Did anyone else feel rage at Karen Millen's comments on breastfeeding?

[Hoooray]

According to Karen Millen (who is, notably, a clothing designer and not a child development expert), breastfeeding beyond six months has no benefit for the child, is selfish, and is a sign of addiction.

You're not allowed to get it right as a mother, are you? Bad if you don't breastfeed but also bad if you breastfeed for too long, apparently.

God knows why Karen Millen was being asked for her opinion on the subject in the first place 🙄

Are you qualified to dispute her opinion? Where you getting your information from btw? NHS website? WHO? Pampers website? I take it you hold a doctor’s license since you have all this knowledge and expertise? Again I ask where are you getting your information from?

What would be the point in a discussion forum in which no one discussed any points raised? So it would just be a list of people's opinions and no one responding to them?

Do you understand there is a difference between opinions and facts? You keep repeating the same thing even though it's been explained to you many times - The issue isn't that Karen said she didn't like breastfeeding, she said it wasn't needed past 6 months which is factually incorrect.

Yes, the NHS and the WHO. I'm following the advice of medical professionals who have reached a consensus on this issue and who have confirmed as a matter of fact (not opinion) that breastfeeding continues to be beneficial past six months.

Where you getting your information from to say this is factual incorrect?

Very naive to think the NHS or WHO has never lied to the public 😂 almost like the government, who provides funding to the NHS has never lied or tried to cover up any wrong doing. Jesus 🙄

There aren't any "benefits" of breastfeeding until aged 2 and beyond because it's the biological norm.

There are however significant risks to using formula, which may well be outweighed by circumstance (including mother's right to choose what to so with her own body.) The most obvious and quantifiable of these, at a population level, are the risks of ear infections and gastrointestinal issues.

Karen Millen made her money in an era of rampant capitalism (though she sold her brand and it's now owned by Boohoo) so it's no surprise that she feels that choosing not to use an international, profit making company's product is such disordered thinking that it must be labelled an "addiction."

Ultimately formula is an ultra processed food and breastmilk is what human infants are evolved to eat, alongside solid food from 6 or 8 months of age - depending on development stage.

Karen doesn’t design clothes that have breastfeeding vents and poppers.

She wants you back online looking for something from her overpriced shop that just brushes past your fanjo and has your tits out.

You breastfeeding, isn’t in her interests.

You don't need a "doctor's license" to read the breastfeeding guidelines from bodies such as the WHO or NHS. You can literally Google it and see the guidance, based on research, right here on the internet.

Boohoo you. Getting huffy because not everyone is going to agree with your opinion 😂Go find reputable sources instead of government funded propaganda. Clearly not everyone is educated and a free thinker.

Could you please explain to me what benefit the EWHO would have from lying about the benefits of breastfeeding?

Educated and a free thinker for encouraging mother’s to give up feeding their very young baby milk before it’s actually weaned onto food? Okay cool

Ok so just to be clear, your position is now that the NHS and the WHO (along with every other public health body in the world) are propagating a decades-long scam in which they lie to women about the milk their bodies naturally produce being the ideal food for their babies? And the bold truth-teller standing up against this indefensible campaign of lies is... Karen Millen?

Yes of course, guidance based on “research”. You do realise the NHS is funded by the government? The government that has a proven track record to lie, deceive and mislead the public. But yeah believe what you read on a website funded by the government.

Tin foil hat conspiracy theorists always out themselves eventually.

Oh, I see. You're a conspiracy theorist. That clears up why you're finding it so difficult to understand what is being said here.

Perhaps if we find you a YouTube video to explain it, that would help? Presumably that's where you're used to finding your information.

So becoming qualified as a doctor wouldn't help either, because guess who teaches you? You couldn't trust that anything you learned was real, could you? So we really do have no choice but to turn to Karen Millen for all our medical advice. I'm sure that will keep us much safer than all the peer reviewed research that's been carried out. It's definitely what an educated free thinking person would do. Thank God for Karen's bravery speaking out against this massive establishment cover up.

Had to laugh.

Got to love a conspiracy theorist.

"Jesus 🙄"

Thank you for telling us that. Heh.

The culture around breastfeeding is generally polite tolerance in the early days before weaning and then fades off rapidly. A slight improvement as we're now begining to get to multiple generations of women with experience to share since that chain was broken by default bottle feeding in the mid-20th century.

Giving up breastfeeding at 6 months would have made DS1 very ill. His CMPA began to emerge as we started weaning, so trying to force-feed allergens down his neck just-because would have been an awful idea. It would then have become rather expensive on the NHS to provide specialist formula on prescription (he had soya intolerances too). Breast milk was by far and away the best form of milk that his body could digest.

Our society doesn't need more untrue, ill-informed opinions about breast feeding particularly in older babies. We need more openess about the continuing benefits from 6m+. UK rates of breast feeding are already poor and inconsistently to badly supported.

When DS2 was 7m he had bronchiolitis and that impact on his feeding caused me mastitis and injury to my nipple on one side. The HVs were spectacularly unhelpful and just suggested to stop feeding a baby recovering from illness (who went on to have nasty, prolonged coughs after every cold, and asthma- exactly the sort of child who benefits most from the added benefits of BFing). We'd hit the 6m box, they didn't have anything else to offer. I ploughed on painfully until 20 months working out an alternating feeds ratio that I found tolerable until I'd reached my limit after nearly 5 years of near continuous pregnancy and feeding and DS's diet of solids was secure.

If KM was saying that babies didn't need formula after 6m that there would be a louder objection. Either way, babies need a suitable milk until they can eat enough solids to give them a nutritious habit and that doesn't happen under 12m as a minimum. If BFing is still working at 6m, you're generally at a sweet spot when it's well established and feeds begin to space out to more practical gaps.

The insinuation that mothers breastfeed beyond 6m for their own benefit is often offensive because it's often portrayed in a seedy way. People rightly object to ignorant criticism about formula feeding, the reasons for it and its benefits. We don't need more ignorant opinions adding to a challenging culture that makes it harder to make optimal choices for our babies.

Women are not feeding their babies past a year to get off. It's really disgusting that you'd suggest a sexual motivation for mothers feeding a child. You misunderstood the NCT professional very badly and no, many women have not told you that they get orgasmic sensations from breastfeeding their baby. That is patently a lie unless all your social interaction takes place in a sex offenders institution. What an entirely messed up thing to post.

Ok.. each to their own.....

Im messed up for saying something i was told in a NCT class? OK dude. This thread is clearly full of trolls. Have a great day hating my dear.

Says the person using the NHS a reputable source. Tell me did the NHS not prescribe Thalidomide for morning sickness which resulted in thousands of baby’s born with disabilities? But yeah, you keep reading the NHS website.