To think breastfeeding is less important than a healthy diet?

[Chocaholick]

Just a musing really but I follow quite a few ladies on Instagram who are very very passionate about breastfeeding - lots of posts about the health benefits and how amazing breastmilk is and so on.

But once their children start solids, they (and the dads) seem to give them absolute junk - McDonalds twice a week, frozen pizza, Iceland type oven food and loads of unhealthy snacks, slushies.

Of course the ‘ideal’ is both to breastfeed and give healthy food, but AIBU to think a year or two of breastmilk is in the scheme of things less important than 18 years of a reasonably healthy diet? And it’s odd to be so health focussed about your baby’s diet for the first year but ‘anything goes’ thereafter?

Sometimes getting a child to actually eat a healthy diet can be difficult. I still breastfeed my nearly 3 year old son. He has additional needs and some sensory issues so his diet while not terrible can be quite limited. He’s offered healthy food all the time and usually will eat it at home if it’s made a specific way that he likes. We do allow him things like biscuits and crisps occasionally if we’re out to eat and I know there’s nothing else there he’ll eat. Breastfeeding I think is a good bonus for him on days when he might not have eaten the best.

I think on average women who breastfeed probably feed their children a healthier diet later. But the women you're describing OP might be the gentle parenting type- they are very, very into breastfeeding and also into a very 'child centred' way of parenting which would include letting them eat whatever they want to eat. I'm not trying to stereotype all gentle parents, just a subset who are loud on social media!

Do what?

It also often leads to amazing hassle free way to feed babies.

It is surprising the amount of pro bf mothers who are obese and once their dc are weaned they too become obese.

Yes, bf is of course great if the dm wants to and is able but fgs a good healthy diet is far more important for long term health benefits.

I’d be interested to see some stats on this. Of all the women I can think of who I knew who BF only one was obese (no longer, due to WLI) and her children were skinny as anything. I’ve not witnessed what you’re describing at all.

Scientifically speaking based on gut microbiome, brain development, immunity etc etc bf is more important. But bf wont outweigh a life time of unhealthy food

I don’t think you were looking very hard at the evidence. I hated every minute of BF, it hugely exacerbated my PND, but the evidence was clear, BF was important enough I had to proceed.

That was a long time ago now and I have no regrets. The long term health of my children was more important than my short term comfort. I wouldn’t say I’m a ‘child centred’ parent at all, I’ve made lots of selfish decisions for myself over the years, but the evidence for BF was so abundantly clear to me.

For me actually there was a correlation. I was adamant I would BF but turned out to have a medical condition (diagnosed etc) that meant I produced virtually nothing. When I was weaning my babies therefore I went out of my way to give them the best food possible. They both eat everything now as teens, we were pretty vehement about fsmily meal times etc. One would prefer rubbish if that was possible but is too concerned with gym etc not to eat well.

And I might get flamed for this but I do feel the regularity of bottle feeding at set times etc helped introduce set meal times and less snacking etc. The ebf on demand babies I know tended to snack and like easy to eat snack type food when weaned. Its not a huge sample size and I'm not claiming anything universal! But although Im very sad I could not bf, it definitely made weaning easier for our family

@Alltgetreesarebrown23 BF doesn’t necessarily mean BF on demand. I BF on a routine with both of mine from a pretty early stage. This was actually the most usual way of BF for my parents’ generation. Even when people say they EBF, most kids do get themselves into a routine pretty quickly. Not all babies are feeding around the clock for months on end. Most women would have to stop when they went back to work if that was the case. Also didn’t have any issues with weaning either of mine.

My DM conducted an ad hoc field study in this. The number of participants enrolled in study mean that her work is unlikely to be published in a journal of note…

I was formula fed - couldn’t latch at all, probably tongue tied but this wasn’t checked in olden times. Identical twin was BF for under a year. Fast forward many years, we are roughly the same (healthy) weight, height, in good health and had similar academic and career outcomes. I am however, very short-sighted and despise olives. She suffers terribly from hayfever. Take from that what you will.

Edited for typo. Twin wouldn’t have made that mistake. Maybe there is something in it!

I've seen this a few times.
Mums who BF for well over a year, then allowed their children to eat shite and get overweight, and are still overweight in their teens.
It is a bit weird.

How do you know that Instagram is a realistic representation of what they eat all week??

people are more likely to post treats on SM than the boring raisins and healthy foods their child takes to school.

We went on holiday, recently and I did notice that a lot of children are incredibly overweight, though. It was a shock tbh.

Haha love this, I would have been obsessing over everything, I was bad enough comparing my 2 born 3 years apart who were fed the same way 🤣

It depends on the outcome you're measuring. Breastfeeding is far more important for infant immunity.

Breastfed babies are less likely to be overweight or obese later in life although other factors are more important.

Interesting. That's the opposite of what Ive seen.

Nope. Breastfeeding has an enormous impact on lifelong health outcomes. It’s associated with a reduction in infection morbidity and mortality, type 2 diabetes, overweight and obesity in adulthood, higher academic and professional achievements and income in later life.

Also a reduction in risk of several cancers for the mother.

'The long term health of my children was more important '

No one disputes the benefits of bf. The point is many give up on their 'long term health' once weaned. Why is that do you think? I don't have stats sorry but anecdotally parents are more likely to give their dc junk food rather than cook healthy stuff. It's weird. Ah but they bf for a few weeks, so what if all their dc are now tubby and spend all their time in Greggs or McDs!

I can’t talk to your anecdata, your experience isn’t mine at all or what I’ve seen. I also think there’s likely a difference in people who BF for a few weeks vs those who did it longer term.

I certainly did not think I could just feed my kids what I wanted when I stopped BF as if I’d given them a silver bullet got life, quite the opposite in fact, I’d spent a year doing something that was actually quite a physical and mental sacrifice and I wasn’t going to throw that away over night!

My BF friends were the ones cooking from scratch weaning, strict chocolate and sugar rules, lots of veg. I’m not saying FF mums didn’t do this, but my BF friends were pretty fierce with diet (as am I, even now my teens aren’t allowed fizzy drinks except for special occasions, we make everything from scratch including bread etc).

Yes, if I had been able to ebf i would have tried a routine. I loved my ff routine and it kept me sane on mat leave to know roughly when my babies would sleep and be hungry. Good to hear its possible! People I knew who bf tended to also co sleep, feed on demand, baby led weaning, food before 1 just for fun etc so that was the pattern I saw. Absolutely not saying its everyone.

Academics, income etc outcomes when adjusted for maternal educational attainment and familial socioeconomic status are the same. In western countries, the higher the SE bracket, the greater the likelihood of BF. Higher SE status correlation with stronger academics, income etc. Agree generally on health outcomes but will update if twin sister and I make it to 90 (my PP refers 😘).

I do remember how contentious it all was…(dont get me started on BLW!) I remember plenty of “you can’t put a baby on a routine!” comments. You can’t win whatever you do, even if you BF you can still do it wrong according to some folk!