To think DC *is* ebf?

[MulderitsmeX]

Please help me settle an argument with DH.

Dc is 8 months so has some solilds /pouches / BLW which I introduced just after 6 months. All his milk is breast milk. Is this ebf?

DH and I saw some BF articles about BF rates and were confused whether EBF means no formula or no solids/formula. If the latter surely no baby post 6 months is ebf? (Unless medical reasons why)

You are a bad mother, you should’ve breast fed him with no other food till he’s 2!

You jest, but there seriously are people who delay any introduction of solids until way past 6mo. On the basis that if 6m EBF is good, those benefits will remain/increase past this point. This massively overlooks the fact that breast milk has no iron, and the baby will have been running down its stores since birth.

Oh, and there are also people who consider "EBF" to mean literally milk taken straight from the breast. If you pump, then All the Good Things About BF cease to apply. (Again, no science behind this whatsoever.)

OP, you will rapidly find that no-one gives a toss about you BF as you go forward. I think it only came up sporadically after my DD was 6mo, and by the time it came to her 1yo vaccinations no-one asked. (We specifically raised it as there's a tick-box on the vacc form the HCP fills out--IIRC it's supposed to make a difference in some way.) Fortunately I quite enjoy DD BF (she turned 3 a few days ago and still goes on for pleasure), but I'd be disappointed at the lack of acknowledgment if I'd been doing it under sufferance.

'Extended' feeding is also bollocks not the correct term, it's natural term BF which the vast majority don't do.

Especially when we're talking about an infant under 12 months old! I don't think anything beyond 2-3 years old can be considered "extended" but in modern UK culture after 6 months you're looked at like a space alien.

Your baby was EBF until 6 months.

You are not doing BLW if your DC is having pouches.

I did actually sometimes say we were doing child-led weaning when referring to my son weaning off the breast at nearly 4 years old.

Clearly he was a young child and having regular food and really the only people who knew I was still nursing him were kindred spirits who understood what I meant by weaning in this context.

Saying it was natural weaning or whatever sounds twatty.

But surely when solids are first introduced they are not really providing nutrition? One is merely accustoming the infant to texture & taste etc. The infant is incapable of consuming more than a (very messy ) teaspoon of mush, most of which probably isn’t swallowed. Solids in the early stages aren’t supplementing the diet

my HV said I should use my BM to make porridge

BM means "bowel movement" to me so that was a hideous image

It’s a really confusing term as the government seem to included babies past 6 months, who are presumably also on solids, in their statistics about how many babies are ebf.
Ngaio2, plenty of babies eat quite a lot, some aren’t really interested in food until 8 moths or so but 2 of mine had small amounts from 4 months and were eating well from 6 months.
It really annoys me that they only include ebf babies in their statistics anyway, I breastfed all of mine for around a year but I mixed fed from 2 weeks so presumably wouldn’t be considered a breast feeder in their statistics past 2 weeks.

I think the confusion/ conundrum arises during the period between 6 and 12 months. After 12 months you can give normal pasteurised cow's milk and many mothers continue to breastfeed and allow cups of cow's milk too. However, if you are breastfeeding, but not using formula, and giving your child some solids between 6m and 12m, you are only really exclusively Bfing in the sense that you are not giving formula. That is the statistic that I imagine the government are trying to capture- the women who continue to breastfeed in preference to formula in the later half of the first year. It is expressed rather badly, but I reiterate my point above- if you are happy with the way you are feeding your child, who cares what it is labelled! I am a natural term BFing (with a dc who is showing no sign of ever giving up and will probably be doing it at the school gates at this rate- I wonder if there is a label for people like me. I hope not! )

I used my breast milk to make porridge and slacken purées when my DC were weaning... I never thought of making cheese, that's fab !! I did once use a bottle of expresed milk to make a batch of 'baby' mac and cheese for the freezer

LadyM, I've hand expressed into a cup of tea when I ran out of cow's milk.

Now, cheese, there's a thought!.....

You don't have to use breastmilk to make porridge. They can have formula, or a bit of cows milk in cooking so long as it isn't the main drink.

Breastmilk cheese

You’re not EBF once you stop exclusivity breastfeeding.
Why is the labelling so important to you?
Same with you adding BLW - which you’re not.
Stop worrying about labelling, and just enjoy feeding your baby!

(I have no issue with EBF, I did it to 6 months, and I did BLW for about a week before spying the convenience of Ella’s Kitchen )

Why would a doctor/hv ask that anyway? I’ve had 3 kids one was ff from a few days old, one was fed only breastmilk but from a bottle and one was breastfed until 15 months. I don’t ever remember a doctor asking me if they were ‘exclusively’ breast fed and the HV only ever asked in terms of ‘is s/he having any formula? It’s an odd question.

There is a term, extreme bf, but that's a bit judgemental.
3wild ones, do you mean mixed bf and formula? Unlikely you were giving solids at 2weeks. You could have said partly bf?
Had a neighbour who proudly gave her child doorstep milk from about 6weeks but hv not happy, she weaned her on chips and white bread too, poor thing.

Ebf is clearly what 'who' mean. Breast milk and nothing else, and it's as much about avoiding dirty water, malnutrition and disease in places where they don't have money or clean running water. This is to avoid nestle and capitalism in general persuading people that formula and packaged/processed is best and children dying because the food is over diluted and unsterilised. Not really relevant in western world, but children can't digest solids till around 6months. Cows milk is good for baby cows, otherwise not so much. Lot of snobbery about feeding which is not neccessary.

Missingstreetlife yes I breastfed but also gave one bottle of formula from 2 weeks. Yes the hv knew I was mostly breastfeeding but my point is that as the government statistics on bf only include those who ebf I’m, and many others like me, are not included in those who breast feed past 2 weeks, even though I did breast feed partially until a year.

@OwlBeThere - health visitors discuss weight, height, what and how much the baby is eating, skills etc; it seems to be their main job for babies. How odd to think breastfeeding might never come up.

@3WildOnes - it is ridiculous, yes. I'm not sure that the statistics can be very accurate when the tracking doesn't seem to start in the right place.

Every time I see EBF I think it means Electronically Breast Fed. I struggle to figure out what Electronically breast feeding would contain/logistics. lol

@MRex, how odd that you took what I said to mean that I thought it didn’t come up. What I said was why would they specifically ask if you are exclusively breastfeeding. Obviously they discuss feeding, but I’ve never had one say ‘are you exclusively breastfeeding?’ They would say ‘how are you feeding baby?’ Or ‘how is feeding going?’

Cows milk is good for baby cows, otherwise not so much.

Well it’s the main ingredient of most infant formulas isn’t it? Processed to the hilt with vitamins and sugars added, and then it’s good enough for human babies.

I BF to avoid starting my baby on industrial nutrition. Whether or not our water supply is clean, I can tell the difference between fresh milk and powdered packaged in a factory.

Why do you care? I hate the phrase ‘exclusively breastfed’ . There’s a real value judgment attached to it. Why not just say breastfed?

@brookshelley how judgy do you sound? Do you have any idea how much some women struggle with breastfeeding? I tried and tried to the point of being pretty depressed. The last thing people need to hear is that formula is ‘industrial nutrition’. I’m glad breastfeeding worked for you but really have some respect for those woman who can’t or don’t want to. Those woman are also doing the best they can for their babies.

@brookshelley you do know that there are babies who cannot have breast milk and for whom that industrial nutrition, as you call it, is a life saver?

I hate the term 'exclusively breast fed' Its just loaded with judgement and smugness. Why is the term so important to you OP?

The reasons the definitions are unclear is because it's utter nonsense and designed to give mothers another stick to beat themselves with.