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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU - to think that adverts for follow on formula should acknowledge breastfeeding...

275 replies

GillianLovesMarmite · 11/08/2008 19:33

Having just seen the advert on tv for heinz (now hideously overpriced) Nurture (follow on forumla) which delivered the message that it is the best thing you can give your baby for its development...
Do you think it would be unreasonable that these adverts should recognise breastfeeding - eg saying that if you are breastfeeding that this is great and providing what your child needs, however, if you have chosen not to breastfeed or have chosen to formula feed, that this is then the stuff for you... and that the 6 month time thing is not a deadline to stop at but a target to aim for.
I realise that by 6 months I am now in a minority of mothers who are still breastfeeding. I acknowledge that everyone has a right to choose how to feed their child, or that sometimes the choice is made for them, often by conditions or factors outside of their control and I would NEVER presume to judge how another woman feeds her child.
However, I just think it would be appropriate for these adverts to acknowledge that if you are breastfeeding you don't need this stuff - although in the real world I know that this will never happen as they have a product to sell - but do you (whether bfing or ffing) think that this would be an unreasonable thing for the companies to do?

(Sorry for the long post - just really really annoyed by the advert).

OP posts:
Tittybangbang · 12/08/2008 16:14

"I don't see the ffing a baby is a 'risk'. I think that is an over exaggeration and intended to inflame the issue"

So does it surprise you to find out that your local hospitals' Infant Feeding Policy will probably say something like "Parents should be informed of the risks posed by artificial feeding?' My hospital has this statement in their infant feeding policy and I don't think it's unusual.

You'll find that the concept of 'risk' in relation to artificial feeding is common currency among midwives. I've got a current textbook on bf from the Royal College of Midwives. It's got a whole chapter on 'The risks of artificial feeding'.

It's just a bit worrying that all this comes as such a shock to so many mums. It shouldn't do. Not if all of us had been properly educated on this subject by our midwives.

StealthPolarBear · 12/08/2008 16:42

It's terminology
People are happy to talk about the benefits of bf, but unwilling to talk about the risks of ff
Why??

Pruners · 12/08/2008 16:47

Message withdrawn

prettybird · 12/08/2008 16:51

Pruners!

LackaDAISYcal · 12/08/2008 16:53

lol pruners; she'd have had this wrapped up in under 100 posts

Pruners · 12/08/2008 17:04

Message withdrawn

TinkerBellesMum · 12/08/2008 17:27

Humph kiskidee I was going to post that link!

I just want to say the reason I'm so interested in breastfeeding and wanted to train is because of the start I had.

I often hear (see) mothers say their baby would have died without FM, but to be honest it's not completely true. If there was the support there in the first place then it wouldn't have been FM saved the child's life. Tink, however, would have died without FM because she was so early and I had her under GA that I didn't have any real amounts of milk until she was two weeks old. It saddens me that mothers have to turn to formula because there isn't a real person they can turn to. I hope by training I will be that real person for someone.

Questioning the ethics of formula companies or the lack of funding the Govt puts into training is not an attack at mothers, it's sticking up for the mothers! Unfortunately whenever one of these threads starts up mothers who feel they failed (when in fact they are the ones who were failed) don't see the difference and we end up with threads like this where we're attacked for something that we're not actually doing and the actual purpose of the thread is lost.

stripeymama · 12/08/2008 18:56

So do you call this and this advice? Information? Or advertising?

The formula companies should not be allowed to blur the lines in this way, and have no business offering this kind of 'expert help'. Their purpose as companies is to make a profit, and they do this through undermining BF at every opportunity.

StealthPolarBear · 12/08/2008 18:57

Do you think that forum is moderated by any chance?
Shall I go on and recommend SMA, bet I'll be top of the list!

LackaDAISYcal · 12/08/2008 19:05

lol, that's like coming on MN and asking whether netmums is better

I don't think for one minute that these are real people, are they?

stripeymama · 12/08/2008 19:07

Yes I think its moderated by the Chief Executive

Probably to some degree - ie to remove all posts that don't toe the Aptamil-is-pretty-much-breastmilk line.

stripeymama · 12/08/2008 19:10

But on a serious note, it does go to show how the lines are blurred between information and advertising. They are two separate things and formula companies are hardly likely to offer genuine unbiased information.

Those who want information on FF are hard pressed to get anything any better than what is on that site and that is quite frankly shit.

TinkerBellesMum · 12/08/2008 19:14

Had to stop reading the second link! "Closest to formula, about the same to be honest"!!!

fledtoscotland · 12/08/2008 19:44

I thing Bumdiddley sums it up "I don't see the ffing a baby is a 'risk'. I think that is an over exaggeration and intended to inflame the issue."

FWIW Tittybangbang, it WAS true that i was ill about a week after having DS and also he was ill (had a skull fracture from the birth). He is now a happy healthy toddler who has hardly ever been ill. I would much prefered to have coped with the stress of BF rather than DS and I being in different hospitals

anyway, I am now 3 weeks away from giving birth to #2 and yes, i am intending to BF. My point is however that women should be supported and given information about their choice of feeding both BF AND FF

SebbysMum · 12/08/2008 20:33

Okay, so I haven't read every post on this thread but the ones I have read leave me wondering: Am I the only breast feeding mother glad to be able to buy follow-on milk for my nearly 8-month old's cereal and for half a cup of milk at lunch to get him used to using a cup with meals?

Doesn't follow-on formula have a legitimate role for many dedicated bf mothers who don't want to express for cereal etc? I was using cows milk for cooking until a paediatrician advised me that formula is more nutrious. Even if breast milk is ideal, doesn't the fact that formula is better than cows milk deserve some recognition?

TinkerBellesMum · 12/08/2008 20:39

Nope, not here. She drank water with meals from a cup and had a splash (quite literally) of cows milk on her cereal. I never saw the need for artificial milk once we past 6 months, I was glad to not have to give her anymore infact! I know plenty of mums who never gave any form of formula too.

kiskidee · 12/08/2008 20:52

Sebbysmum: Follow on is higher in iron. Iron constipates a lot of babies, probably not your Sebby, but a lot. the extra iron in Follow on is not digested. (In fact, the majority of the iron in from birth formula is not digested either because it is not in a form that is very bioavailable to the human body.) It passes through the gut, but before it leaves the body, some of it helps any harmful gut flora (GI infection) to multiply.

Your paed. doesn't know very much about what is in follow on I am afraid but that is not uncommon among HCPs. You can probably go online and compare the ingredients of the follow on you use with the ingredients from the from birth formula from the same company.

Normal cow's milk is just another weaning food for babies. As you are bfing, the iron in bm is in the most bioavailable form for your baby anyway as well as all the other vitamins and minerals which are present in bm. The vitamins and minerals in follow on is just not as bioavailable, just like the vitamins and minerals in vitamin tablets are not as bioavailable as those found in proper food.

charliegal · 12/08/2008 20:54

Terrible to laugh at the mother (probably made up by Aptamel)on the linked forum saying about suppositories being 'way to big in my eye'.

StealthPolarBear · 12/08/2008 21:11

Sebbysmum, I did wonder with DS whether I should be giving him formula instead of cows milk in cereal etc when I started giving him that sort of thing at about 8mo. Could never express easily so every drop went into freezingn 'feeds', not getting wasted in food! In the end I decided for the amount I was using (it really only was in porridge) it probably wasn't worth stressing over. SO yes, i do know what you mean. Formula is not poison, however pre 6 months milk makes up all (most) of a baby's diet, and that's where the difference, IMO is crucial.

LackaDAISYcal · 12/08/2008 21:13

lol charliegal...."no dear, they don't go in your eye"

fledtoscotland, it is a risk when looked at as a whole population issue. This is not disputed, even by the NHS, as has already been covered (lots of times) on this and other threads. We aren't just making this up to annoy women who chose not to or couldn't breastfeed

I wish you lots of success with your DC2 and hope that you can get BFing off to a flying start.

MollyCherry · 13/08/2008 02:34

We all know that breast is best, but don't need it rammed down our throats ('scuse the phrasing) any more than we already get it.

I would have loved to have breast fed my daughter but after 2 weeks of struggling, jaundice and with a husband going back to work on 13 hour shifts, there was no way I could have kept it up.

If anything there needs to be more information and less prejudice about FF, especially in the early days (I agree that follow-on milk is s complete waste of time and money FWIW).

Formula feeding can be a really lonely experience - I know there were several times I was in feeding rooms and all the BF-ing mums would be chatting away and not even make eye contact me (aka the devil woman with the bottle).

Tittybangbang · 13/08/2008 08:12

I'm sorry you have such sore feelings about your own experience. BF can be tough for the first few weeks and if you run into problems it makes a big difference if you get well trained help. Doesn't sound like you had that.

I don't think anyone was looking at you ff and thinking evil thoughts. You might have felt isolated on occasion but in ff your baby you are actually you are part of a a majority.

StealthPolarBear · 13/08/2008 08:14

and no, not everyone does know or believe breast is best. There are people further down on this thread who say they don't believe ff has any risks.

Tittybangbang · 13/08/2008 08:39

I just find it amazing that anyone thinks that ff needs to be promoted more than it is already - given that 93% of mums are using it by the time their babies are 16 weeks old.

Jacblue · 13/08/2008 10:05

Ok so I bf dd til she was 8 weeks old, at which point she had put on no weight since a few days after her birth. Had lots of help from bf specialist, who, herself, had bf 3 children successfully. All the way along I was told that dd was latching on correctly (by many different people) so that wasn't why she wasn't getting anything.

I am pro bf (although pro freedom of choice too) and desparately didn't want to 'give up' as so many are rather harshly putting it.

At which point in my dd's life would eg. Tittybangbang suggest that I had tried long enough and it was not best for my baby.

Exactly same happened with ds two yrs later by the way.