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Infant feeding

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

Original poster

why dont younger mums breas feed

590 replies

codswallop · 14/11/2004 14:39

on the whole?
18 year ikd nighbour has just had a baby !) musch to her parents horror.. and isnt even trying to b feeed.
why is this?

OP posts:
mieow · 14/11/2004 23:33

thats a lovely story Mears,

MummyToSteven · 14/11/2004 23:33

thanks mears

just thought i would lift the most relevant stat for people's info

"More than three-quarters of mothers aged 30 or over breastfeed their babies compared with less than half of mothers aged 20 or under. "

nailpolish · 14/11/2004 23:33

right. i am not normally someone who takes things to heart but this has made me mad. i breastfed my dd1 for 6 months and was extremely proud. 4 weeks ago i had dd2 and for reasons that are nobodys bloody buisiness i only breast fed her for 1 week. for the next 2 weeks i beat myself up with guilt, sobbed my heart out to dh and dd1 and here on mn. i had lots of support (esp here on mn) and now i am just managing to bottle feed her with pride. thanks a bloody bunch for crashing that down around my ears. i know what you will say, i shouldnt have read this thread but its too late for that now. im off now to ask dh to give dd2 her bottle.

mears · 14/11/2004 23:35

risks - sorry - boobed with last link

Gobbledigook · 14/11/2004 23:36

Nailpolish - don't worry about it, dd will be totally fine!! There's nothing wrong with me!!!

nailpolish · 14/11/2004 23:37

thankyou

mieow · 14/11/2004 23:38

nailpolish I also beat myself up as I only feed DD1 for 2 months (compared to 8 months with Ds and 7 months with Dd2) I had PND, and she was demanding feeds every two hours, and feeding for a hour a time, I couldn't do it anymore, so she went on the bottle, I was happy, she was happy, and she is a big 4 year old now

Gobbledigook · 14/11/2004 23:39

Well I've had none of those things and I was bottle fed.

My mother bottle fed 3 children and has suffered absolutely none of the things listed on here either.

Antibiotics can cause liver failure but how many people do you know that have actually experienced that side effect?

You watch, in 5 years time, opinion will reverse just like it does with which way a baby should go to sleep.

JoolsToo · 14/11/2004 23:40

yes - well its all in the language isn't it?

'may' 'potentially' 'could' not really that definitive is it?

also I object to the term 'artificially fed' there's nothing artificial in holding your baby in your arms and gazing into his/her face whilst you give them some forumla milk.

joanneg · 14/11/2004 23:42

wasn't there a study done about the worrying amount of mercury and chemicals in breast milk? I might have drempt that by the way so dont kill me!

Thanks for the link.

mieow · 14/11/2004 23:44

Artificially-fed babies are at greater risk of:
gastro-intestinal infection

respiratory infections

necrotising enterocolitis

urinary tract infections

ear infections

allergic disease (eczema, asthma and wheezing)

insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

and breastfed babies may have better:
neurological development

DS had gastro-intestinal infection and he was bf

DD2 has allergic disease (eczema, asthma and wheezing) and she was bf

and two of my kids have neurological problems and they were bf

Doesn't prove nothing

nailpolish · 14/11/2004 23:44

people should stop looking down their noses at other people and know that they are not perfect themselves. i feel like everytime i give my daughter a bottle in public i have to stand up and shout out "its not my fault i cant breastfeed" if only they knew.

MummyToSteven · 14/11/2004 23:45

i don't think it was necessarily a study but there was a programme on a fewish months ago to do with breast milk and environmental contaminants, which gave such gems of advice to bfing mums like not to wear dry clean only clothes(!) the programme was only based on 5 women tho, so not really a thorough research project.

joanneg · 14/11/2004 23:45

Ds was recently on an antibiotic for a cold and to be honest the side affects leaflet was a lot worse than the side effects of using formular.

joanneg · 14/11/2004 23:47

tbh I never felt bad about bottlefeeding until I started using mumsnet. When I bottlefed ds in public I didnt feel that anybody was judging me and my family and dh were really supportive. Just here on mumsnet I feel bad about it. Nailpolish - dont feel bad

nailpolish · 14/11/2004 23:48

agree mieow proves f**k all

do people actually doubt the fact that you love your children because you bottle feed? thats the impression i get from some further down the thread

mieow · 14/11/2004 23:49

No-one should feel bad, all right!!??

nailpolish · 14/11/2004 23:50

ok

mieow · 14/11/2004 23:51

I don't think because you choose to bottlefeed you don't love your child as much as someone that does breatfeed, you are raising a child, and if you didn't breastfeed and didn't bottlefeed, then I might say you are a bad mum

nailpolish · 14/11/2004 23:51

still fuming wish i could give these people a good shake - "wake up"

Levanna · 14/11/2004 23:52

This is meant as genuine BTW, but I'm sure that the fact myself and my Dsis breastfed when we had our children (she at just turned 19, and I at 22 and 25) is that we grew up mainly on farms! I'm sure that as we grew up seeing many animals give birth and go on to (obviously ) 'breast' feed their young it struck us as the natural thing to do! After all, the only occasions that a farm animal is usually bottle fed is due to death of the mum, weakness of the young, or a litter that's just too large. (Yes, I have just compared myself and Dsis to cows as this is a private theory, directed totally at us......I admit no liability for possible fall out to follow! )

JulieF · 14/11/2004 23:53

The term artificial feeding is used not to denote the feeding process but the product. It is an "artificial breastmilk substitute" with cows milk as a base.

Anyone genuinely interested in the subject can read a well researched booklet by Maureen Michin called Artificial Feeding: Risky for any Baby? .I think you can order it from La Leche (not sure though). The author advises that you do NOT read this booklet if you are currently bottlefeeding. She has also produced another booklet aimed at health professionals called Towards Safer Artificial Feeding, on how to minimise the risks.

She also has some interesting things to say on the subject of guilt (which came close to the bone with me).

I also feel that is VERY important to understand people's reasons for choosing not to breastfeed. It is only then that these thing can be addressed.
I make a point of telling any HP I come across what was going through my head when I had my daughter in the hope it can help someone else.

nailpolish · 14/11/2004 23:54

this is the real world not some miriam stoppard book come rose tinted manual you get in your bounty pack

maybe i live on a farm

mieow · 14/11/2004 23:54

at the end of the day, there is only two options ad if you can't bf for some reason, what is your other option? My kids went onto bottles after I stopped bf till they were a year old. I suppose these mums who are holier than you, breastfeed till their child are 1 and don't even think about a bottle at all!! grrrr

cardigan · 14/11/2004 23:55

Relating this to young mums - Stats speak for themselves. Need some sort of bf teaching in schools, to see bf in the media, to have celeb mums talk about bf, why not pay mums to bf?? the nhs savings in later years due to better health of mums & babies would more than cover this. Tony Blair are you listening??