Breastfeeding myths-BUSTED

[EdieMcredie]

Im so sick of hearing rubbish about breastfeeding-one of my friends simply didn't breastfeed because she was told some complete rubbish by a HV that put her off-how terrible.

What have you heard/been told about breastfeeding that you later found out was incorrect?

There is truth in the varied and healthy diet bit though, isn't there? There is lots of research on how a maternal diet deficient in vitamin b12 can lead to vitamin b12 deficiency in bf babies (which is a very serious condition)

lol at motherhurdicure, I bet that's it.

How many women/breastfeeding women/babies are actually deficient in B12? I doubt it's very many... I'm vegetarian (so no meat source of B12) and I'm not deficient and neither was ds (my marmite habit probably helped).

I hope it's not many because it's awful when it happens, as it just has to a friend's baby. I'm a vegetarian myself btw.

That bf babies gain less weight! My daughter went from 9th centile at birth to 98th at about 14 weeks onward . She's settled to about 75th now. Fortunately the HV was pretty enlightened and just said "it's just the way she is". Although if she'd been on formula she'd have been the same baby but I'm sure I'd have been nagged about making her obese and overfeeding!

Diet is very tangential to breastfeeding success...women all over the world on marginal diets breastfeed perfectly well, and this has been the case throughout history. Food sufficiency has never been guarenteed for most of the human race, and breastmilk/breastfeeding evolved to cope with vagaries and shortages in the maternal diet with strategies such as storing fat on the body in pregnancy and by ensuring the mother's body 'looks after' the baby first.

Vit B12 dietary deficiency to the extent of affecting a baby's health has got to be rare - in fact, I have never come across a single case.

What happened to your friend's baby, Joppe?

slinkie - if she'd been on formula she would not have been the same baby. Rapid weight gain in a breastfed baby is almost certainly physiological....as your HV said, this is how she is! But you might not be so sure of that with a baby on formula.

If you're vegetarian and not vegan you get plenty of B12 from dairy products and eggs. It's only if you're a very strict vegan that B12 becomes an issue, and even then it's extremely rare.

There is, however, a metabolic disease whereby a baby can't store or process B12, leading to a risk of pernicious anaemia. Is that maybe what happened to your friend Joppe?.

He lost a lot of weight, failed to thrive, became lethargic, regressed developmentally, vomited, and could not swallow. When diagnosed he was hospitalised for nearly two weeks. Fortunately, he does not seem to have lasting effects because it was caught relativey early. However, it appears that it can lead to long-lasting damage of the brain and nervous system. It was all very frightening, and my friend now has lost all confidence in her mothering abilities. The whole thing is pretty awful.

I was also told that eating summer fruits would make my milk acid, that eating raw apples when bfing would make my baby constipated, that eating cooked apples would help her "go" and a thousand other odd things.

The biggest load of tosh I was told but unfortunately believed for a while was that baby gets 70% of his/her milk in the 1st 5mins of bfeeding, too much time on the breast after that would mean that he/her was burning more calories than what he/her was consuming. This was told to me by my DD's first paediatrician. I wonder how many other people fell for that line.

But what makes your friend think it was in any way her 'fault'?

Must have been scary, Joppe.

This is an evidence-based article showing the mother has to be seriously deficient for a long time ('cos you can store B12), due to illness or very strict veganism, and that in rare instances, yes, it affect the baby.

Did this apply to your friend?

Brangelina, this is a common myth among doctors, though the length of time decreed differs...sometimes it's 7 minutes, sometimes 10, sometimes 20, and the 'penalty' for doing this varies. Sometimes mothers are told it makes the baby windy.

All daft, anyway....

Yes it applies. I'll leave this thread now, I'm getting very upset about it all again.

Sorry it's upsetting, Joppe....someone should have explained to a strict vegan mother about B12, though. In my experience, vegans do know about nutrition, and are aware of this from the point of view of their own health, and the ones I have known take supps. If she was not told - and heavens, mothers are pregnant for long enough and have enough contact with a bazillion healthcare professionals - then it's hardly her fault

I was told that drinking grapefruit juice would make my milk acid by my awful HV. i asked her (later, after i'd asked MN! ) "When i drink coke does it make my milk fizzy?"

I was sitting feeding 2yo ds and one of dh's relatives pointed and said "if you want to have another baby, you will have to stop that" It was very hard not to laugh. I had just had a BFP a couple of days earlier.

Not so funny though was that I then went on to have a miscarriage. No doubt she would tell me that it was because I was bf

Message withdrawn

I was told by HV that bf would make it more difficult to look after toddler and that I would be much better with a bottle.
Absolute bobbins, it is way way easier as you have a hand free to play with jigsaws, turn the pages of a story book, change channel to CBeebies etc! Also do not have to worry about boiling water in open containers lurking around the house waiting to pounce on exploring toddler, or greedyguts toddler nicking the bottle and drinking it when your back is turned winding the little one (this happened though with EBM the other day!) Also baby screams for less time at night as I can get her feeding within 30 seconds of waking up, thus minimising risk of waking the other one. Hurrah for BF I say!

Told by the first hospital I had my DS1 in that bf was basically impossible because (a) I had a boy (b) and a E section - yes, there are issues to be aware of with cs and bf, but they were so negative (and then for them to fuck it up and ignore my ds jaundice leading to a near blood transfusion.. not good course he wasn't feeding as he was so sleepy.. hmm!

Took the words of some lovely MNetters for me to then feel confident at having another go with ds2 (now under a week) and some fab staff in a different hospital to realise the stuff I was told first time around was cr@p and they were just plain ignorant and unhelpful.

a boy?? Why would that make a difference? Are they not babies too?

Beemn bfing my ds for nearly 4 weeks, and if I had a pound for every time someone has said "You are giving him formula as well?" I'd be rich!!
Some people cannot seem to accept that breastmilk is a complete food, not something that must be supplemented!
Oh, and was at Bumps and Babes today, was chatting to a very nice lady who bfed all 4 of her kids, 3 of which are still under 5 - she obviously managed fine bfing babies with toddlers around!
This has been interesting reading. I'd been told by MWs not to eat curries or drink fizzy drinks - still haven't quite worked out how the fizz would get into my breast milk

Oh yes - and if it's a big baby then you won't have enough milk for them, they'll be hungry all the time, and if it's a small baby your milk won't be enough for them either cos they'll need fattening up.... Lucky I had 2 dead on average ones then - although both boys martha

I mentioned this on another thread so sorry if already seen but my GP told me some women produce gold top and some produce skimmed. As my baby wasn't gaining weight quick enough I must be one of the skimmed ones! Also, that there's no point bf after 48 hours as all the antibodies get transferred by then. Both GP and HV said supplementing with formula would make Ds gain weight and not affect supply. Good job I ignored all that and just got bfc to correct latch instead! Anna