Were you formula fed as a baby?

[Janni]

Do you believe you would be healthier or more intelligent had you been breastfed?

Do you believe you were disadvantaged in any other way by being formula fed?

I was not breastfed.

I breastfed my own children for 20 months.

I realise though that I do not feel in any way disadvantaged for not having been breastfed myself.

I just wondered how others felt.

"there is medical evidence for everything if you look hard enough"

No actually - there isn't. But there is extensive and good quality evidence about the very basic choices we have to make for our children that have the greatest impact on their lives, namely how they're fed for the first six months of their lives, the diseases against which they need immunising, and how to keep them safe from SIDS.

Most people think these things are worth bothering about I think you'll find. The stuff on whether they'll get cancer from using mobile phones etc we can worry about when they're older.

Please stop trivialising choices about infant feeding. Choosing to give your child your own milk or to use artificial milk IS important - it's their sole source of sustenance during a crucial period of growth and development.

So every health issue for the under 50s is down to the evil white stuff-formula??????

Blimey you have got it bad.

Don't really want to aid your highjacking of this thread any longer so off to feed my kids some food.

"Most of us wouldn't have been fed the quality formulas we use today "

sigh,

obviously Milamae has not read, though it is already said twice on this thread, that there is nothing sophisticated or 'quality' about the formula used today compared to the stuff from 40 yrs ago. It is hardly more advanced that Evaporated milk which lots of us were fed and still managed to thrive on.

sterilising equipment doesn't have to be 'quality' either.

a pan of boiling water will do perfectly.

It is impossible to ascertain what effect not being breastfed has had on the individual, although it has been interesting to share our anecdotes. It has been said before on this thread, but we cannot draw any conclusions about bf or ff from these stories, it is merely a subject of personal interest.

I also think it is important to acknowledge the normalcy of breastfeeding. It is not a 'should do' or an ideal, it is our biological destiny.

The fact that so many of us were not breastfed can be attributed, in part, to a social and cultural phenomonenom in which many mothers sought to impose scientific routine and regularity upon the chaotic life of a new mother.

I find it fascinating to learn about parenting practices of previous generations, although this does not lead me to deny that some of these practices may have had their risks.

As someone once said (Oprah?)when you know better you do better. We all do the best that we know how to do with the information and support available at the time. That is why I choose to breastfeed and that is why I would never condemn my own mother, or any other woman, for not breastfeeding.

in amongst all the ff V bf

myself and my twin sister rubyslippers were bottlefed

in fact tube fed from birth for a few weeks , as we were 6 weeks prem, in incubators/NICU and mum & dad lived a long drive from the hospital.

we are both educated to post grad level so i guess pretty intelligent

i have crohns disease but my sister does not

as young children we had measles , whooping cough, german measles and mumps , all caught before our scheduled immunisations. apart from mild hayfever and allergy to cats, nothing major , no excema.

our brother was exlcusively breastfed for 6 months, had constant ear infections, needed grommets and was on antibiotics all summer for infections after swimming,

he also has crohns disease, but only recently diagnosed and he is in his 20s

i did not breast feed my DCs , which i regret.... DS had mild excema whihc he grew out of age 18 months, and a peanut allergy. no real illnesses to speak of

DD nothing at all, no allergies ( she ate peanut butter at a friends house in error and was fine!) skin is fine and she is rarely ill

i don;t feel disadvantaged, my mum had enough to cope with with 6 week prem twins , a traumatic delivery and all that entails, she did not wean us until we were around 5 months either, and this was in the 70s.

"So every health issue for the under 50s is down to the evil white stuff-formula??????"

It would clearly be ridiculous and false to imply that all or even most of the health problems experienced by the under 50's are down to the way they were fed as babies.... which is why I didn't actually say it. Can't you just address your concerns about what I've actually said rather than having to make things up and then attack me for them?

And I take it you use the word 'evil' here to imply that I'm making a moral judgement about formula and formula use?

There's no need - really. I'm just as much against turning this into a moral issue as you are.

Blimey you have got it bad.

MiliMae - you are being startlingly obtuse.

As far as "should be"s are concerned - I think that's way off.

It's like saying every woman "should be" giving birth vaginally.

Both my mom breastfed us until we were 3 months and then bottle fed us.

you cannot retrospectively apply today's values to yesterday practice.why would you want to

in past

people did put alcohol in bottle to make baby sleep.

doctors did recommend smoking to comabt pg nausea

and who knows maybe my child will say to me "why the hell did you feed me all that homemade muck".

this thread demonstrates that research changes and practices change.

my mother used to put paraffin on my dummy apparently - not sure what that was an old wives tale cure for.

and she has regaled blithely to numerous people how I nearly "went through the window" when I had colic (though this sometimes changes to croop)

Lovely woman my mother

my work colleague regales me with tales of rubbing brandy in baby gums for teething, and ahem recommended i do so

My grand dad used to give me sleeping tablets when staying at their house in teh holidays

Monkeytrousers

That said, my mum has given my kids calpol to make them sleep.

I tried to point out to her that it's an analgesic not a sedative and that my children weren't in pain/unwell so didn't need it. It went straight over her head.

My mum is also a one for dipping her finger into her sherry and shoving it into the baby's mouth.

I caught my aunt dipping her finger in wine and giving it to my dd at her first birthday

Aye the old school gals likey the alcohol for the babies. personally i say alcohol for mummy only

Milamae - don't worry about me, I'm fine and I started this thread out of curiousity as much as anything. It has stayed pretty good-humoured which is nice to see!

Nancy66 - being advised by the doc. to take up smoking when pregnant . You definitely win with that one!!

My DH was constantly being given honey on his dummy (another modern no-no) and my cousin was most definitely helped to sleep by a tot of sherry in her bottle.

LOL monkeytrousers at the sleeping tablets.

My grandmother used to give my mother a few Mogadon to give to me sparingly when my mother wanted to ensure I was going to sleep through (Christmas, birthdays etc).

So, in those far off golden days when women knew their place breastfed all the time, no one got obese or had exzema or hayfever or anything -they just got rickets, cholera, diptheria, TB and/or died of cold and starvation. I'm not sure breastfeeding was ever that universal: the rich farmed the job out to wet-nurses, quite a lot of people used diluted cows' or goats' or horses' milk, and if the mother died in childbirth or was too malnourished herself to produce much milk, or had way too many other demands on her time, the babies just died.
Though the idea of the perfect mother changes from time to time depending on both technological advances and the social perception of what women are for, some thing which seems to remain constant is this idea that if you do what you're told, especially if it involves discomfort or inconvenience to you: the more the better, you will have a perfect child who is not only never unwell but is of irreproachable moral character.
Most people do what they think is right for their babies and themselves, and most babies grow up reasonably OK. And that's as good as it's going to get, no matter what.

I wish dh would let me know my place so that I can stay home and bf all day.

sigh.

one word madamez....

....issshooozzzz

I was ff, and given honey in a tiny bottle dummy thingy, brandy was rubbed on my gums and food from a jar when I was weaned. My mum was given an e ray when a few months pg aswell to check to see if there was one baby or two as I was well over 10ilb and the medics thought there may be two babies and wanted to know?

sorry Xray - not e ray (my key board is missing letters, they have rubbed of with over use on mn)

I was ff and grew to be 6ft2.
Admittedly i am thick but i am too stupid to care.

I was bottle fed - mum had real problems bf-ing me, and worried I was going to starve!
Im fine and healthy - only problem has been bad hayfever.
Dont think id be any different if i was bf.

"some thing which seems to remain constant is this idea that if you do what you're told, especially if it involves discomfort or inconvenience to you"

Yes - because we all know that breastfeeding is really horrid don't we...... and that bottlefeeding is hugely empowering........

It's so inconvenient having to roll over in bed and plug your boob into your baby rather than getting up and making a bottle..........

and just such a pain in the arse having free milk on tap and being able to feed one handed, when it's so much easier to go to the supermarket, pay £8 for a tin of processed milk powder, bring it home, wash and sterilise your bottles, make up your feed (being extra sure to do it correctly otherwise you risk poisoning your baby) and feed it to your lo - using both hands.

"you will have a perfect child who is not only never unwell but is of irreproachable moral character"

You just made that up because you think it sounds good.

Unless you'd like to give us some quotes from breastfeeding promotion material that actually implies that breastfeeding guarantees your children won't get ill and makes them into nice people......

No - it's just another invented 'crime' to beat the breastfeeding lobby with......

"Most people do what they think is right for their babies and themselves"

Yes - that's true. Unfortunately they're often having to work out what's right for themselves and their babies based on partial and incomplete information.

And if part of 'doing what's right' for their babies involves choosing to breastfeed them, they're likely to find it a damn sight harder than they'd ever imagined.....mainly because of wider society's hostility, ignorance and complacency.

huzza zoops and their left hand salads!

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