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 felt rage.
I breastfed my baby until she was four years and three months old. We stopped then because my marriage ended and I couldn't stand to be touched.
She breastfed her baby until she was four years and nine months old.
I took that to be evidence that I'd done the right thing.
I'm not a paedophile, and nor is dd. We are women and mothers and this is our way. You can do it differently if you like.

This is only the case if exclusively breastfeeding with no periods. Once your period returns your oestrogen levels go back to normal and it is the lack of oestrogen which is thought to lower risk not breastfeeding per se. Many continue to breastfeed once their period returns its pointless from a cancer reduction perspective.

I couldn't suddenly stop at six months after fully bf my DC's it was a slow gradual reduction over the next year until we both lost interest.
I couldn't stand the smell of formula (I looked after my niece and she was combined fed)

Rats. My period returned 28 days on the dot after my daughter was born 😡

As I said before, I agree with her- and on all those new examples you’ve said it would make your life much easier.

Why would this be the case? At 6 months they get most of their nutrition from milk v food, so breast milk is always going to be better than store bought substitute. It’s only nearer one when they start to get most of their nutrition from food that it changes

Snap, I have never, since the shop started actually heard of her saying anything. I did not know she existed.

Uneducated and irresponsible post

@Bigfatsunandclouds sorry didn't include you for the response but have now

Food allergies doubled between 2008-2018!

Actually it is. Exclusive according to WHO guidelines is recommended up to 6 months and extended with complementary foods up for at least 2 years.

Who says it would make my life easier? I certainly don't think so. I'm not concerned about mastitis now that my supply has regulated (and in fact stopping breastfeeding now would be more likely than anything to give me mastitis), I have no desire to leave my baby overnight so it's not an issue to me that I can't, and there is no evidence that switching to formula would make her sleep better (and she's a brilliant sleeper anyway, she just had a blip of a week or so before going back to sleeping through the night).

This is interesting but I’m not sure how reliable it is. Most of the results were not statistically significant. Also the signs you mention aren’t the recognised signs of readiness for weaning (being able to sit unaided etc). It’s not my exact field though so interested to hear more.

@dontgetmestartedwillu so you think a 6 month old should have 3 big meals and 2 snacks a day? Because that's what it would take to replace breastmilk.

I myself introduced food at 5.5 months but even so a 6 month old cannot handle that much solid food, it takes months to build up to that, even if you have a good eater.

No, of course not. But I have come across many, many mums who because of the 'exclusive BF for 6 months+' have avoided introducing any solids which I do think is wrong and causes more allergies.

It's a bit more complex than that. Yes, inhibiting ovulation contributes to the reduction, but it's only one factor:
Breastfeeding reduces the risk of breast cancer: A call for action in high‐income countries with low rates of breastfeeding - Stordal - 2023 - Cancer Medicine - Wiley Online Library

I shared the wrong link. The LEAP study really is groundbreaking in the field of food allergy, specifically peanut allergy but it's believed the mechanism is the same for many of the other common food allergies: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1414850

Significant/highly significant results.

I didn’t ’rage’ because although I disagree with KM, she’s entitled to have her own view, and as I’m happy with my own decisions I don’t need to get upset because they don’t chime with hers.

Make peace with what you chose/how things panned out for you, and don’t pay her any attention. She’s a business woman, not a health researcher. You don’t need to worry about what she thinks, it’s irrelevant.

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I do agree with this, it’s really quite odd. I did breastfeed both my children. It didn’t work terribly well with the first one and I had to give up after five weeks because he was losing so much weight, but I am proud of myself that I had another go with the second one and did it to around six months, which was enough for me personally as I was going back to work and couldn’t get on very well with expressing. Wasn’t there some part of the discussion that referred to someone still breastfeeding at three? My personal opinion that is that’s too late. My son and his partner are about to become very young parents in their early 20s and I’m thrilled that she’s said she’s going to try breastfeeding. Her mum had her quite young too and breastfed, and she has really encouraged her which I think is great.

She won't like me then.... I'm still breastfeeding my daughter at 4.5 years 😆

Thank you for sharing a further link @dontgetmestsrted.I still don’t think this proves your point though. The babies in the study were between 4-11 months, I couldn’t see how many were less than 6 months (did scan read it admittedly - median age was 7 months which is around normal weaning age). And the authors don’t conclude that we should recommend giving peanuts before 6 months, only that we should introduce them early - I presume this means earlier than 5 years, which is what we used to say?
happy to engage in debate but I do think it’s important to be accurate in this area. Already most people don’t wait til 6 months to wean and 6 months is national NHS policy.

Whenever there are negative narratives about breastfeeding, I remember my children being poorly and breastfeeding them and that being so super helpful and reassuring knowing that they were having some fluid! I breastfed my children to 3 and 4 years old…. Shock horror! Didn’t tell many people as I knew there would be strong feelings, but it worked for us as a family! I’m really pleased I followed my gut and did what my mum instinct told me:
I equally know that bf for shorter works for some mums and formula and combi-feeding works for others. I think whether we bf or formula we all just muddle along as best we can really and all try to do what we think is good enough for our kids. The real problem is when a parent for whatever reason doesn’t or can’t look after their kids
i hope that you are able to follow your gut and do what you really want to do and what you feel is right for your family.

Indeed, everyone certainly is entitled to their own opinion; but they're not entitled to their own facts. Science is always advancing and it's generally better to listen to people/professionals who devote their careers to improving infant health and decreasing child morbidity and mortality, rather than people subject to the Dunning Kruger effect. Google, for example, 'Dr Jessica Knurick corn syrup AI', or 'Sam Coates Sophy Ridge AI'. It's quite astonishing how much misinformation there is out there, and how many people swallow misinformation whole and think they've 'done their own research'.... 🙄

And your medical qualifications are….