Demonisation of formula!!!

[Summertimehaze]

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

Firstly, how do we reconcile the fact that we want to support everyone in their choices, but all choices are not equal - breast is nutritionally best and second best. Are we saying we need to say 'I support your right to choose second best' because to try to suggest that both choices are equal just isn't right.

And I also challenge the word choice. Lots of people feel they had no choice and therefore their feeding method shouldn't be judged as the second best choice, because actually they only had one option. Lots of people report lots of help with latching etc - not a lack of help - but they still don't get on with it, add to this the terrible fear about a baby losing weight and many people will feel that the baby must be fed (which must be true at some point) and that leaving the baby hungry whilst waiting to master BF just isn't an option.

So,mso we need to challenge this idea that people choose? Do we give up too easily and effectively do go with the essay option? Do health professionals push formula too quickly and fuel fears about loss of weight? Is there support beyond the first couple of weeks? Is it possible to re establish full BF if you've used formula out of desperation in the early weeks?

How do we push the health benefits of breast milk and what is the balance between this and recognising the difficulties many women have? Or is it the case that if you FF you just need to accept it isn't as good nutritionally - and for whatever reason, your baby is getting the lesser nutritional food - it might be due to not being able to BF, due to not wanting to BF or whatever reason, but the nutritional outcome is the same.

How do we deal with the sense that people have that their feeding method makes them a good or bad mother, at that crucial point when being a mother is totally new and self doubt is all around and getting a balanced view on this stuff is hard?

How do we encourage BF, support it and support all mothers in whatever feeding method they end up with, for whatever reason?

Someone said before they doubted that 80 per cent of women wanted to bf. I think if we are asking women what they want to do then the figure is even higher. Intention to bf (when asked antenatally) is about 85 per cent (it drops to 80 because of difficulties with the birth and pre term babies and simple changes of mind). But stats show consistently that about 80 per cent (with regional variations) start bf. Obv some will be more keen than others but dismissing the idea that the majority want to do it is part of the reason funds for support have been lost - some people think they know better than the mothers themselves what they want to do.

Genuine question. If formula is so much worse than breast milk, how does that play out in the millions of formula fed babies from the 50s etc?

Breastmilk is better, formula is fine, but it doesn’t matter either way because by the time they’re three it makes sod all difference anyway. Get a class of preschoolers together and you’ll have no idea which were breastfed and which weren’t.

YABU we have one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding in the developed world. It’s not about demonisation of formula but about why women don’t get enough support to breastfeed IF THEY WANT TO.

I struggled and bottlefed. No biggie, he’s a teenager now and seems healthy enough. However breast milk is far far superior to formula and I can say that as someone who used formula as the next best thing. It wasn’t my ideal though.

I thought the programme asked important questions about why so many women who want to breastfeed struggle.

Ive read various things online and in books about breastfeeding reducing the risk of SIDS
I’m not sure if there’s an actual study published on this. There may very well be maybe someone else knows?
If this is the case it would be the most compelling reason to raise bf rates. You would assume the nhs would be aware and offering more support to new mothers if so.

papybear there's a meme doing the rounds that states "I was allowed to go in a car without a seatbelt, play out unsupervised without a mobile phone. i survived. Share if you grew up in the" ..etcetera and the principle here is similar.
Breastfed infants have significantly lower rates of ear infections, gut infections and asthma/eczema/hayfever therefore formula fed infants in the 50s would probably shown higher rates statistically.

You mean the generation with rising rates of diabetes, obesity, breast and other cancers, allergies of all types, heart disease, poppy?

That generation?

However, while all those conditions have several overlapping causes, and infant feeding is only one of a huge number of factors, in the UK, the most obvious negative effects of formula are absorbed and minimised by our excellent infant and child health care. So the infections ff babies are more susceptible to are easily treated and on the whole pretty minor. The increase in hospital admissions seen in babies who are not BF don't usually have serious long term effects, and most babies who are not BF grow up healthy and well. The evidence is, nevertheless, that their immune system is compromised (hence the contribution to the risk of those diseases I listed above).

Breastmilk, evolved over millennia to protect not just the nutrition of human infants but also their long term human health, is always going to beat formula on health and nutrition grounds.

Mothers ff for many reasons, and as it is their own bodies they are using, we should support them to use formula if they wish and/or if they are unable to BF. Mothers' well being and autonomy are important.

But we support no one's well being by pretending that it really doesn't matter how babies are fed.

Someone asked how to improve bf support. I think lactation consultants/IBCLCs employed in postnatal wards and available to visit at home would help a lot. These are actual trained professionals in breastfeeding. At the moment the majority of these professionals are private so a) only those who can afford to can access their support, b) have huge waiting lists and c) people don’t know they exist.

Even if there were more bf support groups available that would make a huge difference, and make them accessible to everyone who wants to go. A mum who is 2 weeks post c section, 10 miles away from her nearest group, and also has a toddler to entertain isn’t going to be able to access much help. And they should be run by people who are trained , often they are run by volunteers who can provide moral support, cups of tea and biscuits but not much practical help.

Lots of people think midwives and health visitors are adequately trained in breastfeeding and they aren’t.

Papy, not poppy, sorry!

JDRF actually did a 10 year study and found no link between cows milk/formula and type 1diabetes
My own dd was ebf and then dairy free till 3 but she still developed type 1 diabetes

I think it’s really important to understand the start of formula it was a medical product which they then decided to market (with a pack of lies) to make money. We need to go back to using it was what it was originally designed as a life saving medical product and invest more in breast feeding support. Babies need human breast milk not something derived from milk for baby cows.

I 100% agree that new moms (such a vulnerable time!) shouldn’t be made feel bad about formula feeding. There should just be more support.
Also it appears that many people seem to think that formula and breast milk are the same thing- which is proven not to be the case.
I personally felt huge pressure to breast feed and was lucky enough to have a good supply and be able to do it. But I feel my mental health was impacted negatively due to total lack of sleep for many many months when my son rejected the bottle.

I loved the program, of course "fed is best" how ridiculous to deem otherwise.

But scientifically breastfeeding IS best, of course it bloody is.

I think it brought to light the poor relationship we as a nation have with breastfeeding, proved wholly by some of the public featured on the program and their odd comments.

Mothers should be informed about benefits and negatives of both.

The problem is, anyone proud of breastfeeding is demonised by those who don't want/can't breastfeed.

There isn’t enough support to get you ready for how hard it is.

I’m not sure if people always found it so hard but there was no choice or it has actually got harder?

Maybe to do with our modern diets or something random, that we don’t get such a good milk supply to start off with or ever. Maybe those sort of environmental factors effect our infections rates aswell?

The first few days pain - Nearly everyone has that. It’s agony, I cried through some feeds in first few days.

Then there’s the expectation to crack back on with normal life and look normal and the fear of going out and needing to breast feed somewhere awkward.

Very few people just start breastfeeding, pour with milk, don’t get any side effects and illnesses or pain.

Most breast feeders I know had moments where they had been glued to a sofa for what felt like 10 hours with a cluster feeding baby and they are tearful and wondering “can this actually be right, I’m just a milking machine now etc etc” sob sob.

I was lucky because I had my Mum who was spurring me on and assuring me it was all normal and I just needed to get on with it. Did I resent it at the time and wish she’d Just say to me “no judgement, start the formula” - yes! But now it’s over I’m grateful to her because otherwise I’d of thrown in the towel long before.

You get the odd person who pours with milk and it’s much easier for them as feeds are so much quicker and they can express so easily but for a lot it’s a massive struggle.

For myself personally, if I had another. I’d except the first 4 months as a right off in the sense of a normal life as I tried to fight that too much last time.

But mainly I’d try and do some research while I was pregnant into what makes one person gush with milk and another so slow.

I couldn’t express at all and my feeds were relentless as I didn’t seem to have that much milk. It was enough to fatten him up but just took hours of feeding. I was very stressed with a poor diet during and after birth though, maybe that played a part?

And the nipples pain and mastitis I’d just except as a right of passage. Mastitis was awful, I felt so poorly but I fed through it (read to do so online) and got better within 12 hrs. Bloody horrid that was though.

Hedgehog0
Yes there has been a study, it was a sleep study - that was a longitudinal study of a decade of research. It showed that the frequent waking of infants was a protective factor against SID, with frequent waking for feeding being less common in formula fed infants.

I really don’t buy the “breast is best” mantra. It is only true in the third world, where bottles are often made up with contaminated water. Modern formula feeds are carefully nutritionally balanced and sterile.
Breast fed babies are recommended to be supplemented with vitamin D from birth, as it’s inadequate in breast milk. Formula contains the right amount.
As PPs have pointed out, by the time children go to school you can’t tell what method of feeding they received as babies.
Both mine were formula fed - they were healthier than all their breast fed cousins ( mine were the only ones NOT to have asthma and/or allergies!) - and are now in their 20’s, both graduates, healthy weights, top 1% of population for IQ. Neither had a single hospital admission for childhood illness.
Let’s support all mothers in whatever feeding they choose. It makes bugger all difference to the resulting children, so stop demonising and turning women against each other!

I always have two doubts in the back of my mind in these discussions as both are asserted often by BF proponents:

1. that’s it’s ok for babies to survive on tiny amounts of colostrum (or less) for up to 5 days before milk comes in properly. Surely that’s not right and supplementing can play a role there?
2. the data on long term benefits of BF vs FF seems a subject of hot debate due to factors such as socio economic status of the respondents in the surveys etc. I don’t think there is irrefutable evidence for the benefits of BF extending into adulthood or is there? I am not knowledgable on this subject at all. But these are the two niggles I have.

If breastmilk could be taken from mothers magically and sold back to them by Nestle et al, we'd see a dramatic increase in support for bf. We should never forget the truly evil fuckers that are behind much of this debate, and the lengths they'll go to to keep women buying their product.

I don't want to sound confrontational, but are you really suggesting that formula plays a part in someone getting cancer? I'm genuinely interested. That just seems like such a massive leap. Is there any scientific proof of this?

That generation has rising health problems due to so many many other issues that would far outweigh whether they were formula fed.

SIDS is thankfully rare with very low numbers. No real need to scare women into bfing. If you don't co-sleep,use a dummy,don't over heat,lay on back or do drugs the chances are even more rare. If you want to reduce the already tiny risk I'd focus on those factors,no need to use Sids as a whipping stick to BF.

I find it hard to stomach then that the nhs don’t offer new mothers the much needed support in order to raise bf rates. There is a huge amount of emphasis on safe sleeping etc and campaigns yet there is little or no support in hospitals and after discharge

Iggi999

Very true, but we’re so deep down the rabbit hole now though I’m not sure there’s any turning back. Sad.

@Shampooeeee

"waves at the Nestle marketing team"

I've heard rumours that what your implying, is actually happening.

Breastfeeding rates in this country have been rising so formula companies are going for the viral, big data/Cambridge Analytica style approach. Hence the kick back against breastfeeding in the last couple of years.

Can we stop using cognitive bias (I did XYZ and my kids have never been sick in their lives!!!!)? That's purely anecdotal and unless you're speaking as part of a large-scale study that looks at bigger-picture trends across large sample sizes, largely meaningless. D