To think this isn't very supportive? Bottle feeding related.

[RainbowInACloud]

Went to have DS weighed today at local surestart and there was a huge display as you walked in. The centre piece was a rubbish bin with a sign saying 'bottles and dummies here' and some leaflets around it about breastfeeding being the best etc.
I am EBF DS but it struck me as a bit judgemental maybe about people that bottle feed. It's meant to be a supportive environment but I think if I were bottle feeding it might have made me feel a bit rubbish.
I asked for advice on how to get DS to take a bottle as he flatly refused but was kind of just told breast feeding is best etc., no real need for him to take a bottle. It's not a big issue for me so I didn't push it.
What do you think about that display?

I think it's a very emotive topic, so people get easily put out by these things, especially mums who have tried to breastfeed and couldn't or mums who have already been made to feel crap by choosing to formula feed. I don't necessarily see the display as unsupportive, it's just the sort of thing they have in medical centers and the like. Probably stuff about 5 a day fruit and veg etc too?

Yeah I know what you mean. I'm sure the intention wasn't to be unsupportive (is that a word?!) but having the rubbish bin just made me feel it was a bit.

I cannot fathom this constant bloody hoo ha surrounding how parents feed THEIR babies. It gives me the rage each time I see a thread about it. It is no ones bloody business except that of the parent. Perhaps the health profession need to be directing their energies towards tackling the growing childhood obesity problem rather than constantly harassing new parents about how their baby is fed in it's first few days/weeks/months of life. Its bloody hard enough having a baby without this constant feeling of being judged and then subsequently feeling like a failure.

I'd complain about it to be honest. Some women can't, some just don't want to and EITHER is fine.

YANBU - the way people choose to feed their baby is up to them and no one should be judged for breastfeeding or bottle feeding or a combination of both.

NHS and Sure Start have to promote breastfeeding but there are ways of doing so and that doesn't sound like one of then.

I bottle fed my ds by choice for reasons that I don't want to go into here (and didn't want to discuss with midwives either). I was asked about my intentions and just said I would be bottle feeding. Thankfully, my midwife never questioned it.

I agree. As long as a baby is fed, who cares how??
I did say it as I walked in to the woman on the desk but she was entirely disinterested.

if I had walked into a baby clinic and found that I would have been demanding to speak to a Manager. it is absolutely disgusting that people are made to feel like shit by so called professionals over how they choose to feed, especially when most of them never take the time to asl or offer actual assistance

I agree that is an unpleasant poster, likely only to hurt people and not help anyone.

Cantbelieve many health care professionals believe that bottle feeding is contributing to the obesity crisis and that bf babies are less likely to be obese. So they aren't necessarily distinct subjects.

In my job I'm just happy to see children I work with being fed. The display you mention OP isn't supportive at all and I think it's awful as not everyone can or wants to BF for various reasons.

That's awful. Way too emotive. I'd complain.

Infant feeding choices should be factually driven and women allowed to make their own choices based on those facts presented in an objective way.

*for reference I formula fed both dc from birth because I wanted to.

I read your OP in a hurry and just looked back - are you saying there was an actual bin for putting bottles and dummies in? As in they were saying they should all be thrown in the bin? If so that's really shitty and YANBU!

I might point it out again when I go to stay and play later in the week.

Breastfeeding is healthier for the baby. That display illustrates that point, so I support it.

I was not aware of that Make Is there a reason why?

Maybe it's because I'm pregnant (again) but I'd find this offensive and probably say something. I had my baby 10 months ago, she was severely tongue tied (they didn't bother doing the little op to release this until she was 8 weeks old) Id given birth by forceps so her face was a mess and she was covered in bruises. Didn't stop the midwife from trying to ram her head onto my tit after Id also had a 4 day labour. In the end I told her that my daughter would be bottle fed and that I wasn't interested in breast feeding as the whole experience was bloody awful. How is a baby who is screaming, can't latch on and a mother who is pretty much passing out from severe exhaustion meant to breast feed? I am fully aware that breast is best however I don't need it ramming down my throat every five minutes. The fact that my daughter has only had a few mild colds and bugs but all the other babies that I know who are breast fed have had much worse symptoms (my daughter has been in contact with them and sometimes not caught anything) will obviously get over looked by any health care worker.

I would be complaining loudly, I am unable to breastfeed, my body doesn't produce milk. You are reminded on a regular basis what a failure you are and how much of a substandard parent. You are told you children will be obese, less intelligent, sleep poorly and generally suffer because of something that is beyond your control but to put a fucking bin in the middle of their display is my absolute limited. I would be tempted to throw it at someone.

They aren't supporting breastfeeding that are villainising woman who either can't or choose not to. They need to stop promoting breastfeeding by putting other women down.

If they want to promote breastfeeding then promote it, provide breastfeeding rooms, have sufficient support for woman and normalise it so no one needs to feel uncomfortable feeding in public. At the moment they are supporting on one set of woman but stepping on another and I hate it.

Yes there was an actual dustbin (not full size) I don't think they wanted people to genuinely throw in bottles and dummies, it was part of a display.

I'm unclear about 'bin' in display Op was it encouraging parents to put bottles and dummies in it?

The display goes way beyond illustrating a point Ohmy

That display is a bit random. There aren't going to be people who walk in off the street as a formula feeder, see the display and think 'you know, they're right- I dhould breastfeed' and in their bottles and dummies (which I don't really understand why they would be so against??). Children's centres here are having their funding cut and staffing downscaled -they are constantly having to justify how many users they have and really I think they need to be less judgmental and more supportive of all parents regardless of their parenting decisions.

The bin in the display was showing what then? Sounds very odd.

I would have been upset by that - I switched to bottles on the advice of my health visitor, after 3 weeks of struggling to breast feed with low supply, getting tireder and tireder, with a baby who still hadn't re-gained her birth weight. For the first month or so, I was embarrassed to feed her in cafes etc in case people were judging me for bottle feeding.

What Lillicat said. Completely agree.

It wouldn't have bothered me ,but I formula fed through choice. I can see why it would upset other people - those who struggled to breast feed and couldn't manage, those women who had medical reasons, etc. It's not fair on them, at all. I would complain on their behalf.
Fair enough, give women the full facts, and then just leave it, FFS. We can make our own minds up without the guilt trips.

Some of the research points to that. Here's some:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673602088372

Although of course evidence of benefit/non-benefit is rather controversial. I think the feeling is is that ff babies are more likely to be "overfed" because it is easier to drink milk from a bottle than a breast and therefore ff babies are more likely to take more.