Breast milk is the best thing for your baby...

[Starwhisperer]

Please hear me out on this one.

I know that advertising regulations are in line with the WHO advice that breast milk is the best thing for a baby until at least 6 months of age.

My issue is with the specifics in what we see and read as soon to be and new mothers.

I combi fed my first child for 18m as my supply never seemed to be where I needed it to be. The first 2 months were a hellish cycle of pumping and formula milk. I firmly believe the failure to feed as I'd wanted led to my PND. I met other mothers struggling at the time who felt the same way and there has been research done which has confirmed this.

Everytime I formula fed my baby there in front of me was the message "breast milk is the best thing for your baby". Am I being unreasonable to think that this would do more harm than good. I know it made me feel rotten. I'd have thought that by the time a mother is preparing and giving formula feeds it's generally too late to be converted to the idea of BFing. The message is either going to women entirely happy with their decision to FF or women like me who see it as a kick in the teeth because they tried their hardest and didn't get the hang of it.

I feel that instead more effort should be put in before birth to get the facts out there, all i had was ony little leaflet with no opportunity promoted to ask aboit tjings in more detail. Perhaps a blanket ban on formula advertising. They use babies as close to 6m as possible for the pictures which does far more in the way of promoting FF than a little message promoting BF on a box.

Perhaps I'm getting my knickers in a twist over nothing bit I feel the formula manufacturers are doing way more harm than good here.

Although I loved breastfeeding DS2 my breast milk gave him reflux and made him a very unhappy and unsettled baby. Formula was best for him and turned him into a different child. I persevered for 8 weeks but realised I was keeping at it for me, not him. In our case breast wasn't best. And DS1 was exclusively FF with no BF whatsoever and is a bloody genius so not sure how he could be improved .

So you agree but don’t think it should say that in the tin?

Makes no sense whatsoever.

Where should it say it then?

I think mothers need support with feeding. Both with establishing and continuing breastfeeding, and not just being left to it if for whatever reason formula works better for them. There's probably too much emphasis on exclusively breastfeeding leading to a perception that the game is over once you start introducing formula. Yes, the demand and supply aspect of breastfeeding is important and formula can interrupt that, but sometimes all a mother needs is to temporarily reduce the burden of breastfeeding and can potentially build it back up again with support. That's obviously not a cure for all problems! Sometimes more patience is needed to let milk supply come in, particularly after a difficult birth where the mother's body is prioritising recovery over milk production. (DS1 got fed by hook or by crook to get him through the first week until the milk came in. My body barely produced colostrum while I was in HDU). I'm not blaming mothers, they need access to appropriate support in theirs and their baby's best interests at a time when they are emotionally and physically vulnerable. (I got much more help in those first 36 hours in HDU than I could on the main ward and that helped me to plod on. Had we started on main ward, we might have had to resort to formula)

Mothers who have started breastfeeding and switched to formula from circumstances rather than open choice are doubly vulnerable to the current "breast is best" and leaving formula feeders to get on with it. Little labels on formula don't make any practical change, but I can understand how it feels like a constant reminder of what didn't go according to plan.

If formula is looking like a better course in a situation than breast, then a little effort to ease that transition could have a major benefit on maternal outcomes.

panic and how does that help babies who can't suck or mothers who don't produce milk.

So you agree but don’t think it should say that in the tin?

Yes, because it doesn't achieve the aim (improve breastfeeding rates) and it has negative consequences (negatively impacts mental health).

That's not the aim though. Formula companies don't want women to BF, that's not their aim at all.

It’s not about helping mothers it’s about staying a fact.

The guilt is a horrendous side effect of a truth. There has to be other ways of supporting those women.

The WHO promote a.message for the entire world and in some places formula cannot compare with breast milk. If someone has poor access to clean water how can they make up sterile bottles? I understand that. I also know there are advantages to breast feeding even in countries like our own. I don't dispute the breast is best message, just the way in which it is promoted which I assume is controlled by UK law and not an international one. I don't believe the message needs to be so forcibly pushed in the UK.

Okay so the message has to be consistent except for in the uk 👍🏻

Because we know better

That's not the aim though.

That's the government's aim, not the formula company's, true.

panic the point is that mothers well-being is more important than babies being fed a bit of formula, surely? I wouldn’t have felt any guilt at all if it wasn’t for the midwives refusing to discuss formula with me like I was doing something wrong and failing to notice that formula (in this case) was beneficial.

I have no problem with the tin personally but like OP said a huge message across your maternity notes would be more effective. I’m not saying never speak of BF being best but encouraging it to a ridiculous extent and demonising formula is not helpful and counterproductive.

Breast milk wasn't the best for my second born, he has a milk protein allergy, every time I fed him I was poisoning him, his prescription milk formula is best for him, but I still feel guilty every time I feed him a bottle and not Breast milk how silly is that. I feel like I'm judged because he has a bottle.

Namesnames of course premature babies can have breastmilk. They can be fed breastmilk in the same as way as they be fed formula (tube)...

What’s best on a population level is breast milk.

What’s best for the individual mother/baby dyad may be breast, bottle or a mix of the two.

Yanbu op. I bfd my first exclusively for 18m. I’m supportive of BF. At the same time, if I ever have another I will mix feed, because being the only person who could feed him, when he fed constantly day and night for 18m nearly broke me.

Next time, I will include my own feelings in the ‘what’s best’ calculation

Formula isn’t demonised. Almost every mother I know uses it in some capacity and it has its own aisle in every major supermarket.

Yes I’m the vast majority of homes you are correct Harland. Mums health would be more important than baby having formula HOWEVER that’s because the vast majority of us on these threads probably have lovely clean running water, clean homes and the ability and inclination to follow / read instructions.

Some people in this country and more across the world donor have the luxury of one or all of these things and therefore the message should be expressed consistently across all available mediums to try and save lives. A tummy bug in a small baby in already precarious position health wise can be devastating and infections like these can be minimised through the use of breastmilk.

The world you inhabit is not the whole world.

If breastmilk was the only way to feed your baby then more babies would be breastfed. I don't think there's any doubt about that.

However, The vast majority of mothers and babies can breastfeed . Most mums who say they can't can. But it might be difficult, they may need more support, more information, more help with other things while BF is being established.

It's great that formula is available for those who can't breastfeed for whatever reason. Do you think it should be more difficult to get hold of formula? Would that help?

Some people in this country and more across the world donor have the luxury of one or all of these things and therefore the message should be expressed consistently across all available mediums to try and save lives

In the meantime, in this country, PND rates are highest amongst those who have tried to breastfeed but haven't been successful.

You've been told numerous times on this thread that the BIB message on a tin of formula is a trigger for these women.

I'd say we'd be much better off concentrating on mental health outcomes for our own citizens than worrying about the consistent message across the world.

I don't think the text on a tin of aptamil in the UK will make much difference to breastfeeding rates in the Congo. Do you?

I’m losing the will to live here tbh.

It’s terrible that PND rates are so high but quite frankly it’s ridiculous that we as a society should then have to remove an important and absolutely true message from a can of formula.

Do you have actual figures as to how many women suffer from PND because of what they read on an aptimil tin?

So you accept it’s better but think that we should then pick and choose where we print the message so as not to offend? Okay.

Reading something on a tin is so weak that it couldn’t possibly affect a woman’s decision to breastfeed but it’s also so powerful that it can cause PND ... what a paradox!

Do you have actual figures as to how many women suffer from PND because of what they read on an aptimil tin?

Do you have any proof/ figures to show that anyone is encouraged to continue breastfeeding by what they read on an aptimil can?

Absolutely not but I never argued that it did. I said that it was part of an important overall message which should be consistent.

I think Laurie is maybe taking her hard time and making it a universal truth.

I have had c sections, should I get upset every time someone says natural labours are best for the baby? No. The issue here is breastfeeding is not the norm, we have one of (the)? lowest rates in Europe and it is having a huge impact on our health. That includes the mental health of mothers. The issue is simply the lack of support, the crazy expectations of newborns and of course the ridiculous marketing of formula milk. If we banned advertising the rates would increase as is clearly evidence. Formula companies are thriving at the expense of mothers and babies and government won't do anything about it.

Reading something on a tin is so weak that it couldn’t possibly affect a woman’s decision to breastfeed but it’s also so powerful that it can cause PND ... what a paradox!

You're forgetting that in one instance the women is in the UK and reads these tins every day. In the other instance, the woman is in the congo and never sees the tin.

Really, I can't argue with this level of obtuseness.

You aren't taking on board the PND point, even though lots of people have told you their experiences on this thread. There is confirmed evidence that BF is highest amongst the group who wanted to BF but didn't.