ok, i probably am, but the way new mothers do thing s now, and there attitude is really getting on my nerves.

[pukkapatch]

rant alert
te entire holier than thou attitude. huge genreralistaion, i know. but whats so speical about waiting till the baby is six months old before weaning that will garantee said mothers a direct ticket to heaven?
from what i recall, upping the age to six months didnt happen because of some amazing scintific breakthrough. no new data was used t o make the decision. (a mnetter showed the evidence of this on some thread.
and then the whole breast bottle thing. the ones spouting statistics at everyone, with their smug expressions. it doesnt matter. every mom does what she sees as best for her baby. we dont constantly need to have information shoved in our noses.

my eldest is ten, and youngest four, so i'm not that far away from these subjects, but, some peoples attitudes just really really get on my tits.

BJB, you were "slated" because you started your post with "I'm a midwife" as if it had any bearing on what you said.

Pukka I think you are being unreasonable. And all this "the way new mothers do things now" is rubbish, if people do get a bit hung up I expect they have been doing it since time immorial [sp?]. and of course everyone thinks their way is right. they wouldn't be doing it otherwise!

I have just written a very self congratulatory post about having gotten to 6 months excl bfing. Am i smug? damn right i am! it frickin hurt for months, it has been draining, worrying and I've barely had a break from my baby in 6 months. all this against a constant barrage of criticism from my mum. Damn right i want a prize for doing the best for my baby. A pair of shoes will do nicely thanks . BUT that doesn't mean i have anything against people who didn't chose my path. it has been a personal struggle for me and i want to celebrate it.

and to those who say it won't be important in a few years time, well that may be true but knowing that doesn't help at the time. bfing has been important for this 6 months, which is a long time at the time.

in a few years time us "new mothers" will probably be whinging about the same thing so apologies for not having your life experience but cut us some slack

(apologies for the non-eloquent post and lack of caps, typing one handed)

yes i know thats the reason. aS i said before, i only said it to state the fact that i am a normal person too and i dont always do things the right way! There is no law telling me how i can bring my kids up just because of my job description!

Interesting thread.

I think you honestly get more blase as your child gets older. I felt guilt for years at my crap failed efforts at breastfeeding, how I wish I had mumsnet then!

And I wish BLW was invented when my dd (now12) was a baby - wouldn't have spent hours pushing cooked carrot etc through a sieve because I was too bloody skint for a blender.

I think it is very interesting how guidelines for parenting change over the years - bloody hell, I remember my mum putting weetabix in my brother's bottle, and chopping the teet off, when he was about 6 weeks old!!

I find that the support and the good stuff from mumsnet far, far, far outweighs some of the more over-zealous opinions portrayed. And that's the point, I think. Some mums make all thier child's food from scratch, some give them chocolate cake for breakfast sometimes (that'll be me then) - but at the end of it, it is just someone's opinion which you can ignore if you like.

I'm surprised that a professional who is aware of the guidelines and the reasons for them is cheerfully advising women in her off-duty time to ignore them, but hey, that's up to you. As long as you don't do it whilst playing the "I'm a midwife" card, I guess.

as i recall the line was something like. 'i'm a midwife... i do things the old-fashioned way... the new way is ridiculous'. so yes, you came in for a bit of well-deserved grief.

I didnt 'cheerfully' advise anyone to do anything actually. What i said was 'i am a midwife and and i make bottles up the old way'. No advice there just a comment on how i make formulasometimes at home. Its exacty comments like that that make me wholeheartedly agree with OP.

there was never a 'put weetabix in the bottle and chop the teat off guideline' , just in case anyone wants to look it up

oh and it may very well have been me who said i preferred reserach to anecdote, which i do. why not let scientists accumulate thousands and thousands of anecdotes and then extrapolate a wellbeing guideline from them? but if i can have both micro and macro anecdote, as i do on MN if pukka will allow it to continue, then so much the better.

Hunker, do you remember that poster that appeared a while back, proffessing to be a fully trained breastfeeding counsellor?

If you are not posting in a capacity as a midwife, I really dont see why it's pertinent to mention it in the first place, unless you feel it gives weight to your point, which obviously denotes the fact that you feel your status as a mw means something to others reading your post. In which case, refer to my post below.

there are definietely too many self righteous people on here who think somehow they are better mothers cos they do everything by the book. Not true. I do some things by the book and others not(clearly ff). its what works best for you. When i give an opinion im not advising anybody.

lol camilla.

You should hear mum mum on the subject. I was talking about BLW to her and she said it was a load of nonsense and my brother would have starved: 'weetabix in the bottle, half a pint at horlicks at night and eating full roast dinners and curries by 6 months'

Bless her.

it is a bit tricky, BJB, when you are posting on here as a regular mum, but you are known to be a midwife... so they might think, well, if a midwife thinks the new regulations are not worth following, they might not follow them either.. or disregard other things...i think there is a certain amount of responsibility incumbent on HCPS even when posting as a regular mum..

VVV, yep, she'd done a three-day course, iirc.

BJB, it's precisely posts like yours that makes me value the research and thought that some very wise MNers put into their posts.

i remember that, VVVQ, it was a shocker !

people do take seriously what HVs, mWs, Docs, etc say on this board. because the status that the training etc gives you

my dd was eating full roasts and curries at 6 monsht, kittyl. [self-righteous]

i know a couple of people in my personal life who do everything based on reasearch in an aim to bring their kids up the best. Only organic food for their little ones, no cakes treats etc whilst they hypocritically slyly eat a takeaway.

Mmmmm, chocolate cake for breakfast....

Gwan, start a list of the self-righteous people.

Yes - please list them

when any of us give our opinion on here we are in effect advising people, and some of us should be a bit more aware of that imo. but if you post 'i'm a midwife' you've upped the ante considerably and i'm rather surprised that having agreed on that other thread that you shouldn't have said you were a midwife as it was just your private opinion you were giving you are now proposing that it was a-okay. still, an HCP who doesn't listen to what anyone else tells them... i don't suppose the world will stop turning.

Why is that hypocritical BJB, when my children are old enough to decide for themselves (at 25yo!) they can eat what they like, but it's not wrong want you child to eat healthily and nutritiously in the years that are most important for their growth. Perhaps if they grow up eating healthy food they won't want take aways when they are older. I lived on a diet of chicken nuggets and white bread as a child but I certainly don't want my daughter doing the same.

aitch

Am following this with interest...

I am just bitter because I spent months pureeing, chopping and mashing everything for my dd until she was about a year old, in a fit of new-motherness!

Now I find out I could have given her some carrot sticks and she could have fed herself.

Almost tempted to have another baby to put it into practice (naah, not really!!)

i wish i was as clever and witty as aitch