Read this shocking article about the damaging effects of formula and the immoral practices of the companies who peddle this junk.

[moondog]

From The Ecologist magazine.

Here.....

Grim reading.

I totally agree F&Z. The situation at the moment is such that a lot of new mothers are left to cope on their own and just have to do the best they can with what information they have.

There must be a way of creating a support network for new mums - people who come round to do the cleaning and cooking etc. and let mum focus on the new baby.

coming back to this after a day, I am really struck by the title - it's aggressive and nasty.

I think this whole thread was summed up by Dejags who said "passionate is good. Evangelical is NOT good".

Moondog I really think it's time to re-examine your approach if you really care about HELPING people with this issue. I can't believe that YOU are aggressive and nasty in RL but you have done not one bit of good here on MN with this thread.

Message withdrawn

moondog I am shocked at your thread title

I for one could not breastfeed as I was taking drugs that crossed the placenta and would have compromised dd's immune system. So what alternative did I have? I would rather she had "junk" than a damaged immune system.

Think before you post

I am not going to read the article as I have already spent enough of my life being very upset about something over which I had no control.

Moondog

i am aware you feel very apssionatly about feeding only the very best for your childen and i your posts about healthy eating and the recipes you offer.

But i am incredibly offended by this title.

I chose not to breastfeed my ds. i had my own, very well considered reasons which i do not feel the need to go into here. but for me it just wasn't right.

with my DD i thought about giving it a go, spoke to my GP who advised me against it because of treatments i have had previously for Cervicle cancer.

so both my children were formula fed. To say that i have fed them junk food from the time theyw ere born is, to me very insulting.
I have a sister who tried for 2 weeks to breatsfeed. my nephew just wasn't feeding, she went to breastfeeding classes and tried everything she could to BF as she believed (as do i) that breast is best. but she just wasn't producing milk. (she has now discovered a tumour in her breast which explains the fact of no milk) she was devestated becasue she had also seen posts like this.
she began to beat herself up over the fat that she was a bad mum who couldn't even feed her child good breast milk. something so basic and natural and she coldn't do it.

after 2 weeks of hardly any food my nephew was in hopsital for 48 hours as he had lost weight. the hospital told her she HAD to formula feed.

I understan that you were trying to make people aware of the companies who make and sell formula feed. - have read many article about Nestle causing so many diseases in africa beasue they give mothers formula and yet they have no clean water. - BUT these formula's are sold in britain and are strictly safety tested.

I dont honestly believ the links to all the illnesses people claim formula to cause, there are so many other influences that i doubt anyone could pinpoint the cause correctly without growing a baby to adult in laboratory conditions.

I agree that whilst showing passion for the options you have chosen and supoprting people to make a decision you feel is best for their child is admirable, you should be carefull as to your wording. not every formula feeder has a choice and should not be made to feel like they are doing their child harm buy doing so

socci, I think posting on a parenting support board that formula is 'junk' can't be construed any other way than pretty aggressive! Fine if she was contacting the formula companies direct, but pretty futile and unproductive on a website purporting to offer advice and tips from one parent to another.

Have you taken your feelings directly to the formula companies moondog?

I think that's a really good point sparkle.
It's the same old same old posts directed at the wrong people.

Moondog if you really care about social change then why not direct your efforts at the companies or the government? It would be a far better use of your time than creating sensationalist posts on MN. It is all rather tedious .

I am now off to beat myself with birch twigs for having fed my dd paediatric formula from 6mo, because without it she'd have had to have been fed via a g-tube. Hard choice eh?

I've started a thread on the positives of bottle feeding, if anyone is interested. Think it might help mums going through a hard time who find this type of thread really hurtful.

I don't think the title is offensive. I think we are just being pointed to an article in a journal.

Breast is best, but if you choose not to feed, don't you want to know what goes into the stuff you feed your babies & make an informed decision ?

Obviously, if you are unable to feed, surely you'd still want to know how the stuff is made etc ?

I'm bf at the mo & reading this article means I will express milk so DH has some to hand if necessary, rather than using formula as standby.

I think the 'processed junk' is an interesting comment....

Thanks Moondog

now i have gotten over my anger at the title i have (skim) read the article.

i have not seen a single statistic refferenced. for all we know those 'facts' could bve pulled from the sky.

the line that states bottle fed babies are up to 5 times more likely to suffer SIDS...makes my blood boil.

as if the mothers of such incident dont have enough to worry about they give them yet another reason to feel guilt!

it's not the fault of the mothers that couldn't or didn't want to bf that the only other option is not very well made, researched or regulated.
I think we should all demand that formula manufacturers get there act together and make a proper alternative

maybe that is what we should put all our effort into instead of arguing on here

just a suggestion

I had valiantly resisted clicking on this for some time but finally gave in. I haven't read the article and don't intend to. Fortunately, I have recovered enough from my problems bfing ds that this type of thread title is not as hurtful to me as it once would have been, but I wonder about others. It reminds me of a previous post that I made on this thread

Just sent this email to a friend who keeps telling me how she would wean her ds, except that nursing him is "just so easy".

"I guess it's time to let you in on this, but it's something that I have found to be very difficult to talk about face to face. I'm assuming you may remember that [ds] got nipple confusion and weaned quite early, hence all of the pumping. I'm sure my depression played some part in it as well. In any event, I am still grieving the fact that I did not get to breastfeed him as long as I would have liked. In fact, it never went well from about the second week on. So, it's very upsetting to me when I hear mothers talk about how easy it is. I know you don't mean anything by it, but I just felt like I needed to let you know. Even seeing someone nurse their child is very, very hard for me. I do think it's nice for [ds] and [her ds] to get together for playdates so I thought I just needed to get this out now since it may be a while before you do wean him."

I was so upset after she left I was shaking. It just seemed to bring back all of the hurt and disappointment all over again. Sometimes I feel like I'll never get past this.

I don't think mothers who chose to bottlefeed need to come on here and justify themselves.Life is about choices and just because you consider formula 'junk'you don't need to make offensive remarks to others who you know nothing about

Moondog - you really should get out more.

ok
I've ignored this thread for days but it kept cropping up so I thought I'd have a read and I found the article to be very interesting and thought provoking. I agree, thread title was provocative and that's why I'd originally ignored it, but what does everyone think of the article itself?
I wish there had been references because it seems 'way out there' that even in developed countries, and I quote, " Compared to breastfed babies, bottlefed babies are twice as likely to
die from any cause in the first six weeks of life. In particular, bottlefeeding raises the risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) by two to five times. Bottlefed babies are also at a significantly higher risk of ending up in hospital with a range of infections. They are, for instance, five times more likely to be admitted to hospital suffering from gastroenteritis. " Is that really true, particularly about SIDS - I wonder, because so much fuss is made about causes of SIDS that it seems a pretty big one not to find mentioned normally?
I also didn't realise that Scandinavian countries used to have as rubbish bf rates as we do, so that shows a way forward if the govt ever decides it does want to encourage bf in the Uk.

Agree with recent posts.I am very pro bf(both mine bf).I know several people who ended up formula feeding.One cos her milk didnt come in.One who tried heroically but found that after 6 weeks of painful,bleeding nipples she couldnt do it any more.(A whole new thread about bf support for 1st time mums there).Another who just didnt want to breast feed as she felt "embarrassed in public".All felt guilty about ff .Its hard enough being a new mum without being made to feel like a pariah.Of course its lovely to bf,health benefits,developing bond etc etc but its not for everyone.

Fattiemumma, it may make your blood boil, it may make women feel guilty who have such a shocking and tragic event in their lives - but to not say it, just because it's upsetting...that's dangerous and misguided, I think.

There's no truth in saying that formula's as good for babies as breastmilk, in usual and well-supported cicrumstances, because it's not.

But individual circumstances often mean that formula is the best choice for that family.

My ideal would be that every woman who can breastfeed does so.

My difficulty with this subject comes when people say things like (as they have to me), why are you bothering with breastfeeding, you can get milk in tins now, you know. I just want more people to know what is in those tins before deciding to feed it to their babies. I know that often the decision isn't taken lightly, but do you know what? Often, IME, it is. Because nobody talks about what formula is and why bmilk is usually better.

I agree hunker

The article is fully referenced in the Ecologist magazine itself, apparently.

Here's a link to the study showing bottle fed babies 5 times more likely to suffer SIDS

which I found here on the wikipedia SIDS page

This information is shocking but I still maintain we need to hear it.

there's fanjos popping up everywhere ....

Tiktok has read the original article and she says that it's a) accurate and b) properly referenced. (See previous post, oooh, several hundred ago.)

Yes it's the equivalent of turning up for work wearing clown shoes or something isn't it?

hunker - dont get me wrong. i absolutly believe that breats is best.
and yes if there is (as you have linked to) evedence or even the possibilty that formula could cause things like SIDS then yes it should be published and mothers...people in general should be made aware of it.

i think what angered me was the over all tone of the article. it was very sanctimonious and preachy. it was almost set out to make FF mothers feel guilty about their decision/lack of choice.

I dont understand the thinking behind comments you have described Hunker....why wold it be more effort to breastfeed? surely BF is (if you cn do it) the easiest and most conveniant method....no bottles/sterilising/gong out to get and pay for formula...etc

but i still maintain that although i agree women should be encouraged to give bf a try..if they cant or dont wish to continue then they shouldnt be made to feel guilty becasue of it

But 45% of women in this country aren't giving their babies any breastmilk by the time they are 1 week old, fattiemumma. Why do you think that is?

thanks for the SIDS links. so, getting all conspiracy theory about it, how come it is not one of the well known (ok, maybe it is, but I'd never heard of it) preventative measures people can take to protect their children from SIDS. I remember when ds1 and 2 were born that there was lots of fuss about sleeping on back, ideal room temperature etc but not a mention of bottle feeding increasing risk 2-5x. Why are families not being told this routinely along with all the other advice?

There is so much information to pull out of this article. I just re read it and it's not at all anti mums who bottle feed. I hope people don't get overly irritated if I quote again, it's just that lots of you posted you didn't want to read the article
"Women do not fail to breastfeed. Health professionals, health agencies and governments fail to educate and support women who want to breastfeed.

Without support, many women will give up when they encounter even small difficulties. And yet, according to Mary Renfrew, ?Giving up breastfeeding is not something that women do lightly. They don?t just stop breastfeeding and walk away from it. Many of them fi ght very
hard to continue it and they fi ght with no support. These women are fighting society ? a society that is not just bottle-friendly, but is deeply breastfeeding-unfriendly."