To think breastfeeding has made no difference to my dd and is massively overrated in terms of benefits?

[Placeanditspatrons]

I've nearly driven myself to a breakdown feeding my dd. She is 16 months now and I'm still feeding. She has been ill more times and worse than my formula fed from four months son. She does not recover any faster and she catches anything I get and gets it worse, despite supppsedly the antibodies passing to her and either preventing or reducing the severity of the illness.

I know it's anecdotal and the studies say overall bf babies are healthier but how much healthier? I mean I we talking one less cold? One less ear injection? Statistically? Many of my friends have said similar. Again anecdotal but I can't help wondering - after the colostrum which is more important I guess - does it really make any noticeable difference?

Wow, some extraordinary ignorance on here about how studies control for variables other than what is being measured. I wish kids were taught this kind of thing in school, it's ludicrous that so many grown adults on this thread are piping up with crap about class not being taken into account or, even worse, studies being anecdotal FFS!!

Please, if you're one of the posters who really does believe the benefits of breastfeeding are over-stated, go and actually read the studies - they clearly explain how the researchers controlled for variables such as class, socioeconomic status, water quality, parental educational attainment and many others.

A point to think about, OP - if you've caught whatever illness, then you don't already have the antibodies to it, or you wouldn't have caught it. Therefore you can't pass them onto your DD if you don't have them, obviously, and she can therefore also catch the same illness at the same time as you.

It takes ~5 days for you to make a new antibody to something you haven't seen before, so that's plenty of exposure for your DD to catch the same thing.

So it's not necessarily a case that "your antibodies aren't helping her" - they are, but only once you've made them yourself!

Hedgehog. In fairness, though, the thing they can't control for is the fact that many people breastfeed because they are told that it is best for their baby. Therefore, you don't you automatically bias these studies towards people who care about the welfare of their babies? And presumably babies of people who are concerned about their welfare will be healthier, more educationally successful etc on average?
(Disclaimer: I'm NOT saying that anyone who doesn't breastfeed doesn't care about her baby - absolutely not. I'm just suggesting that these studies, while they can control for many variables, have some inbuilt bias.)

I have read the studies and I still believe that the benefits of breastfeeding are minimal to an individual child, and let's face it, the majority of people do things purely because it's what they feel is best for their child and their family.

I do think however that education on breastfeeding needs to start earlier, along with many life skills tbh. Breastfeeding is normal and it should be seen that way, however formula is a valid choice and I will defend a woman's right to choose when it comes to her body.

On a personal note, BF can be relentless, no matter how 'easy' it is. The pressure of being the only source of food (and often comfort) when they won't take a bottle, meaning no one else can help even when you're in your knees with exhaustion or illness, is overwhelming at an already vulnerable time.

OP am I right in thinking you are exclusively expressing for your daughter? If so and you've done that for 16 months you are totally heroic and if you're not enjoying it (and I can't imagine you are - I hated expressing) then stop! She's not feeding for comfort from you as you're not feeding her yourself. Just give her cows milk or formula instead of the milk you're pumping. She won't suffer and presumably is eating well now so doesn't need additional milk. Expressing is exhausting and I found it took a real toll on me and stopped me enjoying my babies. To have Carried on for so long is impressive but surely not of any benefit now to your daughter. So just stop!

It's mine - look at each individual study. For example the one on protection for the mother against breast and ovarian cancer.

Stop breastfeeding. What's best for mother is best for baby and anyway, at 16months there is absolutely no reason to continue.

the WHO advises BF until age 2 - bt that is on a world level and is mostly because in many countries water purity and formula purity is questionable.
BF to 1 year is absolutely fine, in fact anything over 6 months is fantastic (and unusual in UK where less than 1% of mums BF to that point). However at 16 months I cant imagine (or remember if!) a child needs feeding that much, she will be on mainly solids with water as an additional drink? The biggest benefit at that age is comfort.

Most formula is made from hydrolysed/processed cows milk - so at the point you are introducing solids (including cheese sauces, custards etc with cows milk) you may as well introduce formula/hybrid if it suits your lifestyle. Especially if you can keep topping up with the odd BF when convenient e.g. at bed time.
my first DC BF until 18 mos, DC2 stopped at 10 months - I was gutted but had no time to worry about it having 2 kids under 2 and knew I had already done a good enough job.
maybe OPs stress is more about all the illnesses and the juggle/struggle of having more than one child. Its hard!

I have bf 4 kids. The first 2 I got to about 6 weeks. The 3rd I got to 4 months. The 4th has only just stopped at 4 and a half 😕. I was so determined to make it work. In reality if I hadn't had the help of a really good bf counsellor fourth time round I probably wouldn't have made it so long. I couldn't express just didn't work. However I did have a feeding schedule which stopped me going completely insane in the early months. Nighttimes I did on demand - though I can't help wondering if my nighttimes would have had less interruptions if I had fed more in the daytime. The point is you just don't know and never will. All my kids have had different good and bad sleeping stages. My younger children seem to have had more coughs and colds than the older ones - but I don't think you can point the finger at breastmilk/formula. Seems to me that there is a lot more general sickness around all kids these days. (There is a 10 year gap between my two sets of kids). I'm pretty sure breastmilk has got to be better than anything manmade/processed. But at 16 months you're really beyond bf versus formula. You need to start looking at real food and ask yourself whether you're willing to let your kids drink squash, eat sugar, refined carbs. It's a bit pointless if you grind yourself down over the bf/formula issue and then let them eat crap for the rest of their childhood. Not saying you will but people get really wrapped up in this and then it's sugar all the way. Doesn't make sense.

It's not just sugar it's nowhere near the recommended amount of veg and fruit,too much red meat,over the recommended processed meat allowance.......

My 23 month old disagrees wholeheartedly with all the people saying breastfeeding is overrated in this country due to our clean water supply or the fact that we all should have evolved past wanting to bf our children. My wee one does not just feed for nutrition and often comfort feeds, it is hard though and I do wish he would hurry up and decide he was over the boobies but at the moment there are still lots of obvious benefits. Honestly feed your children however you think best and try not to force your opinion down others necks,it's hard enough Day to day being a mum without all the other crap. You have done amazingly to feed up to 16 months Op just breathe and think if your daughter is still enjoying it there are other benefits than just the immunity stuff. You might find she doesn't get ill for ages now. Whatever you choose to do there is support out there for you, sometimes you just have to look a bit harder unfortunately.

I bf my 3 kids, the eldest refused, all three were fine and had similar amounts of colds as most kids, however my youngest developed eczema as soon as I stopped bf. Its also as much about what you eat too, you really have to look after yourself and eat healthy too, your child might be building up her immune system and might be much stronger later on as was the case with my sister's daughter

Although I've BF all mine to 12 months and beyond I totally disagree with comfort feeding toddlers whether it is BF/FF. Surprised people can't see a link between comfort feeding and comfort eating. I have done all I can to avoid giving any of my children the idea that food/drink makes you feel better when you feel bad.

I carried on feeding for the benefits re gut/immunity.

itsmine, really, the WHO does not conclude the studies are so full of holes they are of little use. This is a ridiculous exaggeration which does not help the discussion at all. You have deliberately misinterpreted the cautious and measured tone of the conclusion - at least, I assume its deliberate and not an error based on not understanding how scientific research works and is reported.

There are many ways of researching a topic. All have limitations. Research which looks at issues complicated by human behaviour and social factors has to acknowledge these aspects in the study design and its conclusion - but it does not mean that no valuable learning can be drawn from the studies.

WHO's research is not really aimed at individual parents. It's aimed at governments and agencies involved in public health policy and administration. So governments and agencies are asked to look at how they can best support infant and maternal health, and one of the ways of so doing is to protect breastfeeding. This is worthwhile, because over a population, infant and maternal health benefit from more breastfeeding. There's no suggestion that this should be done at the expense of good maternal mental health (the protection of which WHO is also active in) or individual freedom and preference.

I find the sneering tone that emerges in threads like this of 'it makes no difference' and 'it's all fake news' and 'don't be duped into believing it's worth it' to be somewhat belittling and unsupportive of women's wish to breastfeed.....as if those of us who want to do it and who regard the experience as important to us have been taken for fools. It's unpleasant.

I just think if you can avoid feeding your child processed manufactured food from the second they come out of the womb, you should. One of the biggest formula makers is a chocolate and snacks company. If you really don't think their formulas are designed to introduce a taste for Nestle chocs I have a bridge to sell you.

Do tell. What do they put in it to encourage a taste for chocolate?

Look if breastfeeding your 16month child is doing you more harm then good then stop. Surely she's only bf a couple of times a day and for a short while. You've both done extremely well to continue for as long as you have. Try weaning her off and you'll have more energy for your baby and yourself. For what it's worth all my children self weaned off my breast milk and I was slightly sad but not for long as they took cows milk from a cup very quickly afterwards. I felt glad that they had benefited from bf and I was glad of the bond we had. But I remember the first 6 months were hell and felt the same way as you do now.

Greenginger there's a book called "Salt Sugar Fat" that explains the huge food manufacturers have major research operations to introduce a combination of flavors that are addictive to hook us on snacks. Take a look for yourself.

Oh to OP - I BF for 16 months and I'd had enough. Gave DD a cup of milk instead and in less than a week she'd forgotten about nursing. Don't kill your self you've done an amazing job.

No thanks. You say it's true,show me the proof? Explain how they do it.Show me the outrage from the medical community too.

if you really don't think their formulas are designed to introduce a taste for Nestle chocs I have a bridge to sell you.

Nom nom, chocolate.

GreenGinger I don't have time to synopsis the entire book for you. Suffice it to say the day I finished it I determined not to give my newborn processed food because these companies are immoral and everything they sell is to sell you more and more and get you hooked on rubbish.

I do not regret it and I wish the discussion of BF/FF focused more on why we are so keen as a society to outsource infant nutrition to companies that make chocolate and sweetened yogurt.

My mainly ff dd (10) loves chocolate but will self regulate pretty impressively. "Have I had too much choc/sweets today?" My failure to bf didn't damage her ability to do that. Better than me tbh.

Unbelievable. So not only are you trying to scare the shit out of everybody who has fed their DC formula you have nothing to base this on other than a book you can't be bothered to check the index and flick through and your own slightly deranged suspicion.