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Original poster

Demonisation of formula!!!

996 replies

Summertimehaze · 31/07/2018 09:52

Don’t know if anyone watched the Dispatches programme last night on breastfeeding? The more I think about that programme the more annoyed I’m getting!!! The demonisation of formula really doesn’t help mothers who struggle to breastfeed and have to start using formula or even as a top up!! Most mothers want to do what’s right for their babies and know that breast is best. But some mums just can’t do it and so formula literally becomes a lifesaver. I’m sick of seeing mums feel so guilty about it and letting their children bloody starve because they surely can’t give them the evil formula!!!!!! The programme basically tells a new mum that it’s really tough to breastfeed, there is no support, they will be judged BUT formula is not an option!!! Grrrrrrrrr 😡. AIBU

OP posts:
CardinalCat · 02/08/2018 10:33

Gizzy, follow-on milk by definition has no purpose and therefore NO nutritional benefits. By the time your child is old enough to be given it, you may as well just be giving blue top milk if you're giving dairy. It is better and cheaper.

PasstheStarmix · 02/08/2018 10:35

I was similar to you as well too many HCP’s pushing breastfeeding to the detriment of my physical and mental health. I already had a traumatic birth and was like a walking zombie and didn’t enjoy multiple people watching me attempt to breastfeed and i felt like a circus freak show. I actually think if the breastfeeding police (one miserable hcp in particular) had have backed the hell off I would have enjoyed it alittle better than I did! Next time around I know how to say no and I will be saying it.

PasstheStarmix · 02/08/2018 10:36

*gizzy

harrietm87 · 02/08/2018 10:37

Jeez @P3onyPenny it was an example. I used the rain example because it's often used for e.g. likelihood of success with cancer treatments. It's a standard one in medicine. I didn't invent it. Let's change it though and see if that helps you:

90% chance of winning the lottery. 10 people who don't win come on here and say the lottery is a fix, no one wins. Do we not bother to play or do we accept that we need a larger data set and, valid though their experience is, TO THEM, it's not relevant to everyone else doing the lottery.

(Do you understand how science and statistics work?)

AyEssDee · 02/08/2018 10:37

My breastfed baby was born on 50th centile for weight and from 6 weeks was 98th centile for weight. That doesn't mean you can conclude this is the norm for breastfed babies (it isn't) - that is just as anecdotal as "my FF baby is far healthier than any of the BF babies I know"... 🙄

Ennirem · 02/08/2018 10:37

Health professionals encouraged me to see it as still breastfeeding in the early days but then my MiL actively observes that I don't breastfeed and takes the piss out me pumping every time we see her... it's a whole other hidden world, expressing!

Your MIL sounds like a peach Hmm

Ignore her, expressing mums are my actual heroes, you have all the challenges of both worlds and it must be very hard sometimes, especially the feeling invisible in the debate/support world. I am quite heavily in the 'bf world' online now, and while in the main it is a lovely, non-judgemental, inclusive and supportive place, there are always the very few, very odd people who want to be "breast-feedier than thou" to bolster their own self esteem - ignore those dickheads, everybody else does.

Fantastic thing you are doing for your baby! Flowers

harrietm87 · 02/08/2018 10:39

PS you have said that bf has benefits - what are these in your opinion and why is only the first 6 weeks relevant? (And what are you basing your opinions on?)

Ennirem · 02/08/2018 10:39

I just wish programmes like this dispatches one would draw more attention to it as it's never really talked about as an option. None of the classes I went to pre-birth mentioned expressing and I didn't even know that breast pumps existed until our neighbour leant me one.

Also I think expressing is a much more well-understood path in the US as lots of women have to go back to work very early and expressing is the only way they can keep up bf - I doubt anyone in the states would make a differentiation between what you do and breastfeeding!

Teateaandmoretea · 02/08/2018 10:41

The microbiome stuff is interesting indeed but the answer may well be supplementation for formula fed babies as well as encouraging breastfeeding.

Ifeelshit · 02/08/2018 10:42

I think that support from family and friends is much more important than support from health professionals is in establishing and maintaining breastfeeding, simply because they are the people you will see most frequently, the ones you'll be able to ask for support and advice in the evenings and weekends. And that can only be achieved if we improve breastfeeding rates over all.

One of the most supportive people I had was very randomly FIL! He had supported his wife (MIL) through breastfeeding and was really helpful and supportive, gave me lots of encouragement and advised DH on how to support me. I was quite shocked!

PasstheStarmix · 02/08/2018 10:44

I hated expressing as it worried the hell out of me as it took me hours to pump a bottle and as we know it has no bearing on how much milk you can produce. I would feed ds 12-14 times a day and then expect to pump a bottle as well for dh togive him and to have a small ‘emergency’ supply in fridge/freezer. It for to the point when I would get at up at 3am to pump if ds didn’t want a feed incase it negatively affected my supply. Never again. I shudder thinking back at that time and will never do it again.

PasstheStarmix · 02/08/2018 10:44

It got *

P3onyPenny · 02/08/2018 10:44

I frankly think anybody who wastes money on the lottery is foolish. I don't enter for that very reason. Odds aren't high enough for me,kind of like partaking in angst over bfing a few more months.

Anyhoo I'm suspecting my dc seeing me spend far too long on my phone when I lecture to them is probably doing more damage than their few months of formula. Going to cut and run now.

Teateaandmoretea · 02/08/2018 10:45

Gizzy, follow-on milk by definition has no purpose and therefore NO nutritional benefits. By the time your child is old enough to be given it, you may as well just be giving blue top milk if you're giving dairy. It is better and cheaper.

Er that's actually nonsense. You can use follow on milk after 6 months and it has exactly the same ingredients as first milk other than slightly more iron. The purpose of it is from a FF mum pov is that you can get Tesco etc points and buy it on offer. If that law was changed then it would have no purpose.

MairyHole · 02/08/2018 10:47

I have had many negative comments re expressing so I really feel you. People have told me they think it is gross!

We are now at 11 months and baby is still taking 600ml of milk a day. Having to work really hard to keep it up and I have had lots of comments asking why I won't give it up. A couple of FF mums have been cross with me because they feel it is a judgement on them.

But of course expressed milk is second best to breastmilk directly fed and I have no qualms in acknowledging that. It doesn't matter because I'm still doing the best I can in my personal circumstances.

PasstheStarmix · 02/08/2018 10:48

I was under the impression that follow on formula milk was sweeter as they had glcj

Ennirem · 02/08/2018 10:49

One of the most supportive people I had was very randomly FIL! He had supported his wife (MIL) through breastfeeding and was really helpful and supportive, gave me lots of encouragement and advised DH on how to support me. I was quite shocked!

That is both surprising and lovely!

MairyHole · 02/08/2018 10:49

And yes, all the best advice I've seen about expressing at work came from US mothers. There is not much of a culture of pumping working mums in this country.

Teateaandmoretea · 02/08/2018 10:49

It's exactly the same or at least SMA was, I studied it fairly carefully at the time.

PasstheStarmix · 02/08/2018 10:50

Pressed post accidentally. Should say:

I was under the impression that follow on formula milk was slightly sweeter than first infant milk as they had to change ingredients slightly to get away with advertising it as a different product.

MairyHole · 02/08/2018 10:51

Starmix, I think they add more iron to justify it being different.

PasstheStarmix · 02/08/2018 10:51

I also thought it was for children who don’t eat a very varied diet. I don’t understand why children can’t have regular whole milk and a multivitamin. Ds had whole milk from 12 months.

WarmWeatherIsQuiteNiceActually · 02/08/2018 10:51

This was at the top of my active threads!

Demonisation of formula!!!
PasstheStarmix · 02/08/2018 10:52

Yes mairy that must be it, it’s the formula companies trying to make money as usual.

Ifeelshit · 02/08/2018 10:54

Please can people stop saying "my DS was 9th centile and now he's 75th because I switched to formula" it isn't a race to 50th or 100th centile. It's about children following the centile line. A jump of more than 2 centiles is not expected (or needed or particularly wanted). So a jump from 9th to 75th or whatever is not a good or bad thing. A child following 9th for the entire of their life is absolutely perfectly fine and an indication of good health! (as is a chid who continues to follow 99th centile).

If the aim was for all kids to be 50th centile or 100th centile, centiles wouldn't exist. There'd just be a goal line!