bf in the news again, for increasing intelligence

[robinredbreast]

so far its been on bbc1
radio 1
yahoo homepage

three cheers for breast feeding

also i thought alison baum who was interview on bbc1 put the message across so well, so tactfully done

well done alison,ive already signed your bf manifesto

tiktok - couldn't agree more (and that's speaking as a GP). It'd be a disaster - the vast majority have NO IDEA!

C'mon lets be honest about it breast feeding ISN'T best!
WHAT I hear you all say, no it's not best - it's normal and natural, what isn't natural is formula feeding. But I will defend to the sky any womans choice to BF or FF. I was lucky enough to be able to BF both my DS's with no real problems, and will sing it's praises for as long as I can draw breath but for those who can't it's such a shame that there isn't a decent support network available through the NHS. But there are organisations like the breast feeding Network or the La Leche League who are there to help and support woman who do chose to breastfeed.

do you need help and support to ff? (this is a genuine question btw, not sarcastic) I can see your point teenybf, but I can't envisage what this organisation would actually do.

I am being honest: Breast IS best ... for baby.

i see formular baby milk as a medicine, and therefore should be treated as such.

at the moment, such critical knowledge about baby milks and their contents is part of commerical interests and not the interests of the baby using it.

regulation falls between food and medicine departments in governement and neither department is willing to take on their very wealthy and powerful formular milk organisations. therefore, baby milk companies regulate themselves.

how is that a good thing for babies?

if there is one 'good' ingredient benefical to babies, surely all formular milk should have it in.

surely, the health of babies should be paramount, not commerical interests?

[see babymilkaction for more details]

Teeniebf, Breast IS best, it really is.
It certainly isn't normal though, unfortunately.

Teenie, there is no NHS network for supporting breastfeeding women - it's all done through volunteer groups. There are locally-organised peer supporters, who are all volunteers, too.

How would an NHS network to specifically support formula feeding work? What would this network do?

on a slight tangent, did you see the very good article about extended breast-feeding in the Telegraph yesterday? Non-weiry and non-sensationalist, just a nice article from a mum who's chosen not to wean her baby off the breast. (only slight gripe was a bit of gaff with reference to WHO guidelines)

We bash the papers so much for publishing non-bf friendly articles, I think kudos to the Telegraph for doing a good piece.

yep, nice telegraph piece except for the hideous mistake that WHO only recommends BF for 6mths....

here's the link:

www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2007/11/12/hmummy112.xml

although to be fair, they did correct the WHO bit in a sidebar with the proper advice about going on until 2. Not sure why they didn't correct the body of the article though.

Hi joining in rather late, but felt I must come in re. the class/educated bit and b-f. I know a lot of middle class & educated and there is an even split between bf and ff. Met a few working class mums who may not be educated but want what is best for baby and who bf. One mum who had her baby the same day as me in the same hospital had huge problems bf ( inverted nipples etc.) but was adamant that she would bf. Lots of help from mid wives at birthing centre and when I met her again 6 months later she was still bf. Not middle class not 'educated' but sensible and persistant.
Re. Docs, my Gp suggested I give up bf because I was soooo tired and anaemic. I had a go back and told him to try giving me some iron tablets since their was no reason for me to stop since me and ds were rather good at bf. I also changed GP to a nice woman who has been helpful and supportive.
Bf is bloody hard work and if my conscience would have let me I would have stopped long ago, but I wanted a baby and what is best for him and to some extent me. Please don't attack anyone for their choices but do listen with sympathy to others experiences. We have to allow people to be where they are and allow their own choices to be.
As for us now ds is neearly 10 months has two big bf and one bottle of soya formula as he is milk intolerent. The bottle is because he cannot get enough milk from me of an evening and was getting very hungry and not putting on weight. I am a pragmatist, his needs come first not my wishes.
Good luck to you all bf or ff or a mixture!