Could all the good of breastfeeding be outdone by giving a 7 week old rusk in a bottle of formula?

[imdreamingofawhiteKITTYmas]

Sorry just have to share this, saw friends 7 week old today, doing reakky well she is BFing but giving her a bottle of formula at night. Today she said she was having half a rusk in it as well.

Now I know HVs and MWs don't recommend it now but I was still when she said it. I said you aren't supposed to now and she asked why and I said I think theres a risk of choking didn't go into the allergies thing and basically you are grinding up a sugary biscuit into your babies milk.

Think it's another one of these things that people don't believe a baby can survive on just milk for 6 months.

It'll be interesting to see whether the raised IQ breastfeeding is meant to bestow is outweighed by the hereditary idiocy in this instance.

snort!

Agree with oblomov. She sounds as if she has an odd attitude towards early parenthood and is abdicating some of the responsibilty of decision making to her mum tbh. However if you don't feel you can tackle her about the rusk, let alone the rest, isn't this thread bit pointless ?

I know everyone keeps saying 'but so and so's mum did it' and 'advice keeps changing' but there is a reason it has changed, because it has bene found to be wrong.
Our parents put us to sleep differently but we all follow the SIDS risks don't we???
Advice changes due to more knowledge, not on a whim.

and very often the so called knowledge and advice is subsequently proved to be flawed and wrong TT!!

I thought though that in this instance there is a specific and real risk that the baby can choke to death. Presumably this risk is there every time the bottle with the rusk is given.

Be a bit of a shame if her baby chokes to death because, oh well, the advice changes all the time, live and let live...

(yeah, yeah I know it's a tiny risk but whyyyyyyy would you?)

True wisteria, but hasn't the way babies are put to bed saved lives? and I would assume that after the rusk generation discovering that feeding thme this way can cause dehydration that too will have saved lives.

It is difficult to know what to say. My brother told me a couple of weeks ago that he and his wife put porridge in their 12 week old baby's bottle to make him sleep more and had been doing so "for a few weeks" on my brother's MIL's say-so. This is to make a baby who sleeps 8 hours (7-3) and then another 3 hours every night sleep "from 7-7"!

To my shame I could form no coherent sentence other than "that's awful", which I don't think was constructive . If you are going to say something, please think it through first so you can be more persuasive than me!

On reflection, the main point I would have wanted to make was that if the baby was hungry he probably wanted more milk (for some reason they think he should not have more than 5 bottles per day...) and giving solids in this way must actually reduce the amount of milk he gets. I think it is pretty sad...

By tiktok on Sat 15-Dec-07 22:15:45
Breastfeeding benefits remain, though she is undoing the health impact of exclusive breastfeeding, obviously.

More than that, though, this practice is actively dangerous. It risks overloading the baby's kidneys because the baby is taking in inadequately diluted fluid. This can lead to dehydration and illness. Her health visitor will confirm this.

I think you do need to say something.

just copied and pasted tiktok's post beacsue i think that is the salient point.. ..rusk in the bottle is dangerous

added to that, it is totally, and completely unnecesary and i would personally say something. i am sitll amazed that some parents think that milk is not adequate sustenance for their babies

There is no excuse for putting a rusk in a bottle for a 7 week old. I think you should say something.

It will say on the packet "from 4-6 months". It will also say on the packet how the rusk is to be fed to a baby.

There are no excuses. She should read the packet.

oblomov, thank goodness for a bit of perspective on this thread. of course its not great, but please could we remember that guidelines and cultural norms change.

our daughters and daughters daughters will INEVITABLY think we were absolutely raving bonkers and downright dangerous to do some of the things that we are absolutely sure are right.

perspective ladies. and before someone comes on foaming at the mouth about how this child is now going to be allergic to everything and have a leaky gut and doom doom doom, get a grip. the mother could be a crack whore. she isn't. she could probably do with a gentle steer, but shock and approbation and cries of where did you leave the family braincell are hardly appropriate imo.

don't think that is an excuse for not reading the packet

A "crack whore"?????

sorry. a sex worker addicted to crack cocaine.

you're right vvvqv, not a nice moniker and i shouldn't have used it.

sophable, read tiktok and then the repeat by camilla's post.

THAT is not shock tactics, it is REAL.
It is already causing dehydration.

i repeat. this mother, needs a gentle steer. not shock and approbation. and certainly not insults about her intelligence level.

and how do you know it's causing dehydration just because it can do so?

She does take drugs, so I assume that's not your point with the 'crack whore' comment.......

Maybe it's the sex worker bit, erm as long as she uses condoms it is less likely to hamr her child her being a sex worker than it is putting risks in her bottle tbh.

sophable, what's to say that a sex worker addicted to crack cocaine wouldnt be as good a parent as someone who puts a rusk in their baby's bottle?

I wonder, in fact, who has more of an 'excuse' for not paying attention to basic facts, and thus, who would, in this hypothetical comparison, would make the worse parent.

missed the bit that she took drugs last weekend (ooo, definitely deserves flaying then). I think that having a mother addicted to crack cocaine would be worse for this baby, call me crazy loco!

you know, I am pro-breastfeeding (whatever that means). but sometimes to read this website you'd think that it was the most important parenting factor. it is so far from that.

Did anyone here say anything about how she should breastfeed her baby????
No.
They just said a rusk in a bottle is dangerous, whether it be formula or ebm it is still dangerous!

biscuits in milk for a seven week old. That is the thing I just can't get over... biscuit in milk...

jesus wept, get a grip:

crack babies

dangerous, how dangerous? dangerous like a toddler running into the road? or dangerous i.e. undesirable with sometimes, rare, very bad effects?

i despair a bit here.

i'm not saying she should do it, i'm saying that the reaction is disproportionate in the extreme.

how many deaths per annum from rusks in babymilk?

just go a bit easier on this....this was STANDARD practice a generation ago.