to move on to formula for whatever reason this could make a new mum feel ridiculously guilty (even more than she did before)
What about mums that CANT breast feed? I do think it's a little unfair on them... Someone who worked at boots commented on this lady's status saying that they can not promote formula use (give rewards for buying it) by LAW. Really ?

I waa upset but only cos I spend so much on formula that I would have done really nicely for points

it upsets me more that there is allowed to be no promotion of formula at any stage. THAT makes me feel a failure.

I FF (after BF didn't work out with all 3 of my children) and I can't say as it's ever bothered me, not getting the points.

Tis the law, so, that's that.

didn't mean the at any stage bit.

Points are 'money' that can be spent in store.

Some people might deliberately formula feed for the points if they were available. At almost a tenner a carton, points would build up very quickly.

I don't see it as punishing people or making them feel bad, just stopping people from making decisions for the wrong reasons.

I say that as a mother who formula fed out of choice.

As I said in my post Chunderella the women I work with are offered free nursing bras and so on. I bill my time but proper preparation and feeding of formula takes time too. Admittedly time that can be shared between partners if there is one. I received maternity insurance so am being 'paid' for my time as was my partner.

I'm concerned so many on this thread don't realise that it's not just that the water isn't as clean as it could be or that the bottles aren't sterile, formula isn't sterile or 'clean' either. It causes illness. This UNICEF report puts it in uk perspective www.unicef.org.uk/Media-centre/Press-releases/Breastfeeding-could-save-the-NHS-millions-says-new-report/.

IMO it's actually reporting incorrectly. It assumes that breastfeeding is a choice and formula is the norm. THAT is how successfully formula companies have marketed the product.

Because women choose to formula feed the NHS spends an additional £40million a year. How much bf support could that buy?

Haven't RTFR, but my local Boots pharmacist gave me points for formula for stage 2 6m+ Cow and Gate a few months ago. Then he told me the ban only applies to the newborn formula. So your friend shouldn't be feeding her 10m old stage 1 milk anyway. She should get the points.

Sorry I ended up at cross purpose there! Formula is not a 'clean' product not is it sterile. Cases of contamination across the globe show this quite clearly:
www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/05/fonterra-baby-formula-milk-bacteria
m.scmp.com/news/world/article/1329381/baby-formula-contaminated-aluminium-uk-study-finds
www.cdc.gov/Features/Cronobacter/
To give but a flavour. These happen in developed countries. We don't even know the damage we are doing by giving this stuff to babies. Is it a coincidence obesity rates have risen with formula prevalence?

There will always be the 2% who cannot breastfeed for medical reasons. If the majority fed naturally, I believe we could make that 2% more supported because we could use formula as it was intended, rather than as it now.

dana I'm sorry I am not going to read that article. as a new mum who worries about everything I don't need to be told I'm harming my baby.

holls2000

You are not harming your baby by FF-

I really do hate this tirade of guilt that is projected on to mothers who choose to FF. Its vile.

I always laugh from personal experience about the claims of breastfeed babies and it's miracle work.

over 2 generations there are 2children born to each mother. my maternal grandmother had 2 girls, she breast fed one of two got ovarian cancer herself and survived, the breast fed baby (my mother) has asthma and allergies to cats and dogs and hayfever, my aunty was not breastfed no allergies or asthma.

my mother had 2 children myself and my brother. my brother was breast fed has asthma and allergies, I was ff no asthma and no allergies.

Don't think breastfeeding "protects" in our family seems to cause more issues than benefits haha

I know this is some exception to the rule but still makes me giggle .

I didn't mean to start a bf vs ff debate. At all. The last thing I want is a ff mum (like I was after months of bf) feeling guilty about her choices. Nourishing your baby through ff or bf is the main thing!
Holly you're not harming your baby; I'm sure you know that and if suggest not reading the link, in certainly not.
(My personal choice others may find it very interesting)
That's not why I posted. I was perhaps a little naive thinking I could mention FORMULA with out a few comments being made.

Ginger, my uncle has throat cancer, but has never smoked, yet my ex partners granddad smoked 40 a day and lived to his late 80s and died of something unrelated to smoking. Do you think that means that smoking doesn't cause cancer?

How do you know that if your bro had been FF he wouldn't have had more problems?

Anecdotal evidence isn't really overly useful.

In the general population BF is better for health...

I'm sorry holls it's not you that's harming your baby, and no-one said that. The formula companies are harming your baby, by putting their profit above your baby's health. By telling mothers that formula is just as good. It's not, and that's a fact. But not only that, but breastfeeding is a skill, that is passed down through generations of women, so by lying to our mothers, our grandmothers, their grandmothers, they have denied all those generations the 'normal' development opportunities and health benefits.

There are alternates out there, donor milk is available, and the more women that can and do feed their children normally, the better for the health of the whole nation.

poop you obviously didn't understand my comment or the tone I noted it was an exception I know that I can still "laugh about it" Jesus lighten up....

Sorry chunderella I posted the links about formula being dangerous in itself in developed countries in response to this post:
Today 17:59 ShowMeTheWonder

Think IveBeenHacked in this country, formula isn't a bad thing but when the formula companies were allowed free rein in developing countries, babies died as a result. So in those circumstances, formula WAS proven to be dangerous to health. That's why it's so strictly controlled, though of course it's not a danger here.

Formula may be the cultural norm but it's not the biological norm, so I think we could argue that one for a while lol!

Sorry OP but your OP makes not sense. Why would an absence of 'points' make anyone feel guilty about anything?#

It's not like women get 'points' for breastfeeding.