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?

no73 I had a very very similar experience. How old is your DS?

I find it quite interesting that the top 4 readers (by quite a way) in dS's Y1 class were all ff. (Small rural community, I've known most of the class since mum&baby group days). I appreciate that this a very non-scientific study!

sorry for the typos DS is grabbing for the phone, in his defence he's 7.5mo

I don't think a display like that is appropriate. I would complain, it's not helpful and will only serve to upset women already feeling fragile.

Although, TheDementedPenguin might have it? That sounds quite possible and reasonable.

Ohmychrist formula is the next best thing , best as in the baby is getting its nutritional needs met .

I have only exclusively breast fed one of my three children ( for 13 months ) and unfortunately she is the only one with any health issues , she also has mild learning difficulties and is over weight . One was FF from the word go , although I did try to BF , but support was thin on the ground 20 odd years ago . The youngest got a bit of both . So I cannot help but snort a bit when people go on about breast being best

I think the bottles and dummies bin was meant to be for toddlers and pre schooler who still have bottles and dummies, where parents trying to wean them off them could put them. I just threw mine in the bin at home.

It could have been designed for older children- I will double check. However it wasn't clear that that was the case and there were certainly leaflets scattered around the display re: breastfeeding (which if it was a bottle/dummy amnesty, you wouldn't be expecting mums to resume breastfeeding)

I agree the display is really insensitive.
I tried to bf but was not producing enough. Ds would be on there for ages (all the midwives telling me what a good feeder he was) then scream with hunger. Expressing produced a dribble and I was in so much pain. I had pink milk from my bleeding nipples, it hurt so much I would have tears running down my face when he was trying to feed (as in sucking not just suckling like a dummy) and it felt like someone sticking red hot needles into my nips. I would tense up when he came near to feed. After three weeks I admitted defeat but I felt guilty for months and would regularly burst into tears over it.
I'm now pg with no 2; I will certainly try again and hope it works but I'm ready for it to fail again.

ohmychrist it is narrow-minded breastfeeding naxos like you who had my friend on the verge of suicide when her dd was 10 weeks old because she simply could not feed her. it is people like you who had me terrified to discuss my concerns with my midwife and hv when I knew the medication I desperately needed would cross the barrier and kill my dd.

it is not as simplistic as Breast is best and to be quite honest the whole campaign is disgusting

Oh dear, there always has to be one on these bf/ff threads ohmychrist. What business is it of yours how other parents feed. Donated milk is so easy to come by, yes I can get some on tap, get a life!

Op yes I know Surestart and HV hate dummies and bottles after 1 year old, preferring toddlers to use cups or dippy cups instead, so that may well be it.

I would assume it's aimed at bottles and dummies for older DC too. At one of our local children's farms there's a sort of dummy wall, where children can choose to leave their dummies. I doubt anyone gets offended at that.

I'm pretty sure no one at the sure start centre thinks women will gleefully throw bottles away and suddenly want to or be able to breastfeed.

That's just horrible. I FF by choice but my DTs were small and one of them had trouble to keep down a feed, and in the early days when I was still going to the health visitor, when they were very small and still weak and I was an utter wreck from lack of sleep, that would have really upset me. Why can they not just help people without judging?

Dixie I agree....

I look at dd and really feel I made a great decision to be honest.

Breastfed DC1 until 17 months, planning to breastfeed the one I'm currently gestating and I'm of the very strong view that until the NHS and associated services sort out even basic breastfeeding support for new mothers who want to BF they have zero bloody moral authority to be preaching to new mothers about what type of feeding they should use.

And even then that display would be an utter disgrace and probably counterproductive.

Posters? Not an alternative to an effective public health solution, as it happens.

Dixie you didn't want to give your DS your milk?! That's what it's for. But you'd rather give him a cow's milk?

When I failed to bf all three of mine (even resulting in dc3 being admitted to the children's ward because she became unresponsive as I was determined she was not on be given a bottle and she lost almost a lb in weight in 3 days), no mention was made of this easy to get donated milk you talk of oh my christ, so formula was the only way. I would have been a bit taken aback by the poster tbh.

oh neither did I, want to question me? stop picking fights and arguments.

What an awful display. Complain, OP. Loudly. A lot of women would find it incredibly hurtful and offensive. Utterly tactless.

Ohmychrist my grandma,s first baby died because she couldn't make enough milk he starved to death so she bottle fe my mum and her other two sons so thank good for shitty formula!

Ginger Ignore ignore ignore

Ginger Ignore ignore ignore

Completely agree .