What are the Benefits of long term breastfeeding?

[RaRaTheNoisyLion]

Has anyone any research or information I can send to my ds' ignorant pig of a consultant who advised me to wean and when I refused suggested I expressed and bottle fed my 21month old.

I don't think there is anything you can do with consultants except smile, nod and carry on as before.

I don't disagree, but I do feel compelled to send him some literature at the very least and to ask him to reconsider the very minor surgery that will save our breastfeeding relationship he finds so unnecessary.

You could start with the WHO advice.
Is there a medical reason he thinks you should wean or was it just gratuitous advice??

This goes up to 2 years www.nct.org.uk/sites/default/files/related_documents/Reasons%20to%20be%20Proud%20FINAL%20WITHOUT%20BLEED.pdf

Sorry www.nct.org.uk/sites/default/files/related_documents/Reasons%20to%20be%20Proud%20FINAL%20WITHOUT%20BLEED.pdf

x-post I see now.

This sort of view has to be challenged. Smiling and nodding just allows him to say the same stupid thing to the next person.

RaRa, you don't have to show him research - it's him who should be explaining to you with research why a 21-mth-old is better off on a bottle of ebm, rather than 'direct' bf. It makes no sense at all. He should also be explaining why milk from another species would be preferable to human milk.

Of course breastmilk and breastfeeding bring benefits to your toddler - why on earth would they not? You are doing something entirely normal. If he does not approve, he has to explain why.

I suggest a simple letter to this effect.

And this kellymom.com/ages/older-infant/ebf-benefits/

Are you seeking a tongue tie snip?

One more abm.me.uk/breastfeeding-information/breastfeeding-your-toddler/

He made me listen to the letter he dictated. He said he does not believe that there is a tongue tie (lactation consultant said there was a posterior tie), and that the lip tie wasn't causing tooth marks in the base of my nipple, it was the fact that he was breastfeeding with teeth.

I was expecting ignorance tbh, though the appointment was a surprise as I thought I was seeing a paediatrician for referrals for speech delays, but ended up seeing an oral surgeon.

He admitted he knew nothing about breastfeeding and I should go back to my GP and request another referral to a lactation specialist.

I asked him how I could marry up his ignorance of bfing with it's relevance to surgery and he said it was a matter for my GP or I could request a second opinion.

I don't expect to win this. I won't even try. However I do want to write a letter of polite challenge and chip away at the ignorance.

I also want that silly nurse to attend some training on bfing. As an oral surgeons nurse she really ought to not make silly suggestions about bottle feeding a baby of 21 months who has never had a bottle.

If it's a tongue tie problem, head over to the facebook tongue tie babies support group. They will point you in the direction of people who actually know what they are talking about.

Bottles are not recommended after the age of 12 mths - this is official NHS advice and you can reference it. It would be a very unusual step to introduce one to a 21 mth old who had never had one.

Just write a calm, polite letter expressing your disappointment with the lack of knowledge shown by the surgeon and his nurse - you can say you understand that not all specialists can be fully informed of every related specialism, but you do expect them to refrain from expressing opinions that are within these unknown areas.

Express your confidence that you have elected to continue breastfeeding, in line with current national and international recommendation, that many parents in the 21st century UK do the same, and you are disappointed that he was unwilling to ensure the experience was made more comfortable for you.

Thank you for the links Through.

And thanks for the facebook information Maw.

I'll trawl through them both and see if I can come up with some research or guidelines.

Tiktok I'll write a letter similar to the one you suggested.

However, his professional opinion was that the toothmarks in my nipple were caused by breastfeeding with teeth, not a tie of any kind.

I explained that I had fed my older two with teeth with no problem and he said that the difference was down to individual differences.

That might be true. But this individual difference is causing pain. He denies the not flanging the upper lip can cause pain, and insists it is just because he has teeth EVEN THOUGH I told him I had pain long before the teeth but that the teeth had made it worse.

I got a feeling that he was actually enjoying sitting on his high horse and contributing to the end of breastfeeding. It really seemed like that though it could just be my perception.

And the nurse was bloody argumentative with her bottle and expressing and nonsense and jumping in all over the place.

Like I said, I don't expect to win this and am trying to not get emotional about it because I know it is the system, and ignorance more than anything else, and that better, more able women than me have not yet been able to convince an unwilling consultant to change their opinion.

But at the same time I don't feel I can let it go without insisting on some level of accountability.

Do you have a breastfeesing help clinic or infant feeding coordinator at the same hospital as the consultant you saw?

I volunteer at my local nhs bf drop in clinic and when mums voice their experiences with other health care professionals, that were lacking or incorrect, the lactation consultant informs them as a follow up. Especially with hospitals working towards being baby friendly, the UNICEF initiative.

No. There is no breastfeeding clinic there. But perhaps there is a breastfeeding 'expert' somewhere in the hospital that I could try and find. Good idea.

They have a funded breastfeeding clinic but it is run by a specialist HV who when I visited at 6months seemed more keen on diagnosing PND than tongue or lip tie and refused to weigh my baby on the basis that it wasn't a baby clinic.

Ra, now you have given more details, I can see it would prob be best to keep your opinion of his professional judgement out of the letter - he is presumably commenting within his specialism, even if you or others would disagree with his conclusion. Your beef with him and his nurse were their ill-informed comments on your bf.

RaRa

I think calling the Consultant an 'ignorant pig' is a bit uncalled for.

He has assessed your DC and has stated that in his opinion they do not have a tongue tie which might be contributing towards the painful breastfeeding.

It seems unlikely to me that if he had actually detected a tongue tie at a level that would normally warrant a child undergoing surgery that he would have lied about it, whether his level of knowledge about breastfeeding.

It seems reasonable given the fact that you have expressed your disagreement with his assessment to signpost you back to the GP, a lactation consultant or a second opinion.

I was completely unable to breastfeeding either of my Dc due to an undiagnosed thyroid condition which is very unfortunate but I would not want to accuse any of my DC's of being an ignorant pig, it's just so unpleasant!!

Any of my Doctors, not DC's!

Yes. Tiktok, I agree. The information was for here, not for the letter iyswim.

I just hoped to send him a bit of information that might help him to adjust his professional opinion iyswim for the next person.

I offered to show him a feed. He got all funny about that and offered me a private room. The first thing he said when I entered the room was 'You are STILL feeding him?' which he repeated several times before saying 'We'll you'll have to wean him at some point you know!?'

I felt disliked for the very fact that I fed my baby, before we got onto any discussion about anything else.

My baby has also been referred for speech therapy for not having the full range of sounds. He wrote that his speech delay was the result of slow brain processing.

That might be true (though I doubt it actually, as I am a lay-expert in such disorders) but I was very confused by the apparent expertise in brain processing issues of an oral surgeon.

Perhaps he was just an arse!?

He was ignorant, demonstrably and arrogantly so. That justifies a 'pig' label.

Professional opinions can be given in a variety of ways. I am aware that his opinion is a fairly standard one amongst his colleagues and that alone is not what has made me cross, - though that alone I realise is really the only thing I can hope to chip away at.