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Infant feeding

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

Original poster

Anyone watching Trevor McDonald Tonight?

60 replies

MadameButterfly · 05/04/2004 20:07

Apparently some breast milk contains harmful toxins

OP posts:
Soozi · 06/04/2004 12:13

Didn't see it but read an article about it in our local quality (?) broadsheet. Misdee you got it in one. We are just bombarded with far too much

Bozza · 06/04/2004 12:23

DH and I have been puzzling over that one too, Lazyeye - what purpose does Trevor McDonald serve on the programme. Only caught last five minutes because was watching Corrie on video (had been putting DS to bed) before next episode. Having read this I'm glad I didn't bother. Was in too minds when I turned the TV on and found out what the subject was - but DH made a pretty shrewd guess as to the content and told me not to bother.

CountessDracula · 06/04/2004 12:29

this was in the Grauniad on Saturday too here

bundle · 06/04/2004 12:33

make a point of not watching Trev's prog.

Freddiecat · 06/04/2004 12:34

I also thought it was a bit rich to ask the NCT woman if there was going to be helpful advice on their website now without providing any information after the programme. None of the "if you have been affected by these issues please call...."

kiwisbird · 06/04/2004 12:41

how do they know cayenne pepper is safe?
LOL

Heathcliffscathy · 06/04/2004 12:49

toddlerbob...fresh milk is an absolutely brilliant book, am glad isn't just me that's read it...on a lighter note and i know i've said this further down, but did you all piss yourselves when earnest thickie presenter turned to woman with obvious taste for heavy make up and said (sagely and slightly wistfully nodding head at same time)..'you had the highest level of fake musk...perhaps you should consider organic make up', i nearly wet myself...it is worth watching progs like this for the laugh you get out of the woeful way they are cobbled together

kiwisbird · 06/04/2004 12:52

its odd though recently I have investigated chemical free cleaning, it been in the press a lot lately, so I think its a band wagonning thing too...
I now associate Sir Trev with lightweight news

Helsbels · 06/04/2004 12:55

if we took all health warnings on board we would never eat or drink anything. We would not do anything. Health science moves on rapidly - how many things have been best one minute and a killer the next - everything gives you cancer, if you don't die of something you eat or drink you die of terminal boredom. Breast has to be best - I hate the idea of breast feeding it makes me feel physically sick but I did it for ds 1 and I will do it for this one if I can. All these scares make me sick. The only thing sure in life is death but it will come a lot quicker if we worry ourselves to death over scams and scares - that are in the main unfounded and that - at best - subject to change at the whim of the next group to look at it

kiwisbird · 06/04/2004 13:10

helsbels, that is pretty interesting, you are really generous doing that for your babies
I know of several women who refused because it did their head in...

eidsvold · 06/04/2004 13:16

i would be very curious to know who funded the research.. this was so obviously biased and not even statistically sound... saying to mothers - you have a higher reading than someone else..... that could be 0.00002 as opposed to 0.00001... just another thing to make mothers worry about.

dinosaur · 06/04/2004 13:16

oh dear I'm five and a half months pregnant and I'm sitting here at work wearing a newly-drycleaned jacket - aargh!

Helsbels · 06/04/2004 13:26

thanks Kiwisbird, it is unusual for people to say that - usually they just say - oh it's natural- get on with it. Only my dad ever understood - though dh would support me either way I know that he thinks I should feed.

GeorginaA · 06/04/2004 13:34

[flippant comment alert]
Oh well, I'm okay! When there's a newborn in the house, I'm lucky if I get out of my pyjamas and into the shower, let alone put ANY makeup on, organic or not
[end of flippant comment]

GeorginaA · 06/04/2004 13:35

... and as for cleaning...

susanmt · 06/04/2004 13:39

Thats OK dinosaur. You wont want to wear dry clean clothes if you breastfeed - you will have too much milk running down your front (probably!! - hopefully!!)

grumpyzebra · 06/04/2004 13:43

I didn't see the programme --we're they implying that breastmilk today contains more of the lethal toxins than 10, 20, 30 or more years ago? Surely all the studies that concluded "beast is best" were done on women that (on average) also had high levels of toxins in their milk? So then breast is still demonstrated to be best, in spite of the contaminants?

I know that when I was trying to understand dioxin contamination in breastmilk, that was my conclusion, but don't know what all chemicals the programme mentioned.

I would have thought not eating meat/poultry/fish would reduce contamination at least, since no one else has mentioned that... I'm not vegetarian myself, btw, but cutting down or eliminating meat is obviously a relatively simple choice any of us could make.

tiktok · 06/04/2004 15:20

I can't believe how complacent some of you are. This is not some stupid scare story, designed to make you feel guilty. It's not politically led to belittle you. It's not sponsored by anyone. Yes, of course breastfeeding is healthier than formula milk for all sorts of reasons, and formula milk brings with it its own risks of contaminants..and there is little we can do about it, practically.

And that is the point.

It is a scandal that industrial production - which makes millions and millions and millions of profits for small numbers of people in the world, and which is largely outside our control, may be demanding, as a price, our own health and that of our children's. A joke? I don't think so.

It is a price we have no option but to pay, unless we are to decide not to have children at all - the greatest transfer of toxins is in utero, after all.

I think it's a tragedy, and it's one which is well-documented and has been for many years now.

Yes, breastfeeding is the healthy option and there are many demonstrable risks of not choosing it - but it could be so much healthier if we had the choice not to produce contaminated milk without the hard work suggested to detoxify.

Moomin · 06/04/2004 15:54

I don't see it as complacency, tiktok. I think here on mumsnt more than anywhere you are going to get an intelligent and non-hysterical reaction to what was a trashy piece of what woefully passes for so-called journalism these days.
Am I just being thick or, if all these toxins are in our bodies from being in our environment anyway, unless we keep our children in sterile bubbles, won't they end up with toxins in their system anyway?
I'm not saying that this is in anyway ok, btw. But I do feel the onus should be on the companies that pollute our surroundings to do something about it for all our sakes. I feel quite disgusted that the programme was presented in this way which will make many women feel very uneasy about breastfeeding when they should be safe in the knowledge that they are starting their babies off in the best way they can.

hercules · 06/04/2004 16:10

I would be far more concerned if the gov hid research from us in order not to make anyone feel guilty. This info wont stop me bf as I would be far more unhappy and concerned using formula. It would worry me more if someone watched one program and based their decision soley on that piece of research rather than looking at all the other research that shows the benefits of bf. I'm sure some will be scaremongered but that doesnt mean we are not entitled to be kept uptodate with findings.

I was under the impression mumsmnet was made up of a whole cross section of society so why should all discussions be intelligent and non hysterical? (i'm not saying either way for tjis one).

bayleaf · 06/04/2004 16:21

It's not the facts that caused me to react, it was the way they were presented.
One of my friends describes Trevor McDonald as 'Panorama for Sun readers' and that's about the long and the short of it. The language used was extremly inflammatory and the whole 'feel' of the programme was very ''probably safer not to breast feed after all'' despite the token admissions that it was still the healthier option.

bundle · 06/04/2004 16:24

the style of the trev prog is very one-sided - think of the diana, michael barrymore interviews, where views/opinions go unchallenged, it makes for better more extreme and grabby programming I suppose is their thinking. as a journalist you're always trained to check facts and have someone from the 'other side' on, so this style of prog goes against the grain for me.(didn't watch this particular one, so I don't know if that is the case here)

hercules · 06/04/2004 16:24

Have to admit I didnt see it so my comments below probably arent too worthwhile anyway!

Blu · 06/04/2004 17:06

As Toddlerbob and Tiktok have said, it's long been known that bm contains chemicals which are stored in fat, wasn't there research a generation ago that showed that bm had levels of DDT (a now discontinued pesticide)high enough to stop it being imported, or something? I think this IS an important point, not to guilt-trip or panic us poor beleaguered parents, but to pressurise gvts and manufacturers about chemical pollution, and to help us make decisions. I have always hated air fresheners, but my objections are much stronger now that I know they contain chemicals which stay in the body. I agree that the presentation was maddening but we shouldn't blank the message cos we don't like the medium. The emphasis should have been on eliminating chemicals - the way they did it will certainly have deterred people from bf, I would think.

kiwisbird · 06/04/2004 17:12

I think what would have been more resposnible would have been for agencies and the Gov't to sponsor a campaign to encurage people as a whole to reduce on contaminants. To force fuit and veg growers and meat producers to limit chemicals, to educate people about whats in house cleaning products, I have already changed a lot of things in my routine to avoid some contaminants as I do believe we are loaded with more, but to isolate b/f as one main issue is irresponsible!