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Infant feeding

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

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Original poster

Eastenders actually took note!

57 replies

VictorianSqualor · 25/02/2008 21:28

Just thought I'd talk about something different for a change.
Did anyone see the pretend infant formula in Tanya Brannings kitchen yesterday?

OP posts:

rachaelsara · 25/02/2008 22:30

How about a long lost twin no one new Dennis had, that would work. No one worries about childcare on EE so a twin could be overlooked for some time.....

hunkermunker · 25/02/2008 22:43

2shoes, they use soaps to speak to people about RL topics - hard-hitting ones. All sorts of things have been covered by soaps - teen pregnancy, alcoholism, domestic violence, etc.

Yes, it's entertainment, but often it's used to get serious messages across in an accessible fashion.

(I did see the sodding news today talking about the midwifery shortage/training story and they had two shots of different babies being bottlefed when they talked about what midwives did No bf support footage...)

PussinJimmyChoos · 25/02/2008 22:50

Yes but a lot of m/wives are not helping the b/feeding issue really are they - I had the midwife in hospital starkly informing me that DS couldn't possibly feed from me as my nipples were a bit too flat!!! It was so farking hot in there with all their sodding rubber sheets and pillows, I needed to rub my baps with water to get 'em awake!!!

I also had to sit in a chair all night post c section as was told in couldn't latch on when I was sat up in the bed...oh and they never told me that babies comfort suck.....

I was dead on my feet when I left that sodding place!

2shoes · 25/02/2008 22:50

hunker sorry but I can't remember ever having seen tanya feed the baby. tbh i can only remeber seeing it once.

2shoes · 25/02/2008 22:51

and.......why can't they support bottle feeding. mums who bottle feed need support as well you know.

2shoes · 25/02/2008 22:54

shit please ignore me. i thought this was in telly addicts i never come in here as i bottle fed and bf so long ago it is just a disatnt memory.

LyraSilvertongue · 25/02/2008 22:56

When Dawn looked in the fridge and asked "Where's Summer's milk' was she talking about the cow's milk Keith drank? Surely Summer's way too young for cow's milk. I thought she was only a few months old.

theyoungvisiter · 25/02/2008 22:57

I know it's not an excuse really, but I can partly see why they shirk BF for practical reasons - it's tricky to show a woman in the process of establishing / grappling with bf before the watershed (for obvious reasons and also I can see that the mothers who donate their babies as child actors might not be wild about having them pretend to bf off another woman.

Whereas if you show a baby/wrapped up bundle clasped casually to a fully clad woman with no squirming/unlatching/spurting, then you risk a kind of boob-washing - ie promoting the idea that bf is always swimmingly easy and must go like clockwork from day one, which is (imo) also problematic, as it loses the very women they need to be reaching - those interested in bf but encountering difficulties.

Totally agree about soaps and education Hunker - after all the Archers was created to as a lightweight means of disseminating farming information.

Original poster

VictorianSqualor · 25/02/2008 22:58

I think summer would be old enough for cows milk now.

Apparently she was born 21 june 07, so maybe it was for her breakfast?

OP posts:

luciemule · 25/02/2008 23:10

Completely agree with hunker about supporting the govt.
I always think Holby and Casualy do a great job of spreading great information, even though it's very often as subtle as a brick.

And I really don't think they should be supporting bottle feeding - everyone knows breast is best and if anything, they should remain non-biased and show neither rather than promoting bottle.

luciemule · 25/02/2008 23:11

Forgot to say - surely it was formula Dawn was saying had gone from the fridge - it wouldn't have been funny otherwise that Keith had drunk it.

LyraSilvertongue · 25/02/2008 23:12

VS, that's DS2's birthday.

hunkermunker · 25/02/2008 23:14

2shoes, if you're going to use a soap to promote something, you fall in line with what the health service/Government is promoting, I think.

Bottlefeeding mums do need support, but not as a campaign in a soap, imo.

kiskideesameanoldmother · 26/02/2008 10:44

re Lyra's speculation about cow's milk: do you think that she was looking for formula that were made up before hand and stored in the fridge. You know, the one she asked her dp to make up and maybe he didn't?

Pruners · 26/02/2008 10:46

Message withdrawn

Piffle · 26/02/2008 10:49

I watched eastenders all my life until age 30 when I realized how shit it really was. I breastfed all of mine regardless. I'm glad they are not promoting a brand per se but are soaps really powerful enough to influence how you feed your baby?

misdee · 26/02/2008 10:49

was talkign about easteneders with peter the other night. we think that when they next kill off a character then should make them an organ donor.

Sabire · 26/02/2008 12:22

"it's tricky to show a woman in the process of establishing / grappling with bf before the watershed"

I'm sure I've seen babies being breastfed on Tweenies.....

"but are soaps really powerful enough to influence how you feed your baby?"

I think it's more to do with a sort of cultural 'drip drip' effect. Think about something like...... racism. Imagine if characters on soaps went around casually making racist remarks without it being commented on. I know people today are a bit more careful about the way they talk about race issues, but they haven't always been (and older people often say terrible things, even now. Thinking about a friend of my mum who commented that my daughter was 'quite pretty, even though she's got a 'touch of the tar brush'! Another one of my mum's friend describes black children as 'pickaninnies'....... ). Soaps know they influence social mores, which is why they're careful about the way they cover culturally sensitive issues, of which baby feeding is just one.

NAB3wishesfor2008 · 26/02/2008 12:24

Why is it tricky?

It is breast, half the population has them.

No wonder people are so stupid about public breastfeeding.

Perfectly normal and natural. Lovely thing for mum and baby ime.

SoupDragon · 26/02/2008 12:26

Breastfeeding should be a post-watershed activity??? [disbelief]

Piffle · 26/02/2008 12:30

erm hey guess what
its not real
the babies on fictional programmes have to handle other peoples babies, therefore to show them actually bf is impossible. But they can infer it in other ways
ie by not having lots of bottles teats etc
they could have an expresser, breast pads, feeding pillows etc,

NAB3wishesfor2008 · 26/02/2008 12:37

On Brookside a real mum dressed in the same clothes as Suzannah Farmham when the character had had a baby and showed the real mum feeding the real baby. we all knew was was going on. It can be done. If they won't show BF why bother showing formula, etc.

DANCESwithaMuffinTop · 26/02/2008 12:57

NAB - could you email me at [email protected] when you have a min. Thanks!

tiktok · 26/02/2008 12:59

I am a Corrie fan....can't tell if Violet is bf or not. There has been no reference to either way of feeding.

Baby had a dummy - very unusual in a hospital.

Also the baby is the biggest 6-pounder I have ever seen.....

Piffle · 26/02/2008 13:00

exactly nab, some thought has to go into it. I wonder when they cast babies does it matter whether they are bf or not, seems a shame to show a bf baby as a bottle fed one...

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