Risks of Formula feeding on pre-term infants

[thisisyesterday]

how scary is that?

i read a blog which mentioned it here

it was in a piece published by the Journal of Pediatrics, so something to take seriously I think.
makes me feel so :-(

OH FFS, more rubbish from hysterical breast obsessives. Breastfeeding is generally better than formula, but only if successfully established, which is not always possible. Formula is not poison. But the vast majority of people are too stupid to understand statistics, as demonstrated here and in that shit-for-brains blog.

Thanks tiktok - much more clearly put

'but only if successfully established, which is not always possible'

you know in some communities, breastfeeding problems are unheard of. don't you think that is really weird?

breastfeeding is 'generally better'. oh just a little bit. .

breastfeeding is generally better??

fgs, i've heard it all now

so SGB I look forward to some peer-reviewed, evidence based research pointing out when breastfeeding isn't best.

i think i'll be waiting a long time for that.

Thisisyesterday - why did you even start this thread when you haven't even read the article???

I understand what you are saying and you have explained it well. I think I had made a wrong assumption.

It is still a low number though in statistical terms and I still struggle with the leap to assuming that it is the formula feeding that has led to these deaths. There are so many complicating factors - espeiclaly with pre-term babies.

oh and i'm not a "breast obsessive" btw. in fact i don't care much for breasts at all. I am however, obsessive over babies getting the best start in life. small babies who have no say over how they are fed but who have to live with the effects of it

i am someone who thinks that if breastmilk can help reduce the number of neonatal deaths that people should be taking notice
that parents ought to KNOW the risks of formula feeding instead of us all sitting down and pretending it's just fine cos otherwise otherwise FF mums might feel guilty about it

How many pre-term babies are breast fed or are able to be breast fed?

I am not disputing the statistics but also considering causality. If breast feeding isnt possible because there is no breast milk then NE wasnt caused by formula feeding, breast milk wasnt available to try to prevent it.

you see i am admittedly making assumptions, but it seems to me that the Journal of Pediatrics wouldn't make such a bold statement without being sure there was truth behind it? Otherwise people like yourself, yousankmybattleship, would rightly be in there saying "hang on, this has been misinterpreted"

i am confused now by all the statistics and how it's worked out

The thing is though OP, if you are going to post some research at least try to understand it rather than just saying a big hurrah when some ignorant blogger comes up with a headline that you happen to agree with but which has very little to do with the actual research.

No Stuffing, no one is being hysterical. They are saying there are risk (albeit very small ones) that being formula fed can (very rarely) lead to an illness which leads to death.

It does not say that formula feeding kills babies. It is saying formula feeding increases the risk.

So...formula feeding increases the risk of gastroenteritis by 20% say. A breastfed baby has a 0.01% chance of dying from gastroenteritis. That means that statistically speaking a formula fed baby has a 0.013 chance (ish). You multiply and multiply (my sleep deprived brain cannot work that out) but it would work out for something like for every 2999 breastfed babies who die of gastroenteritis, 3000 formula fed ones would die.

That one extra baby has died because of gastroenteritis but also through being formula fed which increased their chances of getting it?

So times that by huge numbers...for every 2,999,000 bf babies who die of it, 3,000,000 formula fed babies die - so an extra 1000.

I have no idea how many babies really die of gastroenteritis.

no ruby, in some communities, the babies just die instead. That's what happens in large parts of rural Africa where breastfeeding doesn't work.

Women aren't 'creating' breastfeeding problems. Lots, and I mean LOTS, have genuine difficulties getting it established!

gnomedeplume... generally (with support) mothers can express for a preterm infant

there is also often banked milk available

i do see what you say though, and this is why I think it's SO important that mothers are supported to breastfeed, they're fully aware of all of the potential risks of formula and they are helped to express if necessary

when not where

oh i am trying! believe me i am getting my baby-brained head round it all, just a bit slower than you

i misinterpreted the original thing, i admit, and i do apologise for the sensationalist title

foxinsocks... do they? where have you heard that?

when I lived there

what do you think women do when they can't breastfeed and haven't got an alternative? The babies end up starving.

People don't 'create' breastfeeding problems. They happen everywhere.

InspirationalBreadbin because i have yet to find the article in full (without having to pay for it)

generally other people will nurse the baby, it's actually fairly rare for a community to just sit back and let a baby die for the sake of some breastmilk.

Well sorry to skew you so called figure but if dd was not FF she would have been dead but hey the bf mafia don't like to talk about cases like that

and no-one has said women "create" problems. of course there are problems...

the issue is that women ought to be supported to get over these problems, and they aren't.
most people who give up BF don't actually want to. They do so because they think they have no choice, because they've been misinformed and because the support is lacking

yes, there are some people who look at all the factors and make an informed choice to stop. but they are in no way in a majority

goingroundthebend4 are you in America? did your daughter have NEC?

no? doesn't "skew" anyhitng then does it?

Of course formula has its place. it can be a lifesaving drug... as with your daughter. no-one is arguing against that

but if it significantly increases the risks of babies dying then don't you think that parents shoudl be aware of that? so that they can make an informed decision?

err I think you'll see that Ruby did, that's exactly what she implied in her post here (pasted below)

''but only if successfully established, which is not always possible'

you know in some communities, breastfeeding problems are unheard of. don't you think that is really weird?

That is a direct bloody slight at people who had problems breastfeeding ffs. Totally unnecessary and I cannot BEAR people who think that just because they found it easy, it means everyone else is making it up.

no.. she didn't.

she pointed out that in some communities problems are unheard of. that is true. Gabrielle Palmer writes of meeting some women who were just amazed at the fact that over here some women can't breastfeed.

Ruby did NOT say that women create the problems did she? the problems we experience here are generally because of lack of support and because women rarely get to grow up watchiing other women breastfeed so have no prior knowledge of what is normal or how it works

Yes but this kind of storys make mums that for what ever reason that have Ff feel guilty.

And no uk but dd was Tpn fed and then ng fed then finally Ff on non allergy brand and I suffered the looks the conversations the judgements when ever she was I'll because I had not Bf.Luckily she was dc number 3 so brushed it of .But I have seen what pressure has done to other people

Just putting the other side of the story