"it is important that, in preparation for and during breastfeeding, you eat a healthy, balanced diet"

[harpsichordcarrier]

or so it says on the "important information" on some HCP stuff Cow and Gate sent me to give out to parents.
but that's VERY misleading isn't it? it might imply that if you haven't eaten a healthy diet during pregnancy, you shouldn't bf? that formula would be better alternative?
it just seems a weird thing to have on a formula notice.
I am thinking of complaining - what do you think?

There have been loads of posts on MN and other places by women saying 'I don't eat very well. I think my milk must be rubbish. Should I change to formula'. It is a very effective tactic as it does worry women. It is clearly NOT designed to reassure. It is designed to make women think their milk is rubbish so they should use formula, or that breastfeeding is complicated and fragile and formula is easier and more reliable. Neither are acceptable messages IMO.

ok, im sorry. you are not naive. but you do seem to be very sensitive about this. nobody, so far as i can tell, is getting at you or anyone else for using formula, so please dont take this thread personally.

i think what sorrell and HC and other people have said is true and its insidious. when HCP's say stuff like that, its for other reasons.

That's my knuckles rapped then.

I think MI was being humorous when she made that comment about big business, Wordsmith...

And it isn't the role of formula companies to give out diet and lifestyle advice to breastfeeding women. You can't get away with 'it's only what doctors say'. (And actually it isn't what any sensible doctor would say - everyone should eat a healthy diet, there's no special requirement for b/f mothers).

here, let me heal those sore knuckles with some breastmilk.
cures everything, donchaknow.

Hang on, I did breastfeed, successfully - and bottle feed too when I decided to change - so I don't feel 'got at' at all! I just think the conspiracy theory is getting a little out of hand....

It's hardly a conspiracy theory to think that when a formula company is marketing its product it is not going to try to make the rival product sound slightly less desirable, is it?

i just think that if anyone's over-reacting to anything, its you wordsmith, sorry

(I like your halloween name btw Nappies)

Of course it's good advice but it's being doled out by a formula company who IMO should keep their noses out of b/feeding advice as they could be tempted by an ulterior motive.

gee, thanks

Formula manufacturing is a legitimate business, or it was last time I looked. you may not like it, but it has the right to market its products. There are certain legal requirements it has to conform with which few other businesses have to worry about (except cigarettes and alcohol), ie no advertising, so in that respect it is already bracketed with mood altering and death-inducing drugs. it's amazing anyone in their right mind chooses formula, isn't it?

Perhaps businesses such as this do need to choose more creative ways of getting their message across (or insidious, depending on your viewpoint) but if this is still too much for some, those who persist in seeing breast vs bottle as a battleground need to work a bit harder to get their own message across rather than knocking the 'opposition'.

It's not a conspiracy theory. I do words for a living, and I'm interested in how they're used and in what context. I understood you did too.

And call me Rosa Luxemburg and wrap me in mohair if you must, but I do actually think that businesses are about making money.

MRS Spoon I am sure most formula companies would like nothing better than not to have to go on about breastfeeding.

MI - exactly, they are there to make money, so why is everyone so surprised that they try and promote their product? That's where the naivety lies in my opinion.

I was going to bed half an hour ago...

I'm not surprised Wordsmith.
who is surprised?
I think it's wrong, that's all.

oh fgs. ok then, yes it is a battlegound. and co's with big marketing budgets are on a level playing field with isolated sleep deprived guilt ridden new mothers. of course youre right, why couldnt i see it before?

I'm actually finding this thread very reassuring. dd and I are now enjoying nearly two years on our special chocolate-with-everything diet (all through pregnancy, all through 12 months of bf) and I have felt slightly anxious that maybe a little more liquid broccoli should be passing through my norks (not anxious enough to put the snickers bar down, obviously, but still...). I have almost convinced myself that this is the secret of her calm-smiley-cuddly disposition (she really is the NICEST baby), though it is also of course the cause of my out-and-proud joey pouch. Do you think it's true that chocolate eaten in pregnancy boosts babies' serotonin levels? Will the effect continue if I just keep haunting Hotel Chocolat, and bf, for years?

As for Cow & Gate, hell yes you should complain.

Great. First you said anyone who disagreed with you was a conspiracy theorist. Now you seem to be admitting the companies are using this line to sell their products but have moved on to calling anyone who thought that in the first place stupid.

No-one's asking them to stop selling their products, but to do so honestly, without trying to evade the rules or undermine people who don't use formula.

if by "more creative ways of getting their message across" you mean undermining breastfeeding then, yes, I do object, on ethical grounds.
of course it isn't a level playing field.
that's why the codes of practice are in place.

Of course they're trying to promote their product. That's fine, I think.

But when they do it by undermining women from before they've even had their babies - no, not on. As Harpsi says "preparing for breastfeeding" is a meaningless phrase. Reading a good book about bfeeding, learning kellymom.com by heart and having the numbers of the NCT, BFN, LLL and ABM handy are FAR better preparation - does it say that on the tins, no it jolly well does not because they are all totally achievable things to do and not as guilt inducing as bringing one's postnatal diet into the equation, which, as MI has put it so aptly is a time of grey blur of horror and best survived on fishfingers, Ripples, party rings and M&S chocolate crunch cereal, iirc.

Green and Blacks Maya Gold.
JAmmie Dodgers

Not a JD fan, I have to say. I find the eyes a bit scary and the jam is weird. Prefer the ones with buttercream in too. Iced gems now...

or indeed, anything nice that is made for you, rather than by you. someone said that. its true.

i read JD as Jack Daniels for a second there... thought, whoa, this has gone off on a tangent..!