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?

The whole point is that 'breast is best' should not be a 'mantra', there should be proper support, which includes training people to support breastfeeding and identify problems such as those that can lead to dehydration. Even a small problem with a latch, for instance, can have a big effect on the amount of milk that gets transferred from mother to baby - not a lot of people know that. But the pressure to have that support won't come while people think there's not much point, formula's pretty much as good, etc. etc. A problem not being identified that's due to bf not working and that gets to the stage of the baby being dehydrated is really poor care, which is awful .

By which I mean poor postnatal care for the mum and baby by the people who should be helping and keeping an eye on the baby.

very true, wayfarer. it's such an emotional issue, even on here it's referred to as BF vs FF which is crackers if you think about it, absolutely crackers.

i mean, as if there should be a fight every time someone dares to mention that they're proud of succeeding in bfing, that is nuts, right?

and yet... every time it descends into an argument, people feel 'got at' by stats and hectored by 'smug' bfers etc etc etc. crazy. or crazy, i suppose, if you're happy with your decision, whichever that was.

i'm only interested in the people that aren't happy, i think. i'm not ashamed of ffing dd, it was a blooming lifesaver for us, but i'm certainly not thrilled with the 'support' that i got in those first crucial weeks.

my sisterly flipside, vlc, should imo be righteously proud of her exclusive bfing but will always worry from a nutritional perspective if she did the right thing. perhaps the same might be said of redadmiral a few years back, albeit traffic pollution having long since overtaken bfing concerns...

these are the people we should be fighting for, so that they (we) can access better information, both from the bfing supporters AND formula manufacturers AND in the knowledge that our HCPs take infant nutrition seriously enough to give good, relevant, evidence-based and up-to-date advice... that's all i'd ask for, and it's hardly the moon and the stars given the phenomenal growth of those first few crucial months, is it?

Don't know if anyone ever reads my links, but here's the traffic fumes one - very depressing

www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/mar/11/medicalresearch.pollution

I suppose if you have a baby in the city you could worry about both at the same time

SniffyHock - telling women to breastfeed and then failing to give the postnatal care to make it possible, and worse, to miss ineffective feeding to the extent that a baby is hospitalised is disgraceful .... what happened to you is awful, and actually very dangerous. And look at the long term effect it had - your confidence affected to the extent it affected your decisions with your next baby

With good training, it is not especially hard to check newborns are transferring milk. In your case, it's likely your baby was not gaining weight, was either miserable or very sleepy, was not pooing...and these signs can be spotted very soon, certainly in the first few days.

redadmiral, stop oppressing me with your scientific facts!

I have an eye for them, or maybe it's just the paper I read.

That one's a killer, isn't it. We live a few hudred metres form one of the most pollued roads in Britain, and currently cross it 6 times a day.

Strange spellings there....

I had early supply problems with dd1 and the same dilemma as vlc - dd1 was skinny, and I had to decide whether it was better to top her up and get her fatter, or struggle on with a slow weight gain, gradually improving my supply.

I read everything I could lay my hands on and what I found was definite evidence of harm from "catch-up" growth, ie artificially inducing a big weight gain, but no evidence of harm from a slow weight gain, and some evidence (from animal studies) that calorie restriction has better long term outcomes than overfeeding.

Obviously no-one think that malnutrition is good for babies, but there didn't seem to be anything to suggest that just being skinny was harmful.

On that basis, I stopped topping her up (which was causing her problems anyway) but I worried all the time that I might have got it wrong. The worry has receded a bit now, because dd1 is 3 and still skinny despite eating like a horse. She's smart, funny and athletic and so far so good.

So in retrospect I think it was right to carry on, but it was a hard call to make.

vlc already knows all this, but for anyone else reading who's in a similar situation, it's worth remembering that despite what everyone around you will say, it's not true that the more weight they gain, the better. I think you have to look at each baby individually.