who *isn't* ashamed to admit using formula?

[LookingForwardToSummer]

feeling crap after reading the 'exclusive breastfeeding' thread! i find bf really hard and have set myself the target of 5 months, i intend to feel very proud that i went that long and then use formula happily! i can't be the only one! all the stats show low bf rates - so where is everyone?

I thought they had been discredited because they weren't scientific, ie, there were no controls, vested interests. Is that not so? If that is the case it doesn't prove they don't work, it just doesn't prove that they do.

I've just been reading a study of how supplementing ff babies with LC pufas has a significant improvement in their eyesight.

It doesn't say that they used 'human' fatty acids. At that level fatty acids are just molecules - it's not that important where they come from IMO.

Er. HC. I don't have a 'side'. I just can't bear to see studies being taken as gospel without examination. If you can find a place where I have 'scoffed' at one of the 13,000 studies demonstrating the risks of ff I'll be happy to apologise in full.

that's right, they were discredited on grounds of the study design (not that it's prevented the study being used by manufacturers to advertise their product).
i didn't say that the fish oils mightn't make a difference, in fact i give dd fish oils when i remember. my point is that your earlier position, that formula was better, is unproven and i'm reluctant to skip over that fact just cos you want to.

er, redadmiral, er, saying er a lot sounds a bit scoffy to me...

Could you just find me the part where I say that formula is better?

Not read whole thread but imo

Breast is best yes but formula is much better than nothing,

I for one am grateful for formula, my last child would have died without it (CP, bad gag, no latch, brain damage I might add, not that I didn't baby moon long enough) and she lived, thanks to an alternative to bm

I'm grateful that for my first, when for some unknown reason she refused the breast at 12 weeks and my NCT BF counsillor told me to keep trying and to persevere and she ended up on a drip due to dehydration, I could feed her formula ad she lived, thanks to an alternative to bm

I'm grateful that for my 2nd, when I had PND, I could pass her to family for feeds and heal and she lived, thanks to an alternative to bm

I'm grateful for my 3rd, when I was ill and he was 6 weeks old, some one could feed him when I was in bed vomitting, with a fever and when well I carried on bf to a year and he lived, thanks to an alternative to bm

Formula is an adequate alternative for those that can't or choose not to breastfeed, how a child is fed is a tiny part of raising them

By redadmiral on Thu 01-May-08 20:40:11
Er hellooo. Modern formula is different. That 'evidence' was based on old style formula, without added long chain fatty acids. If we are being so scientific.

what is your point, then, that it's worse, that it's the same (in terms of nutrition)? if so, why mention it is different?

er, i sometimes say er when I think no-one is listening. I didn't realise it was 'scoffy'

redamiral, I never suggested you do have a side, if you can point out where I said that then I will be happy to apologise

riven the risks of ff are very well documented. if I summarise them for you here, then I can assure you from bitter experience that there will be someone who will tell me that I am making women who ff feel guilty.
in my shoes, would you post the risks of ff, in detail?

Aitch - you are now completely missing the point. I'm off to watch some TV.

Night everyone.

by the way, I really think the IQ difference is neither here nor there in the scheme of things.

uh, okay. you're definitely not explaining yourself well then... maybe 7 IQ points would have made all the difference? and yes, er, er is scoffy. and rude, as you well know. [scoffy] [rude]

and no harpsi, don't you DARE post the risks of ffing, people who take EVERYTHING personally and can't even think about taking a step back from themselves and their experience will feel guilty.

other ffers, of course, won't have a problem with it because they know that formula was god-given in their instance. certainly was in mine.

(Cross posted from an old dead thread of mine)

These people are very concerned about fatty acid additives to formula.

From that link, if you want to know more, you can download the executive summary as a pdf: the first 4 paragraphs give a good overview.

Adding fatty acids sounds great except:

• there are a number of reports of babies experiencing side effects from the supplements
• there's no convincing evidence that these supplements have any benefit for babies.

What is especially worrying is that the manufacturers seem to be aware of this, yet aren't doing anything about it. Here's a quotation from the executive summary of the report I linked to:

-----
Substantiating this thesis is a Martek investment promotion from 1996, which reads as follows:
'Even if [the DHA/ARA blend] has no benefit, we think it would be widely incorporated into formulas, as a marketing tool and to allow companies to promote their formula as "closest to human milk."'
-------

DS3 did much better on goats milk formula riven (pricey though) and I thikn they may have banned it! (it;s not produced by a multinational )

riven, there are well established health risks to giving formula to babies. in any situation these risks should be balanced against the necessity to give formula.
in any event, parents should be given an informed choice, if a choice is possible and giving formula is not required.

here is a pretty comprehensive review of studies mostly carried out in the industrialised/first world

riven, I am sorry if you are feeling alarmed. obviously you need to take the advice of the health care professionals who know your own particular circumstances

here riven ds3 was like a different child on this.

The only thing with nanny is that it's quite cloggy- not sure how you feed your dd.