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 don't think the bin was actually for bottles- I didn't see any sign about an exchange for a sippy cup (although I could be wrong- I'll check next time I go) it looked more to me like it was there to represent where bottles and dummies should go (in their opinion)
I will check again though and say something if it definitely is what I think it is.

I think oh is simply being goady and missing the point of the thread intentionally. I'm going to ignore their posts from now on. However first I will say to "oh Try telling a substance user to breastfeed whose still injecting to go to a breast milk bank. Or to that mother who just can't cope with daily life due to depression. Or the mother who has had a double mastectomy and doesn't WANT to use another mothers milk. Or the mother who CHOOSES to formula feed because of 100 other reasons. I can't fucking stand people with oh's* outlook on BF. As if there's a fucking milk bank on every street corner .

Was the bin your idea by any chance ohmy?
You sound lovely.
Tell me.... how is life in the ideal world you clearly live in?

Let's face it, the vast majority of formula feeders do so purely by choice, despite the healthier option for babies being available to them.

Thank I agree

It's posters like that who would put me off ever even giving Bf a try.

Yep..... she is being goady. Nobody could possibly be that thick and narrow minded.
Will ignore

oh oh how's life on that cloud, so are you volunteering to be the breast milk cow for all these amazing banks that exist, bend over then so I can pop a suction cup on your tits and milk you dry love. you can save the world one tit at a time

Yes, I do donate to a breast milk bank.

I think health visitors hate dummies too in my experience.
I told them I would like to use one this time (DS had other ideas) and they tried to talk me out of it. Have me the party line about nipple confusion/ affecting teeth etc.

I had to FF my son as he was born without the suckle reflex (was prem) and after 3 days of struggling to feed him - at one point he was tubefed expressed breast milk. You want to watch someone put a tube down a newborn's throat. I sobbed for days - they suggested I FF him.

He's a strapping 5ft 8in healthy teen who's very rarely ill.

I chose to FF. I know my breastmilk is healthier than the bottle of formulas I make. Im not stupid. However I despised BFing. Tried. Hated it. Hated myself.

Formula is not poison. It is not bad. It is not wrong. It is a safe and healthy alternative.

I chose to FF. I am, and remain steadfastly, happy with my decision.

?Sorry for derail but ohmy is getting on my tits. My empty tits?

I would assume a display like that was more about discouraging long term bottle use and getting babies to use dummies as little as possible.

award yourself a sticky star oh «slow claps»

in other news I don't see why dummies needed to go in either they are a life saver for some.

Mine was prem to queen and had a similar problem. I tried expressing but was getting pitiful amounts. Managed 30 mls in half an hour and my sister spilt it all over the floor as she took it to NICU. I can laugh about it now.... I was hysterical when it happened

I'll bite oh since I've bf both my kids past a year blah blah. How many women do you actually know? Cos I know a few and I know how difficult it is to access help for women who actually really want to bf but are struggling.

The fact is that if that display is aiming to encourage bf it is unlikely to work. Those who don't want to bf won't and those who did want to but weren't able to will feel shit and won't engage as well with services because of it. Oh and the PND it will exacerbate won't really be "best" for anyone will it.

Formula is clearly not "rubbish". Yes it's not the " biological norm" but it's a reasonable option, and there is really no point being silly and goady about it, you just make yourself look foolish.

ohmychrist It must be lovely to have it so easy, congratulations on being able to breastfeed your child(ren) as nature intended. Maybe you could take a second to consider all the other women who aren't so lucky and who don't have that choice.

No one is debating breast is best but there is a way to present that message particularly to women who are often vulnerable. Breastfeeding can and should be promoted without attacking anyone.

Perhaps you should consider this as you aren't coming across well. I did have a short version of this answer but it would break talk guidelines

Thinkivebeenhacked I could have written your post.

I find it bizarre that some women feel the need to try to dictate what other women should do with their own bodies. The last time I checked we live in a liberal and feminist part of the world. Formula feeding is a valid choice when it comes to infant feeding and we should support the right to choose.

That would have really upset me as I couldn't breastfeed due to being nearly killed by the bloody surgeon doing my c-section. I tried and tried to breast feed but unfortunately being on a noradrenaline infusion kind of scuppered that.

I still feel a failure even though there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. I hate this kind of attitude that completely ignores the feelings of those that can not breastfeed but would have wanted to. Sick and tired of hearing how I have failed my DS and how he is less intelligent, not going to get a decent job (thanks to some recent study), his immune system is rubbish and this is despite knowing its bollocks in my DS case as he is doing fine.

I chose to feed my dd formula from birth.... think I may have had a slight chuckle at this 'bin' display....however I can understand that some struggling to bf would find it offensive and upsetting.

At our local farm toddlers are encouraged to give up their dummies to the sheep and are displayed in the barn ....minging

I wondered if the bin was a dummy amnesty type thing....

The bottle part is just odd.

You are not a failure no73

I tried to bf DS for a week, but but by the time he'd lost 23% of his birth weight even the LLL support worker suggested I ff dS!

I loved my Surestart centre, got lots of support and made some wonderful friends, but a display like that could have had me in tears for the first few weeks of DS's life. I'd like to say I'd have been livid, and complained, but actually I'd probably have cried.

Haven't read the full thread

They usually do this every so often but it's for 2 year plus. It's for the older kids to throw away their dummies and bottles. They get a wee present to do this.

At least that's what happens at my local one.

to all the women on here who feel a failure, you ante not, nor have you ever been one

crap like these messages are quite frankly offensive and missleading as is some of the "new research". Your children will be fine they won't grow up to be overweight intellectually challenged because of 12minths of different milk. it's pure poppycock half of it. We all know breast is best and so we try, but sometimes it just downy work or we simply don't want to and you known what that's fine.

so two fingers up to the establishment and they can shove their bloody bin where the sun don't shine .