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 🙄

I have a baby with CMPA. CMPA is completely different to lactose intolerance. I also breastfeed and my dairy intake is the highest there is, I have dairy with everything, all day every day.

Re suggestions on this thread that breastfeeding is somehow correlated with increased food allergies - that's not supported by research (beyond anecdotes shared by PPs). Evidence shows that 'The protective role of breastfeeding has a positive effect on allergy prevention, which is opposed by the early introduction of solid foods' (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10297573/)

That study further states 'Breastmilk is immunologically the most relevant and essential food for the development of the newborn and the consequent maturation of immuno-defensive mechanisms [4,5]. It confers active and passive immunity, through maturation of the system and also provides bioactive components, like secretory IgA and IgG [5], with a proven prophylactic effect against food allergies [4]. In particular, colostrum contains the highest concentrations of bioactive components with immunological and anti-inflammatory activity.'

There has been a suggestion by PPs that breastfeeding beyond six months goes hand in hand with delaying the introduction of solids - where's the evidence for that? Breastfeeding beyond six months doesn't mean solids aren't introduced alongside breastfeeding. I weaned my first child on to solids at six months and within the first two weeks made sure he had been exposed to major food allergens in order to mitigate against the likelihood of allergies. I breastfed him until he was nearly two but he was weaned onto solids on the timeline recommended by the NHS.

Lactose intolerance is REALLY rare in babies, thankfully. Breastmilk, most formulas and all animal milks contain lactose so there's very few options for feeding a lactose intolerant baby.

Most adults develop lactose intolerance because we're not designed to consume milk beyond early childhood. The age at which we begin to to develop an intolerance to milk supports other anthropological and anatomical research suggesting that the biological weaning age of humans should probably be around 7-ish.

My grandmother fed my mum and her siblings cow’s milk.

@MrsSunshine2b I would also add that the theme of this thread is very much about how breastfeeding’s image has waxed and waned over the years.

of course, go back far enough and it was breast milk or starve. But even centuries ago, noble women got a maid to breastfeed their kids for them.

more recently, for many years, formula was considered preferable. So don’t know why you think it’s so 😂 to say it was popularised.

popularised means it came back in fashion, not that it was invented 😂

Well that has never been the norm, primarily because most newborn babies would die, and the ones that don't would be left with a range of health problems from nutritional deficiencies to kidney failure and severe damage to the gastro-intestinal tract, and this has been known for centuries. Unless your Grandma is educationally subnormal and had no access to medical care, I find your story very unlikely.

Breastmilk went out of "fashion" after the invention of formula and hasn't come back in yet. The last survey done on the subject in 2016 found only 1% of mothers were exclusively breastfeeding at 6 months. However, rates of both initiation and continuation of breastfeeding have risen substantially since the 80s, after hitting an all-time low in the 70s.

@MrsSunshine2bmy grandmother breadfed her second for around 3 months and then fed her carnation milk instead, at least that’s what she’s always told me! Sounds mental

No wonder the rates of IBS are so high in over 40s.

I'm aware of all that, thanks, although others might not be. What I'm curious about is whether or not there's a correlation between a woman's dairy intake and her gestating baby's digestive development particularly as it pertains to the presence of/lack of enzymes to digest lactose. As I said, my mum was told by the doctor I was possibly lactose intolerant due to her not consuming dairy. It's something to ponder. 🤔

Recipes for formula in the past are utterly bizarre viewed through today's lens'.

I think the fact you are using words like ‘educationally subnormal’ tells me everything we need to know about the type of person you are.

also very narrow minded that you don’t take on board different views and experiences to your own. Unless you are a historian specialising in the history of breast feeding, it’s pretty ignorant to think you know everything about the social context of breast feeding.

my grandmother was Victorian and you know very little of the context of her life. But she wasn’t an outlier.

You also seem to have difficulty grasping the fact that while breastfeeding has been around since humans, the way it has been viewed has oscillated over the years.

many women have had difficulty breastfeeding and society has found ways around it for centuries.

I couldn't care less about her opinion, I struggled to BF my first, we had to stay in hospital as he had an infection, i had to use the pump ( massive machine on wheels, sucked the life out of me!) one of the night shift midwives supported me, i’ll never forget her, so patient.
I BF him til he was 1, our second til he was 2 and our 3rd til she was 3! Only in the night from age 2, unfortunately she has issues with her teeth, may be genetic , may be the BF? Feel guilty over most things as a mum.
I had to laugh when i watched the video with that woman waffling on, who does she think she is? Reminded me of one of my older sisters, bossy cow!
In life, do whats best for your family, who cares what others think, follow medical advice, try to get some sleep tho!

You can “think” what you want but you are factually incorrect.

You've got that poster down to a tee. Its a shame because what can be an interesting discussion just gets ruined. My FIL was was fed on carnation milk after a tramatic birth. He is healthy and his mother wasn't "educationally subnormal". She was just lucky to be alive and trying to feed her baby.

I felt sorry for her. She is wrong. There is a reason the WHO guidance on breastfeeding is what it is, and it is so sad that our cultural expectation and experience of breastfeeding is so divergent. We all have to rationalize (and justify) our own experience, and there are a thousand influencing factors that result in us doing what feels right to us in the moment as mothers. But if we are able to breastfeed for the amount of time that feels right for us it is a powerful and worthwhile experience, for the mum and the child.

Victorians weren't stupid and would not have routinely fed cow's milk to newborns, unless, of course, your Grandmother was.

There's a reason that wet nurse was a common occupation for Victorian women. That was the way around it they found.

What's derailed the discussion is you making up silly stories.

I agree with her. so no, no arguments or rage here. the minute there is a tooth involved? no business anywhere near the boob!.

Just bottle feed, and introduce purees etc.

I agree, I don't think it's breastfeeding or breast milk per se, but perhaps all the advice mothers have been given through the last 50-60 years has been so rigid and prescriptive ('exclusive' BF) that somehow it has changed how people actually introduce first solids compared with in the past and there is nowadays less pragmatism perhaps (e.g. I would guess that people then were less worried about everything being sterile and wouldn't worry too much if a 5-month-old baby had some veg or a piece of bread to chew on).

But the issue of early onset bowel cancer in the fit and healthy (often ultrafit/healthy - i.e. less likely to eat UPFs) is really puzzling to those doing research or working in the medical field.

I hope you’re not a health professional with that ridiculous logic.

There are babies that are born with their first tooth, it’s called a natal tooth.

This is so interesting and what I'm trying to get at.

Advice in the last decades has been very prescriptive and mothers have been advised not to eat certain foods if they have allergies in the family or themselves.

When perhaps it is the fact they didn't eat these things that meant that the babies did not get introduced to the allergens (through breastmilk) during a key window (what ever that is in terms of months).

You clearly don’t know how breastfeeding works if you think teeth are involved. So much ignorance on this thread, no wonder the BF rates are so piss-poor in this country.

A tooth involved in what?

Your average baby gets their first teeth at 6 months. That's really not old enough to have 3 meals and 2 snacks a day....sooooo it's either milk from a cow or milk from their mother.....

Quite strange to think milk from a cow, which needs extensive processing in a factory to make it fit for consumption by a baby, is preferable to milk from their own mother, specially tailored by nature and evolution for that human baby's needs....

Yes. It's so weird that some people think

Milk from a human - disgusting
Milk squeezed out of a cow's udders - Great 👍