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Infant feeding

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

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

542 replies

moondog · 28/07/2006 17:36

From The Ecologist magazine.

Here.....

Grim reading.

OP posts:
ks · 28/07/2006 19:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

tiktok · 28/07/2006 19:20

Moondog has supported me in the past so I am sad if what I said to her seems unfair. I don't think anyone's sincerity or passion should outweigh their common sense about what is likely to be provocative in a bad way, though.

Calling formula 'junk' is not the same as casting aspersions on fruit shoots or sausage rolls - for goodness sake, cataloguequeen, does it have to be spelled out for you? The milk that's fed to a baby is all bound up with people's feelings about themselves as mothers, the hopes they have to breastfeed and society's f**d up view of the way women are 'allowed' to use their breasts to nourish their babies....it is never the same as the choice to buy a Gregg's sausage roll or to make your own with wholemeal pastry and oragnically-raised pork.

Of course mumsnet should discuss the way formula is made, the way it is marketed, and the way too many women end up feeling they have no choice but to use it.

But here, of all places, we should be able to do it without hurting people or insulting them.

The true facts about formula's impact on health are disturbing (there's nothing 'supposedly' about it, 1Baby1Bump), and all the more so because they're 'hidden'. We can be grown up about it all, without chucking upsetting terms about.

Xavielli · 28/07/2006 19:21

Never has a drop of milk passed from my breast and I am offended neither by the title or the article.

I am glad this article is here for new mums choosing whether or not to BF or FF, I hope they BF. But for a new mum who has no milk I would have felt very distressed at the time.

Blu · 28/07/2006 19:21

FFS.

If you DO want people to know facts they might not know, this isn't the way to get them to hear. It will simply preach to a smug band of the converted.

Make you feel good, does it?

I am not against campaigning and education to increase and support breastfeeding. People like TikTok actually put their money where thier loud mouth is and help and support women in a sympathetic and constructive manner. Your thread title is simply shrill trumpeting, moondog.

ComeOVeneer · 28/07/2006 19:24

research into malocclusion associated with bottle feeding

Tinker · 28/07/2006 19:24

"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."

That bit stuck out for me. Er, hang on, think there might be a little more to it than that.

1Baby1Bump · 28/07/2006 19:26

can someone please tell me what i have done to my child by giving him formula?
i didnt know i had damaged him.

Carmenere · 28/07/2006 19:29

Don't stress 1bump, I'm sure you did your best for your child, which is much more important than stuff you will read on a website.

Mercy · 28/07/2006 19:32

Xavielli and Blu, yes

1baby, you have not damaged your baby

bosscat · 28/07/2006 19:32

You haven't 1bump don't worry. More mad musings from the self appointed food authoritarian that is moondog.

yawn

Greensleeves · 28/07/2006 19:34

That's rather spiteful bosscat. Not helpful to anyone, really.

1Baby1Bump · 28/07/2006 19:34

well thank god for that as i didnt choose to use formula- i had to.

bosscat · 28/07/2006 19:34

have you actually read the OP Greensleaves? I think that's the definition of spiteful.

marthamoo · 28/07/2006 19:36

I'm all for encouraging women to breastfeed, and raising awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding but that article is just poorly written scaremongering. I've never read The Ecologist and won't be getting a subscription any time soon if that's the kind of journalism they carry.

And I know I shouldn't personalise this but two of my closest friends didn't breastfeed - and they are brilliant mothers who do the absolute best they can for their children, like we all do. One of them has such terrible guilt at what she sees as her 'failure' to breastfeed - she tried so hard. Articles like this, with such inflammatory use of language, help no-one.

Greensleeves · 28/07/2006 19:37

Of course I've read it. I think the same as most people, that it's a bit OTT, but i agree with Spidermama that it's moondog's personal style - she is passionate about nutrition - and it's certainly not personally spiteful towards one poster. Tactless perhaps, but she is trying to raise an issue well worth debating.

Your post is just spiteful, nothing else.

marthamoo · 28/07/2006 19:38

You can be passionate about something without being so scathing about other peoples' choices.

1Baby1Bump · 28/07/2006 19:38

thats what got my back up in the first place.
it seems so ott.

formula babies have higher chance of dying in first 6 weeks or whatever it said.

christ. my son had formula and slept on his belly as he would not sleep any other way....
now shoot me down. i dont deserve kids.

Greensleeves · 28/07/2006 19:39

I'm not disputing that. I just think allowing the thread to descend into a personal slanging match, completely bypassing the article and the issue, is childish and pointless

marthamoo · 28/07/2006 19:40

But we do childish and pointless so well on MN...

SenoraPostrophe · 28/07/2006 19:40

oh well said, marthamoo. I was trying to think of how to put the same sentiment myself.

SenoraPostrophe · 28/07/2006 19:41

O meant the post about being passionate without being scathing. not the one about being childish.

so ner.

bosscat · 28/07/2006 19:41

oh get off your high horse greensleaves

munz · 28/07/2006 19:41

now reading that I don't know if to stop feeding at 6 months and give the boy formual as planned.

I feel for the ppl who can't BF, I was/am lucky to have the choice but not all ppl do.

if it is so bad etc and supposadly junk what are the ladies who can't BF ment to give their children?

Greensleeves · 28/07/2006 19:41

Oh, OK then

Fuck.
Arse.
Cunt.

SenoraPostrophe · 28/07/2006 19:42

gs: I think the thread was rather combative from the outset don't you?