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Infant feeding

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

Original poster

Annabel Karmel, not content with making weaning sound complicated, has turned her hand to breastfeeding

353 replies

hunkermunker · 19/05/2009 15:51

Words fail me

And yes, there are snippets in there that are true/useful - but HOW you dredge through the stuff that's unnecessary/nice to have but not essential - who knows?!

OP posts:
bambipie · 21/05/2009 08:20

Breastfeeding recipes? How to make bf sound really off-putting. "You'll have to go to the trouble of cooking special food". And jugs of infused water, who can be bothered to do that with a new baby. Lunacy.
My recipe is CAKE.

Bucharest · 21/05/2009 08:25

Yup. And hoooooooooooge family-sized packets of biscuits, perched on a chair, next to the sofa on which you're lying, and a boxed set of something like ER to while away the nursing hours.

Bucharest · 21/05/2009 08:25

Anyway- any grown woman who refers to her husband in print as "Daddy" has a problem.

tiktok · 21/05/2009 08:46

SamJamsMum, a well-fed breastfed baby will sometimes take quite large amounts from a bottle after a feed....more than just a few mls.

The bottle teat can give a 'super stimulus' to the baby's suck, and the baby will start to suck and swallow; babies who adore sucking will do it, because the teat is just there.

Of course a baby who's not well-fed will also take from the bottle.

It's quite wrong to suggest, as CBC does, that taking from a bottle is somehow diagnostic of overall inadequacy of breastfeeding.

pigletmania · 21/05/2009 09:11

Well if you think that AK sprouts rubbish about breasts did you see the Apprentice last night and James philosophy on breastfeeding, that breastfeeding mums are happy. And that breasts have taps in them. Oh and when a woman gives birth the lid opens and a baby comes out. What a plank!

tiktok · 21/05/2009 09:19

Saw it and laughed, too, pigletmania

Fortunately, James does not make a living writing for and advising parents on feeding issues

pigletmania · 21/05/2009 09:23

What a idiot, he is funny though. No he doesent, i think that quite a lot of men think that way, not all know too much on a womans biology lol. I do have an AK book which i totally ignored. i am a first time mum and thought that if i got it i could cook my daughter nutricious food, well i know how to cook so just adapted what i normally cook to suit my daughter, who is just over 2 now. I have never heard of breastmilk recipies before, interesting stuff.

wasabipeanut · 21/05/2009 09:27

I laughed at the recipes. What is the criteria for a breastfeeding recipe? The ability to cook it with an infant attached to ones boob?

PMSL at infused water.

Loved Jules idea of the AK branded breastpump and the unsuccessful and successful level on it. AK must be kicking herself for not already getting that baby to market.

theyoungvisiter · 21/05/2009 13:30

I think a breastfeeding recipe (early days anyway) is one that you can bark to your husband from your easy chair in the living room while he slaves away, served up in triple portions, with extra cheese and icecream on the side, and eaten with one hand.

AitchTwoOh · 21/05/2009 14:53

aw i thought he was just talking about how women can get a bit bunched-up with stressiness and find their let-down a bit tricky. poor sod. i actually thought he must be a nice, supportive husband tbh.

wastingmyeducation · 21/05/2009 15:13

tyv - I made sure to show DH the spaghetti measuring device while pg, so there would be no excuse for him not to cook me something. (I don't use it btw, but he goes all incompetent when required to do anything out of the ordinary)

Poledra · 21/05/2009 15:22

Aitch, so did I - I thought he said thst bfeeding mums had to be happy and that it was really important.

Bet he cried when his DC was (were?) born

AitchTwoOh · 21/05/2009 15:38

anyway, bloody good show that he didn't just take the piss out of bfing imo, he could have done and the BBC would have gladly shown him doing it.

dorisbonkers · 21/05/2009 15:54

I have recently arrived from Singapore to London in time to wean my 6-1/2 month old. I have been given or lent four of this woman's books (even though I said I planned to go straight to finger foods) and a brief glance told me she fits more in the GF mold.

Apart from the woeful expressing advice (which is incidentally the same in GF) and advice to introduce teats too early, there's rubbish about eating for the mother (I ate next to nothing after my section for three weeks). And this:

"Normal if a baby sometimes ?cluster? feeds (ie has lots of little feeds) at certain times of the day. This often happens in the evening when your supply might be a little bit low."

Doesn't that go against the whole way milk is made? Sorry if that is the case but I thought (and had been told on good authority) that this was wrong?

dawntigga · 21/05/2009 16:05

Thank you everyone you made a very tired mum laugh a lot!

I pretty much agree with everything here and thought I was on my own thinking she's an idiot!

Tired smooches

Dawnxx

elkiedee · 21/05/2009 16:07

Doris, the woeful expressing advice comes from Clare Byam-Cook, who also works with Gina Ford. So it really is the same advice.

This thread is also being discussed on AK (they don't like us much!), though some of CB-C's advice has been criticised quite well by some AK regulars, to be fair.

PinkTulips · 21/05/2009 16:17

dorisbonkers... cluster feeding is totally normal, especially in the evening but is actually due to the body producing more milky hormones at night. baby seems to sense this and feeds more, in turn triggering the production of lots more milk.

disclaimer this may be totally wrong but it's what the HCPs around here have been telling me. when i was discharged from scbu and had to stay at my parents overnight i was under strict orders to pump during the night, specifically between 2am and 5am as this is when the hormone levals peak and it would stimulate my supply hugely. i'm taking it as truth because it worked really well

Poledra · 21/05/2009 16:27

Yes, PinkTulips, the circadian rhythm means that prolactin increases at night, in lactating and non-lactating women. Also, there is a greater increase in suckling-induced prolactin release in the afternoon than in the morning here

ruddynorah · 21/05/2009 16:35

what i'd like to know is when will AK have those infused waters available in ready to buy bottles next to the frozen ready breastfeeding meals???? hmmmmm??? i think a line of breastfeeding snacks would be wise also. plus of course some specially designed utensils and bowls for feeding while you breastfeed. in fact, a special little cooker for heating your ready breastfeeding meals would be superb. i think this could really take off..

now my own personal bf recipe went something like this..

quavers
flapjack
hot chocolate.

wastingmyeducation · 21/05/2009 16:38

A hooter hider that doubles as a breastfeeding bib for eating your breastfeeding meals whilst protecting baby from crumbs?

ruddynorah · 21/05/2009 16:40

hey now you're talking!

aurorec · 21/05/2009 18:56

Surely this is the scariest quote?

  1. A baby will always get more milk out of a breast than a pump.
Not true! Most good breast pumps are very effective at emptying a breast and will often do a far better job than a sleepy baby. I regularly express milk at the end of a feed when the baby won?t suck any more on the breast but is still hungry and unsettled - the baby will then take this milk from a bottle
PinkTulips · 21/05/2009 19:21

see, i have to do the opposite, express and then get the bay to feed from that boob to properly empty it!

not really completely related but thought i'd share this story with you;

when ds2 was in scbu the consultant ordered nil by mouth as 'his irregular, too fast breathing means he is in danger of choking on the milk'. i begged and pleaded but he was insistant... no feeding. so on day two i started pumping frantically to up my supply while asking at hourly intervals 'can i feed him yet?'

that evening when the consultant went home he was still refusing to let me feed as 'it's too dangerous'. when the night nurses came on duty i went off to pump and when i came back ds2 was quite upset and irritable so they took him out of his incubator for me to cuddle... he was still a bit unsettled so one of the nurses said 'you just pumped didn't you? sure stick him on then seeing as your boobs are empty and let him comfort suck ' and walked off!

ds2 had a great little feed and they called me every time he woke after that to feed him

nest day the consultant was trying to use the excuse of 'he's not even able to feed yet' as an excuse for some other absurdity and was told by the nurses 'actually he's been feeding just fine since last night doctor'..... i really wish i'd had a camera to take a snap of his face

BCLass · 21/05/2009 19:22

Ha! I can only get milk out when dd is sleepy! It's the only time she concentrates!

Allegrogirl · 21/05/2009 20:04

I was advised to pump 'to increase supply' just one week after dd was born. Bloody MW. I then bought CBC's book in desperation which just made me feel a lot worse. Baby had lost close to 10% of weight due to jaundice and my inexperience. However she gained slowly and never lost apart from the first 4-5 days. I wasted precious time when I should've been asleep in fits of tears attached to a bloody breast pump. It's utter bollocks that a pump can get what a baby can. I was lucky to pump an oz but dd went from 2nd to 25th centile in month.

The ideas peddled by these charlatans took me to the brink of PND when there wasn't ANY problem with my milk.

A box of Thorntons and Midsomer Murders are all that is required for a happy afternoon of nursing, and who cares if it takes an hour.

I quite liked AK's baby recipe book as long as you don't follow it as gospel. She does look annoyingly smug though.

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