should my friend be concerned about giving 1 bottle a night?

[woahthere]

My friend has been breastfeeding her daughter for 9 months now. Since the age of about 6 months she has been giving her a bottle in the middle of the night because the baby has got teeth and its when she is at her nibbliest. She rang me the other day a bit concerned because because a breastfeeding support person had told her that giving even just 1 bottle is enough to kill all the good bacteria in the babys tummy for the next 2 weeks and that it gets replaced with 'putrefying bacteria'. She wanted to know if it is true. I didnt have facts on it so could only say what I knew that there was this 'virgin gut theory' but that i didnt know much about the research behind it. We sort of reasoned that considering they start solids and have things like yoghurts etc from 6 months on that even if it were true then surely that would have happened anyway? In her mind though she is thinking that if its true and the effects take place for 2 weeks after then what is the point in carrying on b/feeding. Her theory being that if she had to substitute that bottle in the night with a breastfeed that she probably would have given up by now because she hates the bitiness.

I bow before all your expert opinions please.

putrefying bacteria?

I have never heard such a thing! I mean, it is simple fact that breast milk is better than formula, just like the cows milk is best for the calf and the dogs milk is best for the puppy! However, formula has been well put together and I am sure contains no putrefying bacteria!

Sorry I have no expert opinion though.

My gut feeling is that this breastfeeding support person is a wee bit militant.

I was thinking the word 'extremist', HeQet!

a) breastfeeding is not just about the bacterial makeup of the gut - immune benefits are a major component of the benefit of bfeeding (others too, but am typing 1 handed as feeding DS )

b) if the child is on solids, there will be far worse things than formula going into the gut

and c) what kind of shitty bf support person was she talking to?!

I thought extremist too ( my friend said the womans 3 yo has only just tried some oj for the 1st time and had only ever drank breastmilk and water before.) but I did wonder if there was anything to it. I very rarely ff my baby and successfully breastfed him until he was 16 months, at which point he just stopped himself. However, the only times that he did have formula, when i went out (not very often though) he was really gripey and unsettled for some time afterwards...I could always tell the difference. I remember it used to annoy me because Id spend ages pumping to get some milk out only to come back and find my partner had given the emergency formual first?! He didnt believe there was a difference but I thought there was.

Before the age of 6 months a baby who is solely BF has a 'virgin gut' and the bacteria in the baby's gut is a certain type of bacteria. If a baby is given formula during this period then it will change the type of bacteria and it wiould take several weeks of purely BFing to change it back again.

The BFing gut bacteria is favourable as opposed to the formula gut bacteria. I'm not sure about the 'putrifying' element of it. It sounds like scare-mongaring to me. After a baby has started eating solids, after the age of 6 months, then the gut bacteria is going to change anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

I'd advise your friend to carry on as she is, if it ain't broke, why fix it? And I'd also advise her to find another group!

maybe she was referring to this

logrrl - read your link but it's a bit too technically medical for me. Am a bit concerned though at the bits that seem to state that any formula in the first 7 days turns the baby's gut into a formula type gut. I have been bf since DS was born but the hospital put him on formula top ups initially as his blood sugar was dropping. I managed to stop them after 5 days when my milk came in but it sounds from that as though the damage was already done.
So is my breastmilk not providing the benefits I thought as his gut has different bacteria in it?!

woahthere - I'd be very concerned about a 'breastfeeding support person (presumably someone from an organisation, or someone with some sort of training?) saying such rubbish to your friend. Utter rubbish. 'Putrefying bacteria' indeed

The use of formula in a baby of 9 mths and having solids is of no nutritional or health concern at all (as long as the baby has no allergies to cows milk of course).

Early use of formula, in a young baby, may raise other issues, but formula does not destroy the beneficial effect of breastfeeding. It can change the environment of the gut, but this is repairable, and I really think there is no justification to undermine mothers who may have given formula for sound reasons, or on medical advice.

By the time my dd was 9 months she was eating boeuf bourgignon in between breastfeeds. Any putrefying bacteria (psml) wouldn't stand a chance.

Not only is your friend's science crap, but her idea of a 9 month old baby as some fragile little plant who must be protected from all outside influences is completely OTT and potentially damaging. We are talking a child who is scoffing bits of fluff off the carpet, right?

tiktok, thanks for your input, that's put my mind at rest.

OP, sounds like your friend has been given duff advice.

One of the references in the article posted above is from 1932!!! Another from 1977! As the article doesn't appear to have been published in a peer-reviewed medical/health journal I would be hesitant to take it all as fact. There are many statements that are not referenced either.