Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Infant feeding

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

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Original poster

You know the way advertising formula is banned...

119 replies

Tatties · 19/02/2006 11:28

...well is there anything to stop the subtle promotion of formula feeding in other ways - like this for example? The story has nothing to do with feeding babies so why show a picture of a baby with a bottle? On the news this morning there was a story about women who have babies earlier missing out on their careers (different issue...), and on the clip it showed newborn babies in hospital being fed with little cow & gate bottles!

OP posts:

NotQuiteCockney · 19/02/2006 11:29

I think complaints help.

And the line that people normally take is, this isn't advertising or promoting formula - it's normalising bottlefeeding.

Original poster

Tatties · 19/02/2006 11:38

Yes NQC it's normalising formula feeding when breastfeeding should be seen as the norm.

OP posts:

Pruni · 19/02/2006 11:59

Message withdrawn

CarolinaMoon · 19/02/2006 12:11

I spose this pic was chosen by a young journo/sub-editor who just thinks yeah, there's a picture of a baby.

I agree that it's sad that bottles are seen as such a normal, everyday part of babycare whereas breastfeeding isn't though.

I almost didn't buy a pack of vests from Tesco for ds because among the little drawings of teddy bears, rabbits, shoes etc on them there was a bottle . Ds has never drunk out of one, they just aren't part of his life.

Original poster

Tatties · 19/02/2006 12:21

I have just emailed the BBC. I think that for BF to become the norm it has to be seen - in the media, on park benches, in restaurants, etc... but it's true Pruni, you have to get women to BF in the first place... I feel as a breastfeeding mother it is my duty to do my bit by BF in public. But I have to admit that sometimes I do feel uncomfortable about it, depending on where I am, because once the child is past a certain age I think BF is just seen as 'weird' I don't let that stop me yet (ds is 10mths) but I worry one day that it might. And constant images of babies with bottles don't help the cause.

OP posts:

LucyJu · 19/02/2006 15:50

I think the very slogan "breast is best" reinforces the bottle feeding culture. Apart from the fact that the slogan is so often appended with a "but" (i.e. "We all know breast is best, but..."), I think it implies that "bottle is normal".
Have a look at this.

loobywoof · 19/02/2006 16:23

LOL at CarolinaMoon and the vest thing. I know just how you feel. I ordered a Christening cake and it arrived, just hours before the christening, with little baby bottles on it!! They have never being a part of either of my twos lives and my mum took them off for me and replaced them with ducklings.

CorrieDale · 19/02/2006 16:24

What an interesting article! It's certainly given me something to think about... My trouble is that I find myself pussy-footing around - not wanting to cause offence to my friends and peers who are almost all bottlefeeding. I almost feel guilty when I'm with them for still bfing at 8 mnths - I certainly feel as though I'm regarded as being a little "holier than thou", and so I downplay it. Perhaps I should just toughen up a bit....

LucyJu · 19/02/2006 16:31

If I made Christening cakes, I would decorate them with icing breasts...

bottlelover · 19/02/2006 16:35

how rediculous!

I love bottle feeding and will promote it until the day I die. I am not a fan of breast feeding in fact I hate it and will fully support mothers who choose not to breastfeed. If formula it was so bad it would not be allowed full stop. Banning the advertising of formula is also discriminating against those who wish to have a choice. Women have a choice and should be allowed to follow it. Do you not have anything better to do than email the BBC over a tiny photo? I have much better things to do (like washing my bottles and measuring my powder).

Breast is not always best and a formula feeding mother my children are healthy and not one complaint/allergy - unlike at least 3 of my breastfeeding aquaintances.

Please don't toughen up the "holier than thou" image - many breastfeeders do come across as being that and it is annoying and makes many abbottle feeder feel inferior too so really no-one can win.

Just live and let live - please.

starshaker · 19/02/2006 16:37

im sorry but breast feeding is normal for some and bottle feeding normal for others. how do u know that it wasnt ebm in that bottle. i tried to breastfeed and dd just wasnt interested at all. i bottle feed and its great for me and dd.

i just dont think its practical to get rid of every pic of a bottle. next thing will be emailing neighbouse to complain that they are advertising dummies

NotQuiteCockney · 19/02/2006 16:52

LucyJu, that's a great article you linked to.

I'm happier if they just leave images of feeding babies out of these sorts of things. I got a bunch of "you're having a new sibling" books for DS1 before having DS2, and was annoyed to find immages of bottlefeeding in them. I can see that people might be a bit uncomfortable showing breastfeeding (or be nervous about including images of that in a book for kids), although I don't share their discomfort.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that our local scummy mall has a parent and baby room, whose image is a mum holding a baby in a breastfeedingish sort of position.

noddyholder · 19/02/2006 16:54

Not this again I thought we had all agreed that it is up to the undividual

helsi · 19/02/2006 16:56

I choose to use bottles for my own reasons and we recently got a "I've got a new baby" book for dd to enable her to get used to the imminent arrival.

The mummy in that book was breastfeeding and dd asked me what she was doing as we have told and showed her our new baby's bottles.

I did realise that I hadn't made her aware of breastfeeding and so that was all new to her as it isn't what we do in our household.

PeachyClair · 19/02/2006 17:20

Hmm, been here before have we not?

I couldn't bf ds1, he was allergic to a protein in my milk. I tried, he got ill. I bf ds2 for 4 months and ds3 for 15 months.

I think people give up bf for many reasons, rarely because they don't see it on Eastender. It's more complicated than that, invloves other siblings, parents, work etc etc.

I do think people should campaign for BF to be better represented in the media as a normal choice, but at the same time A normal chice, not THE only choice. The most positive message we can send out is acceptance of peoples informed decisions.

I mean, that woman at the carfe with the bottle? Is it EBM? Is she having chemo? Was her baby (like my nephew) in NICU on a drip while her milk dried up... she tried to express for weeks but was so ill she stopped on medical orders (she had severe complications post pre-eclmaptic pg), the MW said she had tried harder to bf than anyone they'd met before. Have they adopted? there are just so many reasons.

Normalising bf by feeding in public and being positive about it... yay! Being holier than thou... walk a day in my moccasins etc.

In sixten years, when you've both got teenagers, that parent might just be the one you envy for keeping a positive relationship with their child. parenting is made up of many decisions: you can fluff one or two and still be doing a decent job.

LucyJu · 19/02/2006 17:23

Bottlelover, you're missing the point. Which is not that "breast is best", but rather that "breast is normal". It is, indisputably, the biological norm. Formula feeding is an artificial means of feeding. Unfortunately, we live in a society where bottle feeding is seen by many as the norm and this, in my opinion, is one of the main reasons for such low bfing rates in the UK. Pictures of babies bottle-feeding when the bottle has nothing to do with the news item simultaneously reflect and perpetuate the normalisation of our bottle-feeding culture. Personally, I'm glad there are people around who will contact the BBC to complain about such items. Maybe....just maybe.. the editor will think twice before s/he selects their next baby image. Even if only to avoid further emails from bfing "weirdos"...

bobbybobbobbingalong · 19/02/2006 17:26

bottlelover - that's very scientific - your survey of around 5 babies .

However do you think that the breastfeeders breastfeed precisely because their babies have allergies etc.

My boy was hardly an advert for bfeeding - covered in weeping sores and screaming all the time, which is why it was important to me to avoid formula.

misdee · 19/02/2006 17:34

why do people who formula feed get all defnensive?

PeachyClair · 19/02/2006 17:40

bobbybobob DS1 was so ill because of an allergy to my bf though. It can vary. (Itb turned out I had an allergy that was passing on but I didn't know that then, all I knew was that he was 4 lb something and shrinking)

Why do people who ff get all defensive? Well in my case because I felt like a big fat guilty piece of work who had failed her baby dreadfully and didn't deserve him I still think I missed something even though I know I was right to stop. DS 2 and 3 were bf but I feel terrible ds1 couldn't. had someone said anything negative to me about ff there were certain points were the descent into PND would have been swift: I wasn't far off anyway.

intergalacticwalrus · 19/02/2006 17:42

Aptimil anyone?

PeachyClair · 19/02/2006 17:44

CarolinaMoon · 19/02/2006 17:45

That's exactly the point made in the article LucyJu linked to - women take on far too much guilt about things we can't control.

You had no choice at all but to stop bfing, and thankfully there is a reasonable alternative in formula.

But there are so many people in this country who barely consider bfing or who are pressured into ffing by their families and friends - they are the ones who are being short-changed by the "normalcy" (yuk!) of ffing.

PeachyClair · 19/02/2006 17:47

Agreed yes, as I said earlier I think BF SHOULD be normalised, just not to the extent where those who CHOOSE not to BF feel bad about themselves. And it is a delicate balance. These are so many parts to being a good parent- you can be one and buy formula too.

madmarchhare · 19/02/2006 17:55

I can only imagine that if there had been a picture of a breastfeeding baby, people would have said 'why is there a picture of a breast feeding baby and not just a baby' iyswim, when the article had nothing to do with feeding.

A baby feeding from a bottle is normal.

madmarchhare · 19/02/2006 17:57

To add, I do understand the frustration regarding lack of info/help/knowledge with regards to BF, but imo, I think this is taking it one step too far.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5