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.

I agree with Jigslaw

In an ideal world breastmilk is the most personal and tailored milk nutritionally for your baby.

But very few women have an "ideal" birth and sometimes the method of delivery makes the breast v bottle decision for you.

Breastmilk wasn't best for my first child, because I haemorrhaged during birth and my body was putting too much energy into repairing me than making quality breastmilk. I persevered for 7 weeks and my son didn't put on any weight at all as my milk never properly came in. He was starving (hindsight is a wonderful thing) and I feel awful now but nobody told me the effect huge blood loss has on your milk supply until after I stopped. He thrived on formula. It was a traumatic time and after 2 days breastfeeding my second child I was too triggered and changed him to formula too. Both extremely healthy children now and I've no regrets!

This. Respectfully op you’re being a little dense regarding the vit d drops. Formula also contains vitamin d. Fwiw I ebf and the drops gave dd reflux. I just take a very high dose supplement myself and she’s showing no signs of being deficient. Needing vit d drops is not a failing of breast milk but a failing of our lifestyles and weather conditions in the northern hemisphere!!

Regardless, no one cares how you feed in the long run. People may ask whilst baby is small, more in a checking in kind of way (people I haven’t seen in a while ask me if I’m still breastfeeding)! But in ten years when your kids are in school no one will give a rats A!

In theory breast milk should contain sufficient vitamin D. However as most adults in the U.K. are vitamin D deficient.l it’s advised to supplement n it’s more effective to supplement directly rather than via the mother supplementing (which is also recommended for pregnant women). If nature was perfect we wouldn’t suggest pregnant women supplement with folic acid and vitamin D (well actually historically nature probably was perfect but modern diets and lifestyle are not). To me it’s a bit like saying you won’t get pregnant as your body needs extra things for best possible outcome (eg vitamins, vaccines etc).

Pp have already made excellent arguments for the pros and cons of breastfeeding v formula, so I'm just going to answer your bit about vitamins. Yes, NHS advice is now to give Vitamin D drops to bf babies and to the mother (here in Scotland they send you home from hospital with the drops and supplements) because babies cannot be in the sun and therefore cannot make enough vitamin d themselves. In fact, the general health advice for the whole population is to supplement vitamin d in the winter. From 6 months to 5 years, current advice is that all babies should get a Vitamin D, A and C supplement, including formula fed babies. Advice does change but this is the current info I got from my midwives and health visitor (I have a one year old). So, supplementing vit d does not mean breast milk is inadequate. Can recommend a few accounts on Instagram if you'd like to learn more about the benefits of breastfeeding and how to do it successfully - Kathryn Stagg, Lucy Webber and the Breastfeeding Mentor are all great - I think there was a post this week with some amazing facts about breastmilk, such as it can adapt according to even a one degree change in baby's temperature! But equally, it's your personal decision and not for strangers on the internet to decide for you! Good luck with your baby whatever you decide.

I breastfeed. I love it. No faff, always available, free and there is something beautiful about those wee eyes looking up while being nourished from my body. This is my second time and both times I had issues, but I am so glad I pushed through. It is definitely the right thing for me

You are making a different choice. That is grand. You need to do what is right for you. I would definitely try and give the colostrum though, itvis so good for your baby.

Weight loss is a total myth!

Maybe for you @OnlyFoolsnMothers but it dropped off me. A relative is breastfeeding her 8 week old and it's the same for her.

We did both have it to lose though.

No breast is not always best. Only if baby is feeding well and mothers mental health isn’t suffering from the pressure from
themselves and others to bf In e.g. These cases (for example) formula may be best.

it really makes no difference once they are older, I doubt you would be able to tell based on child illness stats etc.

My understanding was that if the bf mum takes a high dose vitamin D then you don’t need to supplement the baby too.

But like everyone has said, we are all recommended to take vitamin D in this country, but which is preferable: a ready meal with vitamin D pre added, or a meal made of whole foods and a vitamin D drop? It’s a no brainer really, if you’re talking purely about nutritional content.

Obviously the bf/ff thing isn’t solely about nutritional content and you can do what you want. But the vitamin D thing is completely irrelevant.

The issue isn’t that breastmilk is inherently lacking vitamin D.

It’s that the chances are VERY high that YOU are lacking vitamin D. If you are deficient in vitamin D then your body can’t make milk with enough.

Society evolves much faster than biology. As a species of ape, we would be outside during the day and have little body hair. Vitamin D would be relatively easy to absorb with all that skin exposed all the time. Humanity has now developed clothing and houses and cars and office working so we have much less sun exposure, and therefore much less vitamin D absorbtion.

This isn't always true.
If you can get over the first few weeks, which can be hard, then breastfeeding is invariably easier for the mum as always available, no faffing with making up bottles, ready made comfort device, etc etc.

The trouble is, people should be able to feed how they choose. But acknowledging that does not mean that we have to mount a campaign against the obvious, which is that human milk is better far human babies.

Perhaps just give it a try and see if you like it. If you don't then stop and bottle feed. Lots of people seem to decide they won't like breastfeeding when they have no idea what its like really. You may change your mind anyway when baby's here with the hormone rush you get.

Well but most people living in the UK are deficient in vitamin d and should be taking a supplement, especially in the winter months. You don’t need to give a formula fed baby a specific supplement because it’s already added to the formula. So formula fed babies are still getting the supplement….

I didn’t give either of mine supplements (first I’ve heard about it). They’ve thrived, just as the babies I knew who were bottle fed have.

Looking back on it, for me, not having to get out of bed to make a bottle was a winner. But that was a benefit for me. When I was really struggling with breastfeeding at the beginning, I remember HV telling me that “fed” is correct for baby.

A fed baby is best. If breastfeeding goes well, great. If not then formula is fine. I've met too many mums who are tired and not enjoying their baby, because they are so fixed on breastfeeding and it's not going well. Happy mum means happy baby! That's the bottom line.

A lot of the long-term benefits of breastfeeding are probably overstated. It's really hard to control all socioeconomic factors that make a much larger difference to outcomes such as IQ. In fact, randomly assigned studies where mums were randomly told to breastfeed or use formula are rare. The largest study of this kind in the 90s found very little difference in attainment apart from verbal IQ. Then they realised that the assessors were biased and knew which kids were given breastmilk and expected them to do better. When they brought in independent examiners the differences became statistically insignificant. Sibling studies also don't find major benefits for the breastfed sibling.

The strongest studies are for benefits in infancy only (e.g. digestion and immunity in babies), and there is a small amount of protection from SIDs as breastfed babies wake up more regularly. The general advice for babies to be on their back is much more important though.

So there are benefits but it's not that big a deal if breastfeeding doesn't work out or isn't right for you and your family.

Breast is best if you have a nutritious diet, if you don't then formula can actually be healthier.

Not true at all.

Breast is the biological norm. We only need to supplement because of our modern lifestyles.

Formula is a marvellous invention that helps people who can’t breast feed have happy, healthy babies.

The number of women who actually can’t breastfeed is very, very small, but the lack of support available is so woeful that many, many more women struggle far more than they should. Formula is fine. No one should feel any guilt. Except the government who don’t fund proper support.

That’s not even slightly true.

At the end of the day formula is an ultra processed food product. Breastmilk (whatever the mum eats!) should always be the first line of choice in feeding infants.

I never used those.

BM has antibodies in that prime our immune systems for infection, that way we fight off routine childhood illness well and set ourselves up for life. The milk changes in each feed according to what's been communicated from the baby's saliva; viscosity, antibodies, anaesthetics, hormones and drugs to help mood.

It's the right nutrients and vitamins at the right time at the right temperature at no extra cost.

It's protects us against cancers and increases baby's chance of being resilient to disease.

It causes rapid cell division which then forms the gut lining getting the infant ready for solid foods without gut damage. (extremely prevalent today)

It does a million other things too.

It's "magic" and we never find this out unless we look ourselves, like I did when I was breastfeeding.

There's no replacement for it.

But not having it won't kill you and a sane mother is far more valuable.

Most people are naturally defificient in vitamin D, and the rda is piddlingly low. So usually very little gets into breastmilk. But if you are getting a good dose of it daily then your milk will have a fair amount in too.
For example, recommended amount of daily vitamin D is 600 IU. Personally I take 5000 IU and I'm confident my baby is getting what he needs. I have seen 10,000 IU tablets available too.

Some of the most interesting breast milk research at the moment is looking at the gut Microbiome and the role breast milk has in establishing healthy gut bacteria. There is no question in my mind that, all things being equal, breast milk is ‘better’. Even formula adverts state this now. But the fact is - all things are not equal all the time. Breastfeeding is not easy and sometimes doesn’t work at all. In these situations fed is undoubtedly best.

Will people please stop saying “fed is best”. No it’s not. Fed is the bare minimum.