Aaarghhh Guardian article

[snoozathon]

here

How does the headline relate to the article, exactly?

Oh it's a nice easy way of getting the 'formula is evil' message across

I don't understand? What is wrong with the title?

'Research shows using formula can cause health problems in later life, as children can develop unnaturally large appetites'

That statement is true (and is actually my research area so I know there are a number of studies related to this). It doesnt mean that all formula fed babies will be obese or breastfeeding will stop children from becoming obese - there is just a lower risk.

And it has an important message - feed to satiation however you are feeding, just this is perhaps easier when breastfeeding.

I didn't actually read it as a bashing against bottle feeding. It seems to me to be a bashing against overfeeding, with the simple added observation that overfeeding is more likely to happen with bottles.

Reading it again actually, I see what you mean. The headline, while factually correct, is unfair.

Title is stupid and inflammatory. I have ff dd and have never been able to get a whole bottle down her yet so it's not true for all ff babies either so there's mighty generalisation.
I was ff and do have an ENORMOUS appetite. BUT I am slim and have awesome immunity which I put down to my ability to never lose my appetite ever. So big appetites aren't always a bad thing!

Completely anecdotal but i defy anyone to get even an ounce of formula into my DD is she doesn't fancy it. The girl has a will and lips of steel.

Same here! Glad mine's not the only one.

Sorry, YABU. The title doesn't say that bottle feeding 'will' cause obesity, just that it is 'linked' to it, which seems to be a reasonable reflection of the research. Not sure what the problem is tbh.

I don't actually know how you could overfeed a FF baby. My two DS's wouldn't and don't drink a drop more than they actually want. It seems to imply that a FF baby passivly allows milk to be poured down it's throat

The headline also says bottle-feeding not formula feeding so could equally apply to those babies fed expressed milk too.

It's the method not the contents I think.

p.s I think the risk with bottle feeding isnt just that you can jiggle the bottle until they finish it all but also that the flow is faster so they may get more milk than they need before the brain gets the signal that they're full.

I suppose you could mitigate for that with slower flow teats and take cues from your baby about when they've had enough?

I ff both mine, but if they had had enough they could not be "forced" to take any more. They also went far longer between feeds than most bf babies.

I think it makes the important point that some babies are just small and that not all babies should be fat bouncy babies. That would have saved much angst and several hospital appointments for my small, healthy babies.

It's about a study which compared nutritionally enriched milk with normal formula and the NE milk babies were the ones with the pronounced effect! Both the researcher and the journo are overly keen to say oh this means all formula affects weight, which perhaps it does, but it ain't what the study is about!

the research has been done on FF babies one group with normal F and one with extra rich formula. So if you had things in the formula then you overfeed your babies...
Don't see anything against normal formula or for BF

Is there a proposal to start selling extra rich formula? Otherwise why bother with this study?

I thought they were talking about the hungry baby milk?

I haven't read that article but I saw the same story on the net this morning and they were talking about heavier based formulas so I thought that meant hungry milk as what I read did say the 'normal' formula was fine.

Yes, the study is comparing effects in later life between enriched formula and regular formula, NOT formula vs breast. I know newspapers love simplistic, shock-value headlines but they annoy me greatly when they are bloody unrelated to the study.

That was done in the 90s and then stopped. Those babies fed extra rich F are "fatter" than their peers.
Nobody is doing that nowadays it is a non story about a pseudo scientific study.

There is no data about obesity compared between breast and formula, that would be interesting and would justify the article.

It's like comparing people who eat brazil nuts with people who eat salted peanuts, and headlining the result 'nuts in heart disease link' ffs.

here

Bottlefeeding has been linked with obesity for quite a while now, though there conflicting studies over the past few years have left us without a particularly clear picture.

I think everyone in my family was FF. Not one is obese. One aunt is quite large but apart from her, we are all really thin.

I can't be bothered to take note of these bloody studies. I'm sure its just another way to put mums off FF their babies.

I think that growth curves are crock of sh!t.

Babies come in all different shape and sizes and so do adults. My son was bf for two year and is slightly overwieght. I was formula fed as a baby and I am very skinny.

Factors like mental welbeing and discouraging comfort eating and promoting exercise are more important than what a baby is fed.

"Factors like mental welbeing and discouraging comfort eating and promoting exercise are more important than what a baby is fed"

I agree. DS is following is line but I am careful about what he eats. He is allowed the odd biscuit or some chocolate or rarely, some crisps but I mainly get him to eat healthier stuff as his diet is important to me. He eats at set times too, not constantly snacking for the sake of it. My nan tries to offer him an ice cream an hour before tea. Does my head in.

There is a girl at our toddler group who eats constantly, her parents laugh about how much she eats and how it is non stop. I would actually be very concerned if my child was the weight of this girl. She looks big and not in a cute slightly chubby toddler way, but bloated.