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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

aibu to love this blog post about why formula feeding is brilliant?!

822 replies

girlwithasecretsmile · 26/09/2017 20:42

I think it's great to have a post talking about good things about formula for once but part of me feels bad for laughing so much.

passmethebottleblog.wordpress.com/

OP posts:
Blueskyrain · 30/09/2017 10:12

It's good to know that the human body will just create whatever vitamins etc it needs to make milk. I guess theres no benefits to a healthy diet after all - baby or no baby. If the human body is just capable of just magicking up the ingredients it needs.

wingerkite · 30/09/2017 10:16

Well yes your body will produce breastmilk unless you're severely malnourished, so you're right.

GertiesEyebrow · 30/09/2017 10:20

Yawn.
As others have said, formula doesn't need championing.
The majority of breast vs formula tension is like Blur vs Oasis - completely made up to cause arguments that aren't necessary. Most mothers I know in real life respect educated feeding choices and get frustrated at the lack of support for both breast feeding and formula feeding mothers.

tiktok · 30/09/2017 10:39

It's not magic, Bluesky. It's the way we have evolved over millennia. Breastmilk is not made from the 'ingredients' of your diet.

Do some reading and research. It will help you :)

glitterlips1 · 30/09/2017 10:45

Not going to bother reading it, I am not going to get hung up on what is deemed best. I wasn't able to BF with my first baby, I had no milk therefore, he was FF. He is now 10 and no would ever be able to tell whether he was BF or FF! I really couldn't give two damns about how other people choose to feed their baby.

Blueskyrain · 30/09/2017 10:47

Fabulous. If it's not made from ingredients I feed it, cake and vodka it is...
and that applies whether feeding or not, because my body has evolved to just create nutrients. Hurrah.

BertrandRussell · 30/09/2017 10:51

It's not magic, it's evolution.

A woman's body makes milk-depleting her own supplies of the essential ingredients until she is so severely malnourished that it can't happen any more.

Unless we're talking extreme circumstances, a woman's diet makes very little difference to her milk. It makes a big difference to to her, obviously.

Sayyouwill · 30/09/2017 11:21

lol as a nursery nurse I can safely say the snotty whiney kids who cry all the time and wet themselves the most all end up being the breastfed ones 

How disgusting. And people trust you to look after their kids?
If one of my kids nursery nurses spoke about any of the kids like this I'd personally ensure she was sacked. Best hope your identify doesn't get revealed on here.

gluteustothemaximus · 30/09/2017 11:21

Breastfed babies also have an average 40 percent more cortisol in their system than their formula-fed peers

And this is bad because.....?

Cortisol is a fantastic hormone. It helps the body's metabolism, immune response, and helps deal with stress.

Cortisol only becomes an issue with long term, high exposure, which includes adults and children.

And yes, if your diet is poorer than it should be, the mother will be the one that suffers from poor diet and not the baby.

lollipop7 · 30/09/2017 11:30

@nodogsallowedta your comment about absorption of alcohol into breastmilk is scientifically incorrect.

@user124578753 I can only say I'm glad you're not looking after my kids. You ignorant, heartless piece of shit. What chilling disdain for the creatures whose existence ensures someone like you has not so gainful employment. Tools like you are the reason so many people believe Safeguarding is failing. You should be ashamed of yourself.

gluteustothemaximus · 30/09/2017 11:36

It's good to know that the human body will just create whatever vitamins etc it needs to make milk. I guess theres no benefits to a healthy diet after all - baby or no baby. If the human body is just capable of just magicking up the ingredients it needs.

Someone said that formula was better than breast milk. The reason they gave was because, if the mother's diet was bad, it would affect the milk.

We're just saying, that the mother's diet isn't so much a factor, as milk is produced anyway, and if anyone suffers, it will be the mother.

And your response to that is...fine, eat cake and vodka if it makes no difference? And that no one should bother with a healthy diet then?

Ok Hmm

Headofthehive55 · 30/09/2017 11:44

hello
It's more difficult camping when bottle feeding because you either need to pack a steriliser (where are you going to put it in a two man small tent) or take ready made bottles. BF, you er lift your top. I stayed on campsites where there was no electricity or running hot water.
And when you decide to stay an extra night at a relatives, or indeed decide to stay the night after all you needed to have planned to bring a steriliser or have some means of acquiring extra bottles.

HelloSquirrels · 30/09/2017 11:53

You can get individual bottle sterilisers and Milton tablets. Why you would ever think it was sensible to stay on a camp site with no running water with kids baffles me anyway!

You're making ff into this big faff which it really isnt! Not everyone goes camping in the middle of nowhere with no utilities!

Have some means of acquiring extra bottles? Why? Wash them out and boil them then no steriliser needed anyway! Go to the local corner shop and buy a tub or some ready made bottles. It's readily available believe it or not!

HelloSquirrels · 30/09/2017 11:53

To be fair there needs to be some element of planning with any small baby no matter how they're fed so you're being a bit silly really!

wingerkite · 30/09/2017 13:38

Breastmilk is breastmilk. What you eat or drink had little effect on the quality or taste of it. Even alcohol.

Witsender · 30/09/2017 16:45

Not entirely true Squirrels, you can't deny that merely lifting your top is less work than preparing and using formula? We have camped 'off grid' on and off since #1 was about 4 months old, and haven't found the lack of running water an issue.

BertrandRussell · 30/09/2017 16:49

I'm still musing about tongue tie. A desultory google seems to suggest that I was right that it wasn't a "thing" when I had my dd 22 years ago- it seems to have been taken seriously in this country only for the last 10 years or so. So has there been a noticeable increase in bf rates since that happened? Or is it too soon to tell?

ArgyMargy · 30/09/2017 17:24

I never heard of tongue tie until recently and my children are also in their 20s. It seems often to be linked on here to stopping breastfeeding - perhaps another reason women give because they are made to feel guilty about their choice not to breastfeed.

BertrandRussell · 30/09/2017 17:31

"perhaps another reason women give because they are made to feel guilty about their choice not to breastfeed."

Sigh. That poor beleaguered minority again!

Lethaldrizzle · 30/09/2017 17:36

user124578753 - blimey with people like you working at nurseries I'm glad I never sent my kids to one!

BertrandRussell · 30/09/2017 17:52

If she works in a nursery I'm a cantaloupe.

HelloSquirrels · 30/09/2017 18:33

I never said ff was easier at all! I just said it's not as much of a faff as people are making it out to be!

Each to the own but off grid camping with children seems like a bad idea for me personally!

HelloSquirrels · 30/09/2017 18:34

bertrand ff-ers may not be the minority but why do you find it so hard to believe that people are judged for making that choice?

I had plenty of comments made to me.

mamatobabes · 30/09/2017 18:57

@BertrandRussell I honestly thing tongue tie is similar to reflux, and PCOS in women. Only recently (last 15 years or so) diagnosed and treated. I'm afraid I think of one of those things new mums of your time probably just struggled on alone with because it wasn't recognised. My cousin is 35, and my from what my aunt tells me she almost certainly had silent reflux the same as my DD. However in the 80s it wasn't a thing so she just had to battle on with a baby in pain refusing to feed until she weaned (which was much earlier in those days too). We got our DD medicated and although it was still tough, we were (eventually, after a bit of a fight) taken seriously and helped.

Similarly, my grandmother and mum almost definitely had PCOS. I have it, it's known to be hereditary. Gran was told in the 50s she was infertile, adopted my uncle and later went on to have twins and another baby. My mum struggled to have me for years. Both had the exactly same symptoms as me. Before I even started trying, I went to my GP who placed me on medication to help ovulation. I was pregnant in 12 weeks.

It's just advances in medicine, in my mind.

BertrandRussell · 30/09/2017 18:59

I think everyone with a small baby gets things said to them that may be judgemental- or may be taken as judgmental at the time. I think if you've tried to do something you want to do and discover that you can't then you feel sad and vulnerable and somebody saying good morning in the wrong tone of voice feels like a judgement. I think sometimes down the line these comments get bigger and bigger in people's heads. I think it's very sad that people feel the can't just say " I didn't want to bf" and I think it's very sad that people can't talk about how bf was a wonderful experience for them. I just want people to be able to make fully informed real choices. And I wish that women who formula feed didn't feel they have to shout down other women who bf.