To remove the toy baby feeding bottle from my dd's new doll bath and feeding set?

[Springfleurs]

I was brought up to think that breast feeding was a strange and rather disgusting thing to do.

Luckily managed to overcome this myself and b/f both dc for 5 months and 14 months respectively.

Took dd to a toy shop today and she chose a doll bath and feeding set. Unpacked it for her when we got in and there is a feeding bottle in there. I know it might seem a bit precious but it irritated me slightly, as though it was a mandatory piece of equipment for all babies/dolls.

Or

I am taking it all rather too seriously?

Hey, Mamadiva, thank you for the link - I did wonder if that was what Spam meant, but I thought I'd be obtuse and draw attention to the fact that formula ads are often designed to look like they support bf.

Unless we sort out the package we're giving our children breastfeeding rates will never improve.

We are given bottles to feed our dolls.
We see characters on TV bottlefeeding - except the ditzy earthy types, but successful women bottle feed.
We see ads for formula on TV.
...

All around us formula is normalised. When we have problems breastfeeding there usually isn't some good HCP coming alongside us and saying "come on, let's see what we can do". Even when people do talk to them they're often being told to just give a bottle. But why not give a bottle, eh? It's what we gave our babies when we were little, it's what successful women do and they must be good because they have nice adverts and immmunofortis just like breastmilk.

If we break down the package we can change the outcome.

Let your daughters (and sons!) pretend to breastfeed their babies, talk to them about how it's the best thing for babies (my daughter is 2 but I tell her that her belly button is where she had "me me" in my tummy). Even if you had problems and couldn't do it, encourage her now so she will want to do it when she is older.

hunker I was clearly joking. Mamadiva that is interesting though, I have heard that things are much better in scotland with BF promotion in general.

My point was that I don't see this "gendered" tv which wasting still has to explain. I don't know what gendered TV is.

And wasting there you go again, now if you're not interested in infant mortality in the UK (pretty specific topic) then you don't care about political issues full stop?

Surely most people care about things that are relevant to them at that stage of their life, or which are highlighted on the news.

I never really gave a thought to infant mortality in the UK before I had DD. It's not very high is it. And the infant mortality there is, isn't linked to formula as far as I'm aware. More pressing things to think about, even once you've had children, IMO.

I've done that TBM. My children have bf their dolls/teddies at some point. But they have also played with bottles. They know that both methods are used to feed babies but like me, they know that dolls and the bottles are not real, they are toys to play with. Which is why they don't mind dumping them on the floor or in the cupboard when they've finished - something they wouldn't do with a real baby.

My 3 daughters were all bottle fed - theyre all perfectly healthy and intelligent!

I did explain gengered tv, adverts are aimed at particular demographics so if I watch programmes that more women watch, the ads will be aimed at women. I never watch Bravo for instance.

And there you go again twisting my words LTOS, I said things like infant mortality, I did not specify infant mortality in the UK, and I did not say that people who didn't care about infant mortality didn't care about politics.

I said that most people don't care about politics.
Infant mortality is a political issue.
And most people don't care about infant mortality.

Relevant to their stage of life or they see on the news?
Perhaps I saw something about the devastation that bottle-feeding causes in the third world on tv, I don't remember, could have been Radio 4 or the Observer tbh (cliche!).
I like to think that I don't need Bob Geldof to tell me what to care about.

There is a small amount of infant mortality related to formula feeding in this country, but a higher rate of illness in general, which is also important.

gendered

But this thread is about the UK.

OP doesn't live in the 3rd world as far as I know.

Do you know different?

The bottle-feeding culture in this country is one aspect of a world-wide problem. The money spent on formula in this country goes to the same companies as that spent in the third world.

Not as many babies die from being bottle-fed in this country, but many get ill.

Oddly, I am far more worried about kids who are abused than ones who aren't breastfed. Jeez, get some perspective. It's only formula. I keep checking into this thread and it just gets more and more histrionic.

Lady Thompson, babies around the world die from not being breastfed and many suffer illness. That's not histrionic, it's fact.

My DD is 10 weeks old and I always thought I would breastfeed her, no doubt in my mind, despite playing with dolls bottles when I was younger. Unfortunately, despite every effort (pumping, domperidone, continuous feeding) I never produced more than a couple of mls of milk which has been devestating for me. Just heartbreaking.

While I will explain breastfeeding to her as she grows up, and encourage her to bf if that's what she wants when she has her babies, of course I wont remove a toy bottle from a dolls set. How ridiculous.

The fact is, both breast and bottle feeding are normal in this country- to differing degrees depending on where you live admittedly. And I am glad that bottle feeding is classed as normal, as I already feel depressed enough at having to do it- and threads like this, and many of them on the bf/ff boards do not help. Yet I still read them religiously as some sort bizarre punishment!

I think the main problem I have with this thread is that it's just so self satisfying for the OP and a few other posters. No-one has said that breast is not best- it is, of course. But it does not mean that ff mums are worse in any way at all, or selfish, or any of the things that have been thrown around on here.

Seems to me, OP saw an opportunity to have lots of people pat her on the back for doing such an amazing job of breastfeeding and decided to post this, knowing full well it would turn into a full on debate re: bf. So, well done. Now we all know youre bf credentials. You should be very proud. Much prouder than me, clearly, who despite still taking medication, pumping and feeding all day, still cries every night that my body has let me down and feels like a crap mother because of that. Well done you.

'Many get ill' from being bottlefed in this country, is what you said. Excuse me (and, genuinely, I don't want to sound rude), but I think that is propagandist tosh. And you can all come on in your droves and flame me if you like, I shan't mind.

In developing countries it may well be a different story, I do grant you that. But we are talking about a mother in this country who wants to know whether she should chuck the bottle away that came with her kid's toy, because of its supposed 'corrupting' powers. Daft.

LT the two topics are unrelated. Caring about one doesn't exclude caring about the other.

But what do you do about the children who are abused?

@ Wasting

What a horrid thing to say, almost on par with the HV who told me I was resigning my baby to die of SIDS because I chose to stop BF and switch to FF

I am actually quite amazed that someone would say that.

That was to wastingmyeducation.

You (as in 'you' the above poster) - I feel so sorry for you. Of course you aren't a crap mother! Don't let these harpies get under your skin. I was ff and I had the most loving and wonderful mother one could imagine - I still think she is the best mum in the world

arrgh I meant

Damn keyboard....

The NHS spends around £35 million a year on gastroenteritis alone due to formula-feeding.

TBM - I have a direct debit to the NSPCC as it happens - not that it is any of your business, of course. Why, what do you do?

My response was related to wme's implication that ff was virtually akin to abuse. Sorry - not having that.

'Anyhoo all this thread is doing is making me want to feed my next child formula, you lot get on my nerves that much.'

Well, LTOS, do whatever you need to do, just as the OP is doing.

It really surprises me that you had no thoughts whatsoever on baby feeding before you became pregnant. It's not something I ever obsessed over but I had certainly noticed how people feed their babies and had probably given it a bit of thought from time to time. As a child, I remember seeing many aunts and cousins breastfeeding their babies and I was interested, as children often are, in the process.

Re. TV: Have you never noticed that adverts tend to be aimed towards a particular demographic according to the programme being shown?! Or are you just happy to let the ad-men pitch their stuff at you without ever questioning their reasons or motives?

WME - that is patently guff. Please!

WME - i've never heard that figure. £1million a year is the only figure I've ever heard.

Southmum, it was part of the discussion, not a random statement at a formula-feeding mother, and is true. Why lie about it? People want to know why anyone would care about how other babies are fed, and that's why.

I don't think anyone is a crap mother, certainly not someone in your position You, who struggled so much.

Actually, I put a lot of time into both causes.

At the same time as writing to MPs, ringing around breastfeeding groups talking to them about what the picnic is about, how the law will effect us etc, I also do voluntary work for a local child protection team.

You (the poster) don't let any of the crap on here bother you. FWIW I also think that either method of feeding is 'normal', as for me the normal thing is that the baby is being fed and well looked after.

And I know its been battered to death, but the OP wanting to take the bottle out of the playset is ridiculous and pretty funny at the same time (OP obv. has too much time on her hands if this is a concern). I used to make mud pies but I certainly don't serve them up as a Sunday dinner (anymore).....

I actually think its been a bit of a wind-up really, no-one can be that wound up about a doll having a plastic toy bottle