To think formula is an amazing invention?

[IsoBordem]

As I was sitting and feeding my beautiful healthy, happy, and thriving baby I was suddenly so thankful for the existence of baby formula. It gets such a bad rap by some people but I would hate to think where she would be now if formula did not exist.

Seeing her in the hospital because she lost too much weight in her first week was heartbreaking. I will always be grateful that we live in an age where baby formula is available!

@Ilovechinese

It is great for people who need it but it will never compare to breast milk

shesgonebatshitagain, backhanded comments like these are all over this thread and this is exactly what I'm talking about.

It's a positive thread about formula feeding. No one claimed it was superior to breastfeeding. Please get over yourself.

@Ilovechinese - for some of us formula is better than bf as we positively decided to use formula.

[quote Ilovechinese]@Parker231 and your point is? I said it is good for people sho need it but it is a fact that it is not as good as breast milk.[/quote]
The point is, it's a positive formula feeding thread yet you felt the need to come in and announce the superiority of breastfeeding?
Why? What purpose does that serve? Women here know formula is not superior. It doesn't need to be drilled into them everytime something remotely positive about formula is mentioned. 🙄

@unmarkedbythat

Yanbu at all. I am really happy to have been able to breastfeed. I am even happier to know that if I had not been able to, my babies would not have starved to death. I am really, really at people who are not glad that there is a viable alternative to human milk for babies whose mothers cannot or prefer not to breastfeed!

Because they think that we all didn't try hard enough when we say we didn't produce enough milk, or baby had a poor latch, or we have two tethered nipples, or we just really hated it- because it was easy for them. Their heads must explode when someone says they didn't BF because they just didn't want to.

Yes but also puts them at greater risk of SIDS. Why do people get so offended when you state facts that breast milk is better?

@Ilovechinese - we aren’t talking about bf. For some of us formula was a more superior method of feeding.

There are pros and cons of everything but the OP is about what an amazing invention formula is.

@Ilovechinese

Yes but also puts them at greater risk of SIDS. Why do people get so offended when you state facts that breast milk is better?

Because women know this and you stating it on a positive formula feeding thread serves what motive exactly? To make FF mums feel like shit. Bravo. 🙄

Oh bore off, I'm stating facts, I formula fed my first two children and I'm not offended by it.

@Sandcastles55

Without formula there wouldn’t be millions of babies dying. That’s a hysterical and unfounded statement. Without formula there would be millions of babies surviving, but formula companies would be millions of pounds down.

In a healthy population where formula feeding isn’t the norm or formula companies haven’t been able to infiltrate, babies do not die of starvation. An absolutely tiny percentage of women are truly unable to breastfeed and where that is the case human societies tend to adapt by other relatives feeding the baby.

Many many women say their milk never came in, they never produced enough, the baby wouldn’t latch, it was excruciatingly painful etc. These are all genuine experiences and women shouldn’t suffer through these at the expense of her mental health BUT they’re things that we’ve caused by the drugs we use in labour, the lack of generational knowledge and peer support of breastfeeding, the lack of understanding about supply and demand, the undermining marketing of formula companies and so on. It doesn’t mean your baby would have died.

I know this isn’t the debate the OP was aiming for, but I find these threads so desperately sad. That women go through life blaming their bodies rather than laying the blame where it truly belongs. I have a friend who followed Gina Ford and stuck to 3 hourly breastfeeds. By 3 months her baby was on the 3rd centile and failing to thrive. She switches to formula and the baby starts piling on weight. What does my friend say ‘I’ll definitely formula feed next time. My breasts just never made enough milk. I feel so bad that I starved her those first few months just because I thought I should breastfeed’. Can people seriously not see how messed up the logic is?

Got to agree with this 100%.

DS had a severe tongue tie. I was crying everyday in pain, bleeding, was still told my latch was okay - then on day 4 I met a woman who knew the correct positions to breastfeed a baby with a tie (She had been taught these by her own mum) and almost like magic breastfeeding almost immediately became wonderful. In the old days women had access to this support or communities where breastfeeding was shared - these communities still exist in parts of rural India and Africa and these women don’t need to use formula at all for at least 9-12 months. Over in those parts the problem is educating women on the importance of starting solids at 6 months than breastfeeding.

Agreed op- it’s amazing stuff. We should not allow it to be demonised or locked away as if it’s cigarettes or alcohol. It has saved loads and loads of babies and the mental health of mothers as well. We should absolutely stand up to those who claim it’s poison.

@Ilovechinese

Oh bore off, I'm stating facts, I formula fed my first two children and I'm not offended by it.

That's great, facts. 🙄 why do you feel the need to state breastfeeding facts on a formula thread? Women already know this. So you repeating them here isn't doing shit other than making other woman feel like crap. Just because you weren't offended doesn't mean others won’t be. And simply put before there's no need for it. Not like everyone doesn't know breastfeeding is superior. 🙄

@GrumpyHoonMain - sorry but what often happens in the developing world when women can’t breastfeed is their babies die. Formula is beyond the means of many and so they often feed it watered down or give other inappropriate foods (like sugar water or boiled cows milk). We are so lucky to have access to formula in the UK.

Your experience was just that - your experience. Many women find breastfeeding difficult or impossible and we are sick of being patronised and ignored. Your experience was different from mine but no less valid. Please respect that other women have a different experience from you.

[quote Hollywhiskey]@Twizbe wow that must be an interesting book! My grandmother had her first baby early in the fifties and her mum brought cow and gate to the hospital to get her discharged when her (tiny prem) baby wasn't feeding and she'd had preeclampsia. It was at least sanity saving if not lifesaving. [/quote]
It really is. It suggests giving orange juice from a few weeks old, giving baby a colonic to cure colic, smoking while pregnant is ok, drinking while pregnant is in moderation and wean from 4 months.

Bottles and breast should be stopped from 9 months to cure baby of 'infantile habits'

@Ilovechinese - formula doesn’t put babies at a greater risk of sids at all. More scaremongering. There is no proof of a casual link at all. What a disgraceful thing to say.

@Sandcastles55 - what a ghastly post. You have decided us women who say we can’t breastfeed are just not trying hard enough! How utterly patronising. Of course babies used to die because they didn’t have adequate nutrition and they still do all over the world.

I wonder how many formula company stooges are active on MN. The ones with the cheek to refer to the breastfeeding mafia. 🤣 Pretty sure they start threads and seed them.

Of course it's amazing. Many people would otherwise have died as babies without it.

My first two just would not feed properly, before formula was invented and in the absence of being in the position to employ a wet nurse they would have died.

I was still devastated I couldn't breastfeed though.

[quote CayrolBaaaskin]@Sandcastles55 - what a ghastly post. You have decided us women who say we can’t breastfeed are just not trying hard enough! How utterly patronising. Of course babies used to die because they didn’t have adequate nutrition and they still do all over the world.[/quote]
No that’s not what @Sandcastles55 has written at all

Formula in itself is not the problem. It's a very valid alternative to wet nursing, which as another poster pointed out has had moral and ethical problems of its own. The problem with formula is the men behind it; the aggressive marketing machine which makes money at all costs, and those costs being the lives of babies in developing countries. For every baby's life saved by formula, I wonder how many have died?

Unicef estimates it kills about 800,000 babies per year world wide. I agree with the above. Formula is a great product to have where it is ‘safe‘ (certainly better than condensed milk!) but unfortunately it’s sold by probably the most unethical companies known to man. It’s a shame there really isn’t an ethical option, maybe Aldi’s own brand or kendamil would be the best? Every other brand I believe has a terrible, terrible past and present marketing tactics. And I do agree there are lots of suspicious threads on MN that seem intent on igniting the age old ff/bf debate, I wonder what they get out of it .

I'm glad I never had to use formula but would have if I would have had to I guess

And to the pp who asked, it’s not ‘just the water’ that makes formula unsafe. The product itself is basically a Petri dish. The water must, must MUST be at least 70c to kill the nasty’s (something that still seems to be ignored here sometimes) so if a family has no access to clean water plus kettle/stove and energy to heat it it’s a recipe for D&V, which as we know can be fatal in certain places.

We know that there are problems using formula in some countries but (luckily) we don’t live there so can celebrate the benefits to our DC’s (and parents!) by having formula available to us.

There are a lot of babies world over that have died because of formula. There is a good book called ‘why the politics of breastfeeding matters’ that explains it all. I was very pro formula before, now not so much. It opened my eyes a lot.

@SistineScreamer agree with you. I just looked back at OPs first post. She didn’t mention BF at all... there isn’t a prompt for a debate on FF vs BF. Why do people feel the need to chime in that breast feeding is so much better? If you think that or it’s been your experience, then great. It’s not the topic, though.

And to the pp who asked, it’s not ‘just the water’ that makes formula unsafe. The product itself is basically a Petri dish. The water must, must MUST be at least 70c to kill the nasty’s (something that still seems to be ignored here sometimes) so if a family has no access to clean water plus kettle/stove and energy to heat it it’s a recipe for D&V, which as we know can be fatal in certain places.

Or you can, you know, buy it premixed (liquid, not powder), in sterile bottles?
Some premixed bottles you can even pop a sterile teat on top. A bit wasteful in the long run, but a life saver when you're stuck in hospital with nothing to boil water with or sterilise bottles. And so convenient when travelling out and about! (especially if the person travelling with the baby doesn't have lactating boobs, e.g. Dad)

The worse thing about formula is the lack of reliable information, because doctors and nurses and health visitors apparently aren't allowed to talk about it. A bit counter-productive, given that most baby end up formula fed. Surely it would be safer for babies to be formula fed by people who know what they're doing?

In any case... formula is definitely infinitely superior to no breast milk (not unusual after traumatic births).
Also, let's face it: it's nice for the Mum to not be burdened with 24/7 feeding. Great way to get Dads more involved, and allow Mums to have a bit of a break (and/or get on with their lives, like, you know, working for a living)