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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

channel 4 breastfeeding programme

816 replies

lazycow · 23/01/2006 14:20

Just thought people might be interested if you don't already know.

Channel 4 on Weds 1 Feb. A programme called Extraordinary Breastfeeding is on. The write up in the magazine I'm looking at says:

"You'll be texting your friends about this as soon as it starts. It's about the phenomenon of mothers who breastfeed their kiddies well beyond the age considered 'normal' in this country. Seeing a feisty mum breastfeed her two-year-old twin isn't that disturbing, but the sequence of another lady suckling her 7 year old dughter isn't one we will forget in a hurry. "

I'm looking forward to seeing the tone it takes.

OP posts:
ShaysMummy · 30/01/2006 21:12

lol jools2. dont need to say why!!

misdee · 30/01/2006 21:13

Joolstoo, i am one of the only mums to b/f amongst tho i know. i dont feel the need to say why i b/f but do get asked why i am STILL breastfeeding my dd3 at 11months. simple answer? she like sit, and its easier than making up bottles, i am a lazy mother cant be arsed with cleaning 8bottles a day (dd2 used to have more) and scooping out formula powder each morning. now i can just grab nappy bag (cloth nappies of course ), drop kids off at school/pre-school and go to see my husband.

Hulababy · 30/01/2006 21:13

misdee - probably more that HV/MW/other people have made them get to the point where they feel they have to justify why they bottle fed. I know when I was making the decision to stop bottle feeding (for many reasons which were valid to me and my baby at that time) I got so munch unfavourable comments from these people and so little support that for a time I did feel like I had to justify my reasons.

Now I know I don't. I made the right decision at the time for me and my little one, and that is all that matters.

Similarly - when discussing this time of debate I always find - if having discussed why I stopped (as it does comes out if I get asked outright) - that breast feeders (some, not all) feel the need to tell me how they have battled on through pain, heartache and whatever else. Again, something we don't necessarily need to know.

I guess there are extremists on both sides anyway, and people with very firm views. Remember reading many on MN before!!!

ShaysMummy · 30/01/2006 21:16

hulababy, totally agree.

misdee · 30/01/2006 21:18

i am met with total surprise when i say i am stil breastfeeding and its not alweays good either (my mum hopes i dont carry on til ldd3 is 4, her sister bf her last daughter till she was 4 and my mum thinks that wrong), and i have had comments about how my milk must be 'almost gone now' as dd3 is slow to gain. and also dd3 likes to snack a lot. so people think i'm constantly feeding as she pop on for a few moments then goes off to play.

argh look i am sort of justifying my choice to bf.

nanneh · 30/01/2006 21:21

Thanks misdee - very honestly put.

I'll be honest too - I didn't like children and couldn't give a monkey's a** how people fed their babies before I had one of my own 19 months ago.

For me the ability to BF my child is a "human rights" issue. I don't vilify and take the pi** out of bottle feeders and I would like them to have the integrity to leave me alone too.

Breastfeeding is not just a matter of choice, because in some countries that choice is taken away from mothers which then results in the most horrible statistic I have ever seen : nearly 2 mil. baby death globally due to lack of breastmilk feeding.

I am interested in BF worldwide, not just what goes on here in the UK. It gives me a very different perspective.

expatinscotland · 30/01/2006 21:22

I agree, Hula. I can also relate to a lot of the comments made by mums in the link JT provided. My problems w/bf have all been b/c of the PND I suffered after birth, for which I really needed drug treatment that was not compatible w/bf. Yet I'd get comments, people actually asking me WHY I was not bfing my child. And I can remember my eyes welling up with tears and having to say, 'B/c of medications I need.' I even then had women press me! 'Oh, what sort of medication?' Gees, let's just start discussing my mental health w/a total stranger! Do you trim your lady garden?

hercules · 30/01/2006 21:23

But the nanneh, the opportunity to choose is also a human rights issue. Babies dont die because they didnt have bm and were formula fed, the die because of lack of sanitation and hygiene etc associated with the preparation of formula.

nanneh · 30/01/2006 21:42

Hercules - take away the formula and you take away the need for sterilisation and the need to add polluted water to what you feed your baby.
Nipples and BM do not require sterilisation and nor does their container.

Babies die for all sorts of reasons, true. When they die because someone has given their mothers free samples of formula and told them its as good as breastmilk (which is what has happened in some countries) then those companies are in my view guilty of causing those deaths, NOT the mother who may not have the knowledge to make an informed choice.

That is a very serious violation of human rights in my view.

hercules · 30/01/2006 21:46

Nanneh, I am well aware of these practises. My grandfather was head of nestles in srilanka many years ago and my grandmother used to organise the free samples. My mother still speaks fondly of this generous act and wont hear a word against the company.

Nowadays, at least there, it seems that it is often about being seen as fashionable and a western thing to do to bottlefeed.

I am for choice and for human rights. How can you take away this choice and maintain humanrights? Surely education is the way to go and then allow people to make their own choices based on the truth, whatever their choice may be.

GDG · 30/01/2006 21:47

Entirely agree hercules - the voice of reason as usual

Hulababy · 30/01/2006 21:47

Take formula away and some babies will die too. Some babies and mums, for various reasons, are unable to breast feed. Sterilsation is needed for expressed breast milk also - same bacteria issues there. Some babies can't xuck and therefore can't take milk direct from the breast.

How someone feeds their baby is a choice only they can make for themselves, and no one should try to make them feel bad/guilty about their choice. There should be better information about all forms of feeding and it should be balanaced and unbiased, giving facts etc. And there should be more support for both of those forms when the decision is made. Better support and advice for breast feeding mums. Better advice and support for bottle feeding mums too. BOTH should get advice on how to sterilise, etc.

Breast feeding does not make a mum superior to another mum. It does not mean that a baby will automatically be healthier.

JoolsToo · 30/01/2006 21:51
  1. "take away the formula and you take away the need for sterilisation and the need to add polluted water to what you feed your baby"

  1. "NOT the mother who may not have the knowledge to make an informed choice"

  2. no formula so ...

  3. what informed choice? breast versus what?

nanneh · 30/01/2006 21:53

Hercules - I have a friend living in Japan who tells me that Japanese women (most of whom breasfed only 60 years ago when they lived in rural Japan long before they became Americanised after the War) think that bottlefeeding is "modern" and BF is "traditional" as though they are talking about furniture

On the other hand I visited a ME country last year where the women are totally covered up except for their faces and yet they breasfeed publicly, every where restaurants, shops you name it. Many BF up to 3 years old.

Both countries have been exposed to Nestle, but in one it hasn't taken hold. I think it has alot to do with the culture and traditions of the country in question.

hercules · 30/01/2006 21:55

interesting post, nanneh.

nanneh · 30/01/2006 22:11

Goodnight Hercules, I am done with this one for now...

airbabe · 30/01/2006 22:20

bf my daughter for 6 months gave up because i wanted my old body back the weight of gg boobs was giving me serious back problems she has loads of health issues reflux when smaller now 2 and asthma excema hayfever allergies to various stuff and recently diagnosed coelics i have none of these myself and am a healthy person and yet whilst bf she had endless viruses and chest infections

LucyJu · 30/01/2006 22:54

No-one is saying that ALL bf babies are healthy and ALL formula-fed babies are unhealthy. But it is a scientific fact that a bf baby is less likely to suffer from a whole raft of illnesses (respiratory infections, diarrhoea, otitis media, childhood leukaemia to name a few) than a formula fed baby.

SorenLorensen · 30/01/2006 23:09

I can't read all this but I will admit to a dilemma. I finally saw the ad for the programme that has sparked all this controversy. Now, cards on the table, 10 year olds being breast-fed makes me feel deeply unsettled. My ds1 is almost 9 and the thought of whapping 'em out for him is obscene to me. I will allow that this is an extreme scenerio and very rare.

So, my dilemma. I can admit to feeling like that about long term extended breast-feeding. But when I see some "man about town" as in the trailer for the programme, saying "ugh, I don't think it should be allowed" (presumably talking about bf-ing in general) it makes me want to whip my norks out at every opportunity and breast-feed all and sundry.

I'm just going to have to watch the programme aren't I?

Regarding the trailer - respect to the woman who is tandem feeding what look like toddlers. They sit each side of her on the settee and yank a boob over each. I'm not sure I'd be up to the elasticity of my boobs being broadcast on national TV

LucyJu · 30/01/2006 23:11

And, by the way, the program is called Extraordinary Breastfeeding , not Extreme Breastfeeding.
And take a look at \link{http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=336370\this. So all mums who chose to formula feed are making an informed choice, huh? (And yes, I know most formula feeders on this site are a lot better informed than this lot, thank goodness!)

LucyJu · 30/01/2006 23:12

Obviously, I'm not very good at inserting hyperlinks... Must be a lack of intelligence due to being formula fed as a baby (joke!)

Spidermama · 30/01/2006 23:12

this .

LucyJu · 30/01/2006 23:16

Thanks

hunkermunker · 30/01/2006 23:19

LJ, that forum has some of the most ill-informed people posting on it. I did initially write stupid, but it's not their fault. I'll just judge and pity them from afar.

JoolsToo · 30/01/2006 23:34

don't see anything wrong with those posts hunker - some were just taking the 'p' I'll grant you but the same thing happens here. There were some very valid comments too.

tch, tch! you know you're not allowed to judge on this forum

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