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Infant feeding

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

This has made me really sad, I just have to share it with someone.

77 replies

LadyVictorianSqualor · 31/01/2008 13:01

the amount of misinformation on this thread that has been given by supposed HCPS

OP posts:
tiktok · 31/01/2008 13:42

Good work by the mumsnet emigrants!!

LardyMardyDaisy · 31/01/2008 13:43

good post LVS.

mountsfieldmum · 31/01/2008 13:44

pretty shocking stuff. as a doctor working in neonatology i was particularly put out by the doctor (GP?) who advised adding 2 spoons of brown sugar in the bottle as a cure for constipation!
any healthcare professional should refrain from advising about formula. all the brands are pretty much the same and none of them compare to the goodness of breastmilk.
many mums are worried about their 'hungry' babies. these babies often end up overweight or even obese, being fed huge amounts of formula. i've sometimes spent ages with parents in clinic trying to work out a plan to reduce the amount of formula their babies are taking.
current advice is not to wean a baby before 6 months. weaning is a minefield when it comes to advice. my own mother was telling me to give my son babyrice when he was only 6 weeks old. apparently i had it when i was a baby!! i was also never breastfed and was on soyamilk, all things i am disappointed about, but my mum was gravely ill for a month following my delivery, so it couldn't be helped.

hunkermunker · 31/01/2008 14:07

It's not confined to that thread

There is SO much ignorance out there - and I mean that in the sense of "unaware of the facts through no fault of one's own".

At least the HV in this case seems to be slightly more on the ball...

Is it wrong of me to have the word "demographic" in my head now though?

hunkermunker · 31/01/2008 14:14

The nighttime milk though - saw on the other thread Tiktok had posted it contains potato flakes and rice starch. It will be fed to babies younger than 6m, won't it?

bobsmum · 31/01/2008 14:19

Stripey - my SIL weaned my nephew (5 weeks prem) at 9 weeks on the advice of her GP - he said it would "cure colic"

Nephew is now 4 and is in hospital a couple of times a months with various respiratory problems of one kind or another

Lulumama · 31/01/2008 14:19

erm, yes.

we need a mumsnet weaning roadshow

potato flakes, so like Smash in a bottle.

really good for young babies

claireybee · 31/01/2008 14:26

Forgot to say-my friend that breastfed thinks that the breast is best message is a load of bollocks because her little boy had gastro bugs as a baby, is allergic to wheat, gets excema and has constant chesty colds. Maybe if she hadn't weaned him at 5 weeks and had exclusively breastfed it would be different and she would see more of the benefits. She is 23 weeks pregnant now and is going to formula feed this one because she doesn't believe breastfeeding has any health benefits and has been swayed by stories of ff babies lasting 4 hours between feeds, self settling from birth and sleeping through at only a few weeks old

StripeyMamaSpanx · 31/01/2008 14:33

Bobsmum - her dd is now 5 and allergic to various things, has asthma and has had to have grommets fitted after repeated glue ear.

But her mum would never connect the two, and I'd never suggest it to her.

purplejennyrose · 31/01/2008 14:33

'Demographic'...hmmm...difficult one...
I work in an area of very high social deprivation with all the associated problems, and I do come across a significant amount of mums who seem totally unaware or seem not to care about guidelines etc and who have very different priorities - sometimes understandably. Breastfeeding rates are I think absolutely minimal. Very often it's a reflection of wider issues in parenting and daily life - preoccupation with 'bigger issues' eg poor housing, crime levels; -mistrust of professionals in general including health, low literacy...I am working with the 'hard to reach / vulnerable' families though, so an extreme of an extreme if you like!!
Having said all that, I was offered a huge amount of misinformation when I had my own dd, from people in very much the same 'demographic' as myself, albeit older in some cases.
If there really are health visitors etc giving out information such as on those threads, that is very worrying.And if TEsco are in any way promoting milks like this...well, that would just prove everything I think about Tesco I'm afraid...

tiktok · 31/01/2008 14:57

Without outing myself, I have professional experience (and NCT-related experience) supporting mothers in very deprived circumstances, and actually, some of them do breastfeed. Only a very few do it more than enough to get on the radar though - an HV I worked with studied the bf habits of the poorest ward in the city and was amazed to find something like a third of the mothers had started to bf. But of course they had stopped by the time their HV got anywhere near them.

Another midwife I knew well worked in a similar area and got the initiation rate up to about 60 per cent (from about 10 per cent) in about five years. She put mothers in touch with other mothers, gave out huge praise and was loved enough by her clientele for them to give it a go....and some of them found they loved it.

Some mothers - the ones who don't use the web very much, the ones who don't read much, not even magazines - truly do not even think they can breastfeed. I mean, they know enough to know that breasts make milk and that babies can drink from them, but they just don't think they can. If they do have a go, it feels crazy to them, and of course they are highly vulnerable to accusations of being disgusting, of not having enough, of needing to top up etc etc etc.

So nurturing the doubting ones, the under-confident ones, the threatened ones who start but who then crumble on day 1 or 2, seems to me to be important. Why should anyone need to have buckets of confidence just to breastfeed?

hunkermunker · 31/01/2008 14:59

PJR, I meant the people who would post on Tesco.com, not a bf/ff class divide. I'm equally snooty about all sorts of other parenting forums though

hunkermunker · 31/01/2008 15:03

And, atually, it was a wildly unhelpful and tongue-in-cheek comment in the first place, so I shall retract it.

tiktok · 31/01/2008 15:03

hunk, mumsnet is deffo a diff demographic to other forums, inc Tesco...

tiktok · 31/01/2008 15:04

All you need do is look at the advertisers who choose the websites to advertise on.

Bet there is no Boden on tesco.....;)

This is why Aptamil tried to link with Mumsnet - 'cos it is the would-be posho formula.

hunkermunker · 31/01/2008 15:05

That it is, Tiktok, that it is.

hunkermunker · 31/01/2008 15:07

Oh, the Aptamil ding-dongs - they thought we bought Boden and would swallow any shite they spouted, didn't they?

tiktok · 31/01/2008 15:11

LOL

As if wearing a knee-length velvet flippy skirt addles your brain....

flamingtoaster · 31/01/2008 15:16

My SIL (20 years ago) started her 6 week old baby babyrice because she was breastfeeding him and "couldn't keep up with him", and didn't want the hassle of bottles. Even though I didn't have children at that stage I was horrified. I can't believe that so many years later, with the knowledge and communciation methods we have today, that people are still doing this sort of thing!

purplejennyrose · 31/01/2008 15:17

Oh I know you meant the Tesco forum demographic, and I know it was tongue in cheek hunker, it's just for me there was some truth behind it!! I do work with some Mums who breastfeed, too...
Anyway, sun's come out here so off tho the park with me!!

hunkermunker · 31/01/2008 15:35

I'm saying nothing about hotchpotch tops

aurorec · 31/01/2008 15:41

I think to some mothers it's some sort of competition, how early can baby sleep through the night, how early can baby eat solids etc.

My mother is very proud to tell my siblings and I that we were on solids (meat according to her) at 8 weeks, and it was great.

She sees all current health recommendations as fads, not science. She's equally skeptical of the sleeping on the back thing, because we all slept on our tummies as children.

She's also convinced that the reason my daughter took almost 2 years to sleep through the night (as opposed to my perfect nephew who was FF from 8 weeks specifically so he could sleep longer) is because she was nursed on demand for over a year.
Her evidence? One of her neighbours has 4 kids, they were all FF apart from one, and the BF baby was the one who never slept well.

aurorec · 31/01/2008 15:44

For the record my DD was BFed exclusively for 6 months, by 10 weeks she was sleeping 11-7 waking up for a quick feed then back to sleep till lunch... It was bliss! I got a lie-in every morning.
Then she started teething (at 6 months she had 4 teeth) and that was the end of that....

Lulumama · 31/01/2008 16:21

re the thread from the other forum linked to in the OP, the babyclub ed has posted this ( thank the lord!!)

Hi Kirsty,

Firstly, congratulations on baby Jake and thanks for posting on our forum.

Just to echo the most recent posts: government advice suggests that a baby should exclusively be fed breast or formula milk until he is six months old. Unless advised by a professional otherwise, babies should not be weaned onto solid foods until then. Putting rusks into a bottle is a dangerous choking hazard and is no way recommended.

I am sorry to hear you don't get on with your HV, but please do try to make an appointment with your GP for advice tailored specifically for you and your little one.

Wishing you the best of luck and please continue chatting!

BabyClub Ed
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LadyVictorianSqualor · 31/01/2008 16:27

I just hope we arent seen as bombarding ehr with information and telling ehr what to do, it's so hard to tell peopel whats best scientifically for their babies without them thinking you're slating them

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