Avent advert: "Being able to combine breast and bottle feeding easily is actually helping me breastfeeding longer"

[LaGuerta]

This is attributed to "Monica, mother of newborn Oliver" and was on a big display of Avent bottles in Boots in Horsham today .

I'm not an expert on combined feeding but my instinct said it is misleading. Anyone who is better informed than me able to clarify?

It is a bit misleading, in that it's only one mother's story. She may well feel that combining the two helped her to breastfeed for longer but in the grand scheme of things it means bog all. It's an anecdote, not scientific data or fact.

Also it's a bit confusing that it's 'helping her breastfeed longer' when her baby is only a newborn. They haven't fully explained that.

It's the usual crap from a company that manufactures bottles, they want to sell more so they make you believe that you need their product.

Thanks for your replies

Yes I thought there was a contradiction between 'breastfeeding for longer' and having a newborn. Longer than what though? A week? A month? IIRC introducing a bottle very early on can make it harder to breastfeed 'for longer'.

Well if I hadn't expressed at first I almost certainly wouldn't have been able to establish bf with ds

What a shocking and rubbish advert. Starting or using too much formula can ruin your supply and put and end to breastfeeding. Some companies would do anything to peddle their stuff

Avent have bad form for advertising methods - I read (on here! look!) that they had a deal with Hello magazine, that every time they did a piece on a baby, you had to see the baby being fed with an Avent bottle. Even if the baby was mainly (or, I guess, exclusively?) breastfed.

For sure, there are some circumstances where mothers may need to supplement temporarily (although bottles are not the only way to do this), but it shouldn't be expected by the average mother that bottles help out with breastfeeding; some babies can switch fine between the breast and bottle, but others can't.

There's no ban on advertising bottles in the UK, but it is against the WHO code.

I doubt the Hello! Story is true. Kate Silveryon was in there breastfeeding and no sign of a bottle.

I think as a society we need to calm down a bit about the bf thing. I had a lot of problems bf my DS & had to express & keep trying to get him on the breast also. It nearly drove me insane but the pressure to bf was immense & overwhelming as a first time mum. Eventually (6-8 weeks) I gave him a ff in the evening & it definitely helped me bf for longer.

It doesn't have to be a black and White scenario & I Think a lot of mothers feel that As soon as they've succumbed (usually at The end of their tether), to giving baby a ff that that's it & they've finished bf, when actually they could just bf again next time as long as they're aware of supply & demand etc. It's about being properly informed & attitudes seem to be shifting with the midwives. My hospital bf session last week said it wasn't the end of the world to give a ff & you could still carry on bf afterwards as the more bm the better, even if theres a bit of formula along the way.

The ad is obv just for the bottles as afaik Avent dot do formula but there are a lot of women who express in order to give their babies bm & to do this, they need bottles. Some mothers have to go back to work soon & express at the office in order for someone to feed baby in their absence, so I think it's fine.

Well said Evelyn!

Again well said Evelyn!

We definitely need a change in the way BF is supported. There's no point promoting it if the support is not there for mothers when the baby is born. At the moment, throughout pregnancy we are told 'breastfeed, breastfeed, breastfeed' and then the second the baby is born and we struggle, all we get are shrugs and 'give it a bottle'. No wonder so many mothers end up feeling bad about how they feed their baby.

Introducing a bottle too early can interfere with breastfeeding, and a bottle is not necessary for successful breastfeeding in normal circumstances. The advert is not a problem because bottle feeding is wrong, it's a problem because it's a lie. Mothers should be making informed decisions on how to feed and they should be supported in their choice, whether it's BF or FF.

Formula and bottles definitely helped me carry on breastfeeding last time. My daughter was having done formula by 4 weeks and then I continued breastfeeding until 5 months. Without the formula I would have stopped a lot earlier without a doubt!

I know that doesn't mean its true for everyone, but it also proves its not a lie! Avent are of course going to advertise using bottles, they'd be a rubbish company if they didn't. Let's not be naive about that.

Well said evelynj !

some not done

I didn't mean that it's a lie for individuals, of course there are cases when women need to supplement, but they are giving the impression that bottles help women to breastfeed for longer (in general), which is bollocks. Most women do not need bottles for a newborn, and bottles are not even the only way to supplement a newborn. Syringe or cup feeding may be more appropriate, but they don't get advertised so people don't know about them.

I think it's true for a lot of women and if proper advice was given about mixed feeding - instead of as soon as you give a bottle you are dooooomed, which I have seen and heard a lot - more women would breast feed for longer.

It's not about needing to top up milk supply for most women - it's about not being able to cope physically or mentally with exclusively breastfeeding - which is a hugely demanding task.

I've never had any supply issues but was very happy mixed feeding DD for a year, vs near suicidal ebf DS after following the utterly shit 'don't introduce a bottle too soon' advice.

It makes me angry that the mental toll of being on call 24/7 for a year with no breaks at all, ever, is not acknowledged or glossed over.

Eau, you have a very good point re syringe feeding.
My DS had to be topped up with EBM and formula for a few weeks as bfing just wasn't working.
The midwife told us not to give him a bottle and to use a sippy cup -but this just ended up with a furious DS, my hard-expressed milk all over the place, and me in tears. Oh, and him still losing weight.

We then turned to a bottle and eventually ended up bfing "properly" after a hard slog.

The point is, it wasn't until I stopped topping DS up that I even heard of syringe feeding. Not one midwife or health visitor mentioned it to us. As it isnit advertised, I didn't know it existed.
It could have helped us a lot in those early days.

No, women should not be told "don't give a bottle" if that's what they want to do, but in some cases a bottle can interfere with breastfeeding and women should make the decision to give a bottle with all the facts. They should also be told about other ways of supplementing before making their decision. I think we are all in agreement that breastfeeding support in the UK is shit.

I mix fed DD for a while, when she was doing her marathon evening cluster feeds - it meant I could go and do something else (anything! With my hands!) and DH could share bedtimes. It worked fabulously for us, and at 7mo DD is fully bf again. But I didn't discuss it with anyone and there is a dearth of information about mixed feeding (except the doom laden 'don't introduce a bottle, your baby will forget about nipples, no formula; you may as well feed them CRACK' information. Not helpful). We just used our common sense, and it was fine. I actually think it would help some people carry on bf for longer if they knew it was an option.