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Infant feeding

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

Original poster

was shocked by the amount of bottle-feeders in hospital

737 replies

misdee · 27/02/2005 09:35

found it quite upsetting at times. my bed was by the empties 'bottle bank', so saw how many people on the ward were bottle feeding. in the 4 days i was there, there were 10 women on the ward in total, and only myself and another lady was breastfeeding. The midwives offered help to everyone, but most decided on bottles.

the reason i found it upsetting was because i didnt want dd3 to have formula but that choice was basically taken away from me whilst she was SCBU and was given formula by tube.

OP posts:
leglebegle · 27/02/2005 21:20

and EM, I am actually part of a National Cohort study, and have been since 1970. They use mine and several thousand people who were all born on a certain day in 1970 to contribute to all sorts of issues and one of them is health. Its one of the most important studies used in this country and has influenced all sorts of policies made. I had a big interview when I turned 30, lasted hours and it concentrated on health. The interviewer told me I was one of the last to be interviewed and that I was one of the healthiest they had come across and was very lucky. Guess what. Totally bottlefed. Haven't cost the NHS a penny.

Gobbledigook · 27/02/2005 21:21

I think you might find that those problems are very few and far between in the UK and things like gastro problems are more to do with poor hygeine than they are about formula per se.

In this country and this day and age, there is very little risk indeed involved in feeding with formula. OK, I haven't done my own RCT but I don't know a single person among the very many I know that bottle feed or have done that have had any kind of problems with it. I'm sure entirely coincidentally, but most of the kids I happen to know with terrible eczema and ongoing health problems were breast fed so it's no guarantee.

Personally, I think health problems encountered in children are far more influenced by their overall environment and also genetics if anything - some people just are more prone to illness and allergy than others and that's passed down from parents to children regardless of how you feed them.

It would also be interesting to know (though I'm sure impossible) how many of the staunchly pro-breastfeeders smoke and how many of them feed their kids all sorts of crap once they are onto solid food. I'm damn sure they aren't all cooking purely organic home made food day in day out.

HappyMumof2 · 27/02/2005 21:24

Message withdrawn

Surfermum · 27/02/2005 21:25

I just googled it and the first site I looked at had a picture of a mum bottle feeding a baby with a bottle and the caption "Don't condemn her for bottle feeding you are not in her shoes".

Surfermum · 27/02/2005 21:26

Delete words as necessary to make sense.

leglebegle · 27/02/2005 21:27

oh don't go there gobblidigook! I made that point several months ago, a harmless one, about my lovely h/v cheering me up by saying I had years to give my ds1 great food, whereas some of my friends b/f forever and their kids are now on diets of nuggets and chips. I said it to cheer people up and make them think there was life beyond b/f'ing and I was flamed!!!! It started an organic v nuggets argument

HunkerMunker · 27/02/2005 21:28

You can't raise the same child twice, so it's totally impossible to know whether the breastfed baby with allergies, etc would have had them at all or more severely if they had been bottlefed, just as it's impossible to know whether a bottlefed baby would have had fewer eg instances of diarrhoea (one bottlefed baby I know is rarely without either diarrhoea or constipation, for instance - we'll never know whether this would've been the case had he been breastfed, which, incidentally is what his mother dearly wanted, but didn't get the support to achieve).

Amanda3266 · 27/02/2005 21:30

You have to be happy with what you do. The problem is a great many bottle feeders out there are not happy and would have breastfed longer if only the support and expertise to assist them had been there. I had dreadful expereinces trying to breastfeed. My baby ended with expressed breastmilk for 8 weeks before I finally bit the dust and bought the formula. It was fine and once I'd adjusted to the chore (and I did find it a chore) of making up feeds it was fine. For those bottlefeeders who made a choice to bottlefeed that's fine too. We all do what we think is best for us and our families.

leglebegle · 27/02/2005 21:31

so using the same argument, how can EM claim (or rather the sites she is referring us to) that these childhood illnesses are directly related to formula milk? How can we know beyond doubt that its not to do with solids given later, environment, quality of air, nutrition in early years.

expatinscotland · 27/02/2005 21:32

One very sad thing - but certainly not the saddest in the world - would be a brand new mum committing suicide b/c she didn't get help for her PND in time, or felt it wouldn't be right to be properly medicated b/c the medicine might be present in her breastmilk. I was a woman who felt that way, and it now makes me REALLY angry to see any woman made to feel she's harming her baby by bottle-feeding him/her.

HunkerMunker · 27/02/2005 21:32

leglebegle, are you suggesting that formula is as good as or better than breastmilk? Ooh, I'd duck now

leglebegle · 27/02/2005 21:37

No course not, but am saying its a perfectly good alternative. Can't understand where EM is getting her statistics from or how she can be so sure its all the fault of bottle feeding.

HappyMumof2 · 27/02/2005 21:39

Message withdrawn

HunkerMunker · 27/02/2005 21:43

Can I just add that there are some breastfeeding mums out there who do not see it as a mission to convert happy bottlefeeders!

My concern is for mums who DO want to breastfeed and DON'T get the support they need to do so - and there are lots and lots of them out there.

Hence this thread

HappyMumof2 · 27/02/2005 21:44

Message withdrawn

leglebegle · 27/02/2005 21:45

Happymumof2 - the name earthmother really should have tipped me off! duuuurrrrrrrr.

HunkerMunker · 27/02/2005 21:45

Just wanted to plug my 'write to your MP' thread again

Newyearmum · 27/02/2005 21:45

LB
I agree that many Mums have made up their mind about whether or not to do bf before they give birth. And of course the most important thing in all this is that the baby is fed.

But if the task of a post-natal ward is to help Mums and babies to get the very best start, then shouldn't bf should be the expectation - rather than just one option - in feeding?

If you decide before birth that bf disgusts you or for whatever reason you'd prefer to bottlefeed, then fine, bring your own formula with you. And you shouldn't be treated differently for wanting to do so. Of course there should be 'emergency' formula available (as with nappies) for those who want to drop bf having tried it, or for those who medically can't bf.

However, before this can be a reality I do agree that there needs to be a massive step-change in the support available to new mums bf on post-natal wards because unless you're determined and/or informed, it just isn't there.

HunkerMunker · 27/02/2005 21:48

My hospital told me when I went to see them about their lamentable lack of breastfeeding support that there were plenty of posters on the walls. Quite indignant, they were. The buffoons. I mean, as if you want to stand about in the hallway reading 'informative Department of Health posters' when you've lochia dripping down your thighs (so to speak!) and a new baby to cuddle

sparklymieow · 27/02/2005 21:51

By misdee on Sunday, 27 February, 2005 7:13:04 PM

i know iknow. naughty me for being shocked. but that clink-clink of bottles drove me mad when the mothers used to bring them through for the bin and woke me up when iwas trying to kip

This was actually a reply to my message

By sparklymieow on Sunday, 27 February, 2005 7:10:19 PM

misdee what did you start??? I am pro breastfeeding but I don't think anything of mums that bottlefeed. Each to their own. I do think that bf isn't encouraged enough in hospitals tho.

As many of you know me and misdee are sisters and we do chat on here, I know we should use MSN!!! I think some of you are being a bit harsh on her, she has recently given birth, and made an obversation, she doesn't judge anyone, and she certainly doesn't "look" down on bottlefeeders. We are lucky (??) in the fact that we found breastfeeding easy, but I did give up feeding DD1 after 5 weeks because she was premature and screamed all the time and I found a bottle of formula settled her. It doesn't matter how a baby is fed at the end of the day, as long as the baby is happy.

oops · 27/02/2005 21:54

Message withdrawn

HappyMumof2 · 27/02/2005 21:58

Message withdrawn

JulieF · 27/02/2005 21:59

The NHS estimate that it costs approx £35 million per year treating gastro-enteristis in bottlefed babies in England.

This is a well known statistic, please don't jump on Em for quoting it.

Oh, and for the record I formula fed dd from birth for the simple reason that I thought breastfeeding was a yukky thing to do due to the way I had been brought up.

Dahlia · 27/02/2005 22:02

I struggled with b/feeding with both of mine, managed 2 weeks first time, then 24 hours 2nd time. I was given plenty of information about breast and bottle feeding in hospital but it was abundantly clear that the midwives wanted me to b/feed and that bottle feeding was a definite 2nd best. I felt guilty enough about finding it so incredibly difficult when all around me were women flashing their nellies with gay abandon with perfectly latched on babies. I would have liked the midwives to be more neutral. My two are completely healthy and I don't think have suffered at all, but it was all a huge guilt trip for me. And breastfeeding IS NOT best if the mother is sobbing and distraught and can't do it. That is not the way to bond with your baby.

leglebegle · 27/02/2005 22:03

honestly oops, they do exist, my best friend is one of them. and she really did feel terribly unsexual (don't think that's a word!) afterwards and it caused her lots of problems. she was definitely someone who was not suited. myself - i breast fed, topped up, expressed, for several months until feeling completely wrung out and miserable, and switched to formula.

sparklymieow - oh dear, this is probably meant to me. Honestly I didn't mean to upset Misdee, I know she has recently had a baby, and I wasn't going to get into it at all, but she had such a firm stance I had to say something, but did try to say it fairly. I'm sorry you feel it might have been a bit harsh, I didn't mean to be. all the best x

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