Breastfeeding is not best - Dr Karleen Gribble

[fabsmum]

Love this video

I think these messages, along with a lack of support, can make women feel bad.
There should be more information and one to one help avaliable in all hospitals and also attached to the health visitor service

well said MrsR!

Hiya Mrs R. Well i've seen him skulking outside a few times as we've had the security gate put in at long last but he hasn't said anything to either me or dp since, so fingers crossed this is a new pattern emerging

how's things with you???

Yes I think her analysis of the psychology behind the the 'breast is best' message is fascinating, certainly soemthing I have never though of before. I was brought up thinking that bottle feeding was the norm and that breastfeeding was something that only extroverts did .

It was only when I started breastfeeding that I realised just how normal it is.

I think we have to work on the way our society views womens bodies too- this is a big factor in many who decline to breastfeed- the yuck and unnatural factor is one that I hear often

LOL Belgo at extroverts- my mum has that some kind of view and esp breastfeeding over the initial few months

Totalmisfit- I am so glad it all worked out-looks like you did the right thing then. Good for you!!!!

HVs could do a lot more IMO. Instead of reaching for a tin of SMA at the first sign of problems they should be advised to contact a breastfeeding counsellor for you. Or even have one in attendance at baby clinics.

in terms of the 'speech', it's from a debate, clearly. australians love a debate, they're great at it. so it's not like she was addressing a conference or anything, or rather if she was she was doing so in the context of a fun boo hiss debate so you have to judge her performance on that.

i'm FIRMLY of the opinion that bfing is the biological norm would be a better message to put out there, especially if medical staff were the ones doing it, because if they were at the foot of everyone's bed supporting them in the beginning then they'd notice problems like mine earlier and maybe be able to do something about it.

this idea that bfing is something for middle class mums is very unhelpful, actually, because as a middle class mum in a hospital in a poor area i was the only mother on the ward bfing (or trying to) and i was made to feel like a right ponce for it by the (working class?) auxiliaries who offered me formula for her on a four-hourly basis.

Anna - Yes, as I said, I entirely missed her point. She was useless at getting her message across.

No Swedes - she did it brilliantly.

Don't make such a fool of yourself - you are cleverer than that, aren't you?

Now go back and listen again.

I wonder if the push for formula in the sixties/seventies that saw many women injected to dry their milk up has had a cause/ effect on the obesity epidemic in todays society

lol swedes, she was good i thought. are you sure you weren't only half-listening?

Mrs Ruffallo - it might also have something to do with the fact that some babies were on solids at six days old...yes, i did say six days!

I was born in 1967 and around that time there was a theory that babies could go straight onto solids virtually from birth. My mum was asked to try this on me and agreed.

I've got pictures of me in my pram at 12 weeks old and I look huge and bloated - like a stuffed goose.

Luckily it didn't have any lasting effect and I'm slim and healthy now.

Has anyone else clicked on those "Related links" on that page...?

lol that happened to me too (apart from the private room, obv).
and the woman next door to me (who snored like a pneumatic drill) complained about me using the breast pump. poor cow, though, she'd just had a twelve pound baby and was rather in shock, i think.
i dunno, though, i thought it was really weird that people didn't mind their wee babies being taken away and fed and shushed by the midwives, my umbilical cord, though severed, just didn't stretch that far.

i was on solids from two weeks (midwives did it, my mum had haemohrraged and was pretty ill with no milk. apparently i was v greedy and so they put rusk stuff in the bottle). anyhoo, i have essential high bp, IBS, kidney issues and a tendency to porkiness.

Any progress on actually reading the literature on infant feeding and diabetes, Nancy? Or do you still think the link is 'bollocks' because you assume that the links between method of feeding and socio-economic background have never been spotted by researchers?

I found this Tiktok

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/breastfeeding-has-negli gible-effect-on-babies-iq-418618.html

i don't think you're understanding what you're reading, tbh. like the other studies to which tiktok refers they came to their conclusion having taken all the various factors into consideration and that's precisely how they proved the 'negligible' figure. because previous theories had been thrown off course by not having taken into account the impact that socio-economic status will have had.

How research works:

An increase in the number of hurricanes doesn't prove global warming is happening, they might not be linked at all. But that has no relevance to whether global warming is real.

Researchers do not give absolutes, they report what they find. Some studies are better than others and those in the field are able to recognise when something is published in a reputable journal with robust methods. Theories are strengthened by the repetition by independant research groups. Poorer research doesn't get removed from publications, but the body of evidence doesn't support it.

Of course the media can pick out individual studies and write what they like, quoting "scientists" without any requirement for a balanced view. Many journalists are great, some may be less rigorous than they should be.

I have not read all the literature about breastfeeding but have tried to get a reasonable overview, hence typing this with a little one attached!

I understand what I read perfectly Aitch - the article I highlighted shows that the study that linked breasfeeding to superior intelligence did NOT take into account socio-economic back ground. I was trying to make the point that it does happen in research. Once this ajustment was made it became obvious that the research was flawed.

As an intelligent and educated adult I believe that breastfeeding your infant is the best possible thing you can do. I also accept that your baby will be less sickly (as a baby) and will have a boosted immune system. I accept this because I've been convinced of it one way or another.

However I remain unconvinced that how you feed your kid at 3 months old will have any bearing on him/her becoming an obese type 2 diabetes sufferer as a teen.

you remain unconvinced because you think that ff chavs eat burgers and watch too much telly? or because you have uncovered a design flaw with the research?
don't get me wrong, i've not read the research, i don't think i'm qualified enough to pick holes in it anyway and i did ff my dd (and she does watch television) but i'm not understanding your point.
is it because research is sometimes badly designed and often incorrectly reported that you just chuck out the results that don't chime with your gut instinct?