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Infant feeding

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

It WAS very childish of me, but I got a dig in at some Formula companies today......

613 replies

VeniVidiVickiQV · 04/04/2006 16:55

Got sent a market research survey today asking me my opinions on formula milk.

So i gave them.....WinkGrin

OP posts:
moondog · 05/04/2006 10:54

Makes me just want to go and guzzle a bottle of warm potato starch and fish eyes meself Tiktok!

I really really really worry about what is in store for people who were formula fed.
It just can't be good for you.
It's a no brainer.

oliveoil · 05/04/2006 10:55

oh come on moondog, that statement is way off ffs.

You really annoy me on these threads with your scaremongering shite.

izzybiz · 05/04/2006 10:56

i wasnt under informed at all.
I know perfectly well what the benefits of breastfeeding are, i had all the info thrust at me.

I CHOSE to formula feed. By myself.

moondog · 05/04/2006 10:57

Good for you IB.
As the mindless mantra goes...
Happy Mum=Happy Baby

OO,in what way?
Am I not allowed to be concerned? By doing so am I (Heaven forbid!) making mothers feel bad????

oliveoil · 05/04/2006 10:58

I can't even be arsed

If you don't think there is anything wrong with the statement you made then whatever.

Eulalia · 05/04/2006 10:59

Have seen the new 'growing up milk' what a load of bollocks. What bothers me is that people will get even lazier and use this instead of providing a balanced diet. "Oh its OK he's had his bottle of growing up milk" and then proceed to feed them Frootshoots the rest of hte day. They've even tried to make the bottle look grown up and 'toddlerish'. Meanwhile mum and dad have their probiotic drinks and thats set them up for the day too.

ds is 8 months and the only baby food I've bought so far was one packet of baby rice (and one was enough) and a few packets of small rice cakes. Total amount about £4. Never bought formula or any jars. Baby food manufacturers not going to make much profit out of me...

moondog · 05/04/2006 10:59

How elegantly put OO.
I await further pearls of wisdom with baited breath.

izzybiz · 05/04/2006 10:59

Plus i myself was formula fed.
Im 30 years old and perfectly healthy thanks, am not thick in any way, have no allergies, very rarely ill, have never been hospitalised for anything.

moondog · 05/04/2006 11:01

WALOB shall become my acronym of choice I think.Thanks Eulalia.
Yes,the crap they flog us.Like a plastic bottle of some weird oversugared yoghurt drink will make it all tickety boo.

oliveoil · 05/04/2006 11:01

You will wait a long time darling.

Rant away with your own pearls of wisdom, I am sure everyone is dying to hear them.

moondog · 05/04/2006 11:02

Splendid Izy.
Can you post a picture so we can see for ourselves?
Smile
How do you define 'not thick in any way' out of interest?)

moondog · 05/04/2006 11:02

Olive,I live in hope.
Grin

Eulalia · 05/04/2006 11:07

Lol at not thick... seriously though depends what you mean by not ill. What some people take as not being very ill can vary enormously. I'd say I was a healthy person but suffered from a chronic ear problem as a child which flares up from time to time now (in fact am slightly deaf in one ear). I was only breastfed for a few weeks and am sure the crap formula around in the 1960s didn't help... not even sure it was formula - I think it was Carnation Milk and you had to add vitamin drops.

Didn't know that about the starch tiktok - v intersting.

izzybiz · 05/04/2006 11:09

What would you expect to see in a formula fed adult?

Im really interested to know, do we look different from other humans in some way?

For people who say they dont judge others, your pro breastfeeding threads can get quite bitchy cant they?
I have never once said im against breastfeeding, im all for it. I myself have chosen not to do it, i just think i shouldnt be judged by anyone else who doesnt even know me or my family.

Am parping myself now, i have a life to get on with, Grin

moondog · 05/04/2006 11:11

No I'm interested in knowing Izzy,that's why I ask.
Who said anything about not judging??
Not me,that's for sure.
Goodness,what's the fun in that???

tiktok · 05/04/2006 11:13

So you choose to formula feed, izy.....but how did you choose which brand to pick? With a pin? Because of the pic on the tin? Because they gave you Brand X in hospital? Because your auntie said she used it?

That's my point - if you choose to formula feed you don't have the informtion to select between brands. It's not true they are 'all the same' - but in what ways they are really different, we have no independent way of knowing.

Olive - Actimel is the yogurt drink we are being flogged via TV because it has friendly bacteria.

Aptimil is the formula milk.

It worries me that mothers are getting confused. I have heard of at least two mothers who have been advised to top up with Aptimil and have sent their partners out to buy it and guess what they have come back with....in one case, the baby actually got it. Don't suppose it is that much different from formula milk, but I don't know for certain 'cos there is no way of knowing.

Hausfrau · 05/04/2006 11:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

oliveoil · 05/04/2006 11:16

yes I meant Aptimil (we have had this convo before I think!)

You always talk sense tiktok.

Going to go now before I swear like a fishwife at moondog.

moondog · 05/04/2006 11:17

Oh don't mind me.
I'm as robust as they come (thanks to being a breastfeeder and feedee I'm Convinced.)
I really would like to know why you took issue with my comments at 10:54

LucyJu · 05/04/2006 11:18

Eulalia - totally agree with you re "growing-up" milks etc. WALOB!

Whilst I accept there is a need for formula for some babies in some circumstances, and indeed certain babies need specialised formulas for medical reasons, I do not believe that products such as "follow-on milk", "growing-up milk" and "hungrier baby milk " serve any useful purpose other than allowing manufacturers a way to get round advertising restrictions thereby swelling their coffers (ooh er , missus!).

And as for hungrier-baby milk in particular, I cannot see how this can do any baby any good. "I know, let's make a product that is even harder for a baby's immature gut to digest". Makes my blood boil!

LucyJu · 05/04/2006 11:22

And Izzybiz.... just think how much cleverer you might have been, had you been breastfed!

tiktok · 05/04/2006 11:32

I've been googling and really, the lack of info for mothers is appalling. Manufacturers talk cutesy bollocks about their formulas - 'specially selected ingredients', 'kind to baby's delicate digestion', 'specially formulated for easy digestion'....blah blah blah....YES BUT WHAT IS IN IT????

The starch in baby formula (primarily needed to make it thicken in the bottle when water is added) is normally corn (though you have to dig deep to find this out), sometimes rice (marketed for babies who are intolerant to corn starch) and sometimes potato (in formulas for babies with 'feeding problems').

If you want to know more, here's a list of ingredients \link{http://www.auravita.com//products/AURA/NUIA10156.asp\from a retailer} and \link{http://www.enfamil.com/about_enfamil/t_1_1.html\this is a history of one brand} in the US and also here now.

Olive - yes, we have had this convo before!! And you still got the name wrong! Just shows that these things stick :)

Eulalia · 05/04/2006 11:42

Something that is called "Omneo Comfort 2 EaZypack" must be good Grin blimey.... Never thought about the Actimel/Aptimil names before - pretty stupid and indeed bound to cause confusion.

tiktok · 05/04/2006 11:46

izzy, formula fed people as adults probably don't 'look' any different from others. But a lot of less than optimum health is unseen.

Comparing a group of adults who were formula fed with a group of adults who were breastfed you would (on the basis of research) expect to find a large number of health-related differences.

I could list them but you will say I am scare-mongering, and to be honest, I don't think it's helpful to list them in this sort of debate. People get aggressively defensive about it, and because they don't (as an individual) see or feel any effects of these conditions, they choose not to believe them. I do think a mini-course in statistics and what 'risk' and 'odds' mean might help, nevertheless.

However, I can't think why it is remotely controversial to say that what a baby has as his sole source of nutrition in the first months of life is likely to have a long-term effect on his health.

And that what nature has developed over a gazillion years to actually be this sole source of nutrition is likely to give a better long-term outcome than the milk of another species, additionally tweaked with a lot of largely untested additives from other sources to make it mix better/store better/dry better/advertise better.

Why is this worth arguing about?

HRHQueenOfQuotes · 05/04/2006 11:55

although they do, all the time, and it's almost always Milupa because of the massive promotion to hps of this brand -

actually that was the only brand I didn't have recommended to me!

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