Is breast really best?

[sneakypanda90]

Hello all,

About to become a first time mum. For many reasons I've pretty much decided I'll be formula feeding however baby isn't here till the end of September and I still have a pretty open mind to how she's fed changing.

However, in doing some more research just now I've discovered that breastfed babies need vitamin D drops??
Soooo, if 'breast is best' and give the baby everything they need, surely you wouldn't need to supplement?
Do you see my point? I find the information on breast feeding wildly exaggerated and how a little contradictory which just adds to my thoughts of 'whatever' when someone's going on at me about breastfeeding.

You’ve made your choice and that’s fine, not sure why you feel the need to find problems with breast milk to justify your choice? You just want to formula feed and that’s perfectly valid.

Yikes, better not tell you about iron supplementation from 4-6 months, that’ll really blow your mind!

Not sure how many newborns are intolerant to leather but keep trying to make your point dear.

I really wanted to BF and was fortunate that my DD took to it well and we fed til 21m. To be honest formula freaked me out abit, a processed powder made in a factory just made me feel uncomfortable! I’m grateful for its existence though and in the early days of multiple night feeds it was helpful mentally to know there was always that to fall back on.
The antibodies thing is amazing with breast milk, since stopping feeding DD has been ill more frequently, worse illness symptoms and with higher temperatures than when she was still getting BF.
It’s a totally personal decision for you and your partner, even if you’re all geared up for formula there’s nothing to say you can’t offer the breast and see how they take to it. If they don’t or you don’t then formula the way forward!

Let's see... a milk designed specifically for human babies, amazingly responsive and dynamic in its content and containing all the nutrients your baby needs in an easily digestible way, plus with a broad spectrum of health benefits (fewer infections, fewer allergies etc) versus a powder made from modified milk from another species which also contains vegetable and fish oil? Are you really asking if there's a difference?

Thanks I will hun

You can research etc all you like but the baby 'decides' at the end of the day sometimes. Ds never wanted to bottle feed, the midwives in hospital tried and tried. He just wanted to breastfeed and that was that. Your baby might be the same.

Fed is best but breast is the healthiest way of achieving that. There are myriad reasons why breast may not be happening (mix fed Ds1 for health reasons)

I was making a point about disentangling causation & correlation. You're right I should have said the education/intelligence correlation is only relevant in the west, not elsewhere, where the correlation is usually around wealth. Its not tosh as its frequently cited in studies. Just because we all know a few well educated people who used formula doesn't undermine the dataset as a whole. I wasn't making a judgement on whats right or wrong. Someone asked about the 'magical' properties of breastmilk & I was responding.

Yes, its a well established correlation. My point was that the causal link is less clear cut. I.E.does breastmilk create/cause more intelligent kids or is there a correlation between a range of other factors and higher educational achievement? One of which might be, on the whole women with higher intelligence or educational level (not necessarily same thing) are more likely to choose to bf, say, because they read all the studies, or because its what their friends do. Therefore the bf is not in itself important. They were more likely to pass on their educational advantage any way. I'm not making a judgement either way. I am saying 'breast is best' is an oversimplification of a complex story.

BF is best for baby but taking into account the mom and the rest of the family it may not be best overall.
With my first born I made the decision whilst pregnant to combination feed. I didn't want to be the only person feeding the baby, I wasn't comfortable with bf in public, I didn't want to have a baby attached to me 24/7, and I didn't want to cosleep which everyone I knew had BF had ended up doing. Turned out she wouldn't latch properly anyway (which was really painful) so she was FF.
With baby number two I knew I was going to FF. I actually ended up BF in hospital until we were discharged but knew from that point FF was the way I was going.
As a family and for my sanity FF was the best choice for us. If anything my children have hardly been ill whereas some children I know that were BF always seemed to be in hospital. And whilst I'm not saying the BF caused the hospital visits some posts on here make it sound as though breast milk can cure cancer. It's not magic milk!
BF will always be better looking solely at the product. But looking at the larger picture it may not be and I know it wouldn't have been for me.

There's no study that shows babies who were bottle fed won't achieve academically, and noone has ever seriously said such a thing. So your family doesn't disprove the statistical correlation between higher education levels & higher levels of breast feeding. The correlation (not causation) has been demonstrated in loads of studies so you could say its a fact.

These threads always go the same way. Why do FF feel so defensive? There's no doubt that breast is the better option for baby. Nutrition, immunity, hormones, the action itself has effects on bone and muscle development. There's no evidence FF babies sleep better, and the vitamin supplements are needed by ALL babies, whether delivered by formula or drops. This is true of babies whose mum need more support, help understanding how to build supply, latching, and diet. Those who need help with tongue tie, or have rare allergies which can be helped with supplements or meds. It is not a UPF created in a lab and is tailor made for each baby.

Breast is NOT best for all mums, however. The breastfeeding dyad is just that - 2 people in the relationship, which needs to work for both of them. Formula is absolutely a more than adequate substitute, no mum should feel guilt if the relationship isn't working for whatever reason. It's fine, healthy and for some, just a better option. No judgement for whatever works for you. You don't need to quote dubious studies about hygiene in developing countries or whatever to prove it's ok. It just is.

The fact is, tho, breastfeeding rates are still dismal, and they are dismal due to lack of support, funding, understanding and a huge amount of propaganda from formula companies which is still subtly happening all the time and still filtering from our mums who were fed absolute rubbish by Nestle et al. The breast is best campaign has done lots to combat that, and given that the benefits are primarily for BABIES, it's not okay to keep undermining that.

Because you have people like @AlltheFs stating that she views those that FF as bad parents.

FF is the norm in this country so I fail to see the need to defend it so much.

Because you get criticised by some posters for being a poor parent!

I would have thought it’s pretty obvious why people who FF are defensive - people are demanding they justify their choice (and it’s clear some people consider there to be “good” FF which is as a last resort after breastfeeding has “failed”, and “bad” FF which is where a mother has “put her needs before her baby’s” and didn’t breastfeed at all - it makes me wonder exactly how much suffering through difficult breastfeeding is deemed justify switching to formula).

and that’s aside from the accusations of poor and selfish parenting.

Because you get criticised by some posters for being a poor parent!

Everything will get you criticised for being a poor parent by someone.

The thread about the nik naks shows this - you're a bad parent if you allow your child crisps, but also if you don't you're a bad parent because by denying them crisps you are definitely setting them up for a binge eating problem in later life.

I exclusively bf DD1 until she was over 2 - some people would judge that.

Most people do not judge ff, because the vast majority of babies have some formula (either exclusively or combi fed) by the time they're 6 weeks, and almost all babies will have had some formula by 6 months.

I didn’t go and find the actual study but I did see this a few months ago. In the last image it details how they used statistics to control for maternal intelligence and socio-economic status.

So there we go there were studies being done that find being breastfed for 12 months does improve academic attainment later in life and they are taking steps to allow for other factors. The findings just aren’t something that people want to hear.

It's really interesting though isn't it, that even with other factors taken out, breastfeeding and higher GCSE results are linked. I think that's fascinating.

Too bad for my two kids 🤣 sorry children for not persevering !

The ironic thing about this is that one of the posters saying those that FF are bad parents is on the nik nak thread saying they feed them to their child.

I also agree with PP that past about 3 months I got a lot of judgement from for not switching to formula 😂 breastfeeding was always pretty easy for me and baby so it wasn’t even like there was a reason to switch.

Breastfeeding past the first few months was however completely different to the norm for my mother and grandmothers generation. Neither of my grandmothers breastfed. They were separated from their newborns for days and then told their milk was no good. They simply didn’t understand that breastmilk could sustain a baby exclusively until weaning at 6 months. Especially my baby who was 90th percentile and had grown that big on breastmilk!

Thats why the breast is beat message is so important given the historical context of breastfeeding rates in this country.

Anyone suggesting someone is a bad parent for FF is clearly trolling, come in. FF is absolutely the norm in this country, the attempts to separate women from motherhood as if it somehow bad are constant, and seen as somehow progressive. New baby cards are covered in bottles and dummies, and rates at 6 weeks are so poor I don't believe that FF is demonised by anyone except trolls. Women who feel bad for considering themselves and their needs as much as their baby's need support too, but that isn't the fault of BF promotion.

Suggesting that BF needs more support, promotion and information to ensure the majority those mothers DON'T have to struggle through is still not demonising formula. And quite honestly, the way finances are going in the UK, helping women to a free food source for their babies is more important than ever.

@Tinybrother WHO is 'demanding' FF justify their choices? I've never seen that. I've seen hospitals feed babies formula without asking, formula all over TV and cards and cafes, I've BF 3 babies for nearly a decade, and I've been sneered at and belittled for it many times; never have I seen a BFer 'demand' justification.

on this thread.