"Eeeerrr, no, it does NOT logically follow at all!! Like it or not (and why would you not like it, we don't live in a fascist state) formula feeding is a choice that families are free to make."
Sorry - I can't understand why you think this comment is in some way an answer to the point I was making. I can't see any connection at all.
Are you trying to say that my comments are somehow 'anti-choice'? Maybe it's easier to have a go about this - which is so patently unreasonable - than respond to what I actually did say.
"We all make countless choices every day both for ourselves & our children. I'm a breastfeeding mother, and to be honest, even though bf is my conscious choice & I've struggled quite a bit to continue with it, I do not consider it THE most important choice I've made for my child".
Well no, neither do I. Nothing I've said in my posts implies that it is the only or the most important choice we make for our children. Why are you responding to me as though I did say that? You've created a 'false argument' - well known tactic in these sorts of debates. Also known as 'poisoning the well'. Imply that someone has said something completely unreasonable in relation to the issue, such as that mothers should be forced to breastfeed, or that breastfeeding guarantees a child will be completely healthy for life - then attack this opinion as though it had actually been expressed, when in fact nothing of the sort has been said or implied.
" And yet, I have never ever felt 'sorry' for someone simply because they don't make the same choice as I do"
Again - I'm not sure what you're talking about here. I haven't said anything about feeling sorry for mothers who choose not to breastfeed. I feel sorry for babies who haven't been breastfed because I feel they've missed out on something special and important. I assume you don't think breastfeeding is really all that important, though you don't say what sort of other choices you compare it to. I mean we are talking about your baby's sole source of nutrition for a full 4 - 6 months of their life. We're told that how babies are fed at this time has an impact on their health that can be measured years later. I'd be interested to know what day to day choices you make that are as important, and as irrevocable as the choice not to breastfeed.
"I think it's incredibly naive & also very offensive- as TikTok has pointed out- to feel (and to be convinced) you know what's best for other people, and to feel you have a grasp of all the complex issues that are at play when families make certain choices"
Sorry - what on earth does this comment refer to? Where in my posts have I 'assumed I have a grasp' of complex issues? I've only talked about the experience of breastfeeding from a baby's point of view. How do you go from my comments about this to criticising me for making naive comments about women's feelings and the complex issues that are at play when it comes to infant feeding? I haven't actually realy commented on these things. That's not the same as denying they exist or are important. In fact, if you'd bothered to read through my posts properly, instead of going of on an ill-informed rant of your own, you would have noticed that I did mention I believe that all mothers do the best they can based on what they know and what's possible for them. Did you read this comment and just choose to ignore it because it didn't fit with your argument?
"Further, you say bf is 'natural important & pleasurable'. Well, I'm a breastfeeding mother, and even so I disagree with 2 of the 3 words you use. BF is important to me, yes. However, it has NOT come naturally at all,"
Again - you've completely missed the point in what I was saying. I wasn't talking about breastfeeding being pleasurable and natural for women. I said it was pleasurable and natural for babies (acknowledging at the same time that though natural it's a learned skill for babies, and not always pleasurable if it can't be made to work well). I honestly think it's quite ironic that you are so wrapped up with your own feelings and perceptions of this issue that you've managed to completely misread what I was saying about breastfeeding and babies.
"To be honest though, I really don't know why I write all this to you, since I've written other things above, & have tried to have a dialogue, but I really don't feel it's getting anywhere"
No - it's not. But that's because you're not responding to what I've said. You're responding to something completely different, which has everything to do with your own agenda and nothing to do what I've said, which as far as I can see you've neither acknowledged nor understood.