Lack of Support & Info for Bottle Feeders (not bottom feeders!)

[Davros]

I breastfed my son (nearly 8 yrs now) for 6 months, no problem and enjoyed it. My 3.5 month old baby girl has been bottle fed from day one and I am shocked at how little info and support there is for parents (not just mothers) who bottle feed. There is nothing that I can find. It seemed that many of my early observations were met with "oh, its because she's bottle fed", e.g. she didn't lose much from birth weight, she got hiccups a lot at first, was she constipated etc. If that is so, why isn't there more info and support available? We also had a BIG debate about what forumula to use (inc soya), what bottles, how to sterilise, what positions, how to prevent wetting her clothes etc etc but NO info or suport and only any help if we specifically asked for it.......... I'd love to know about others' experiences and what they think.

I also bottle fed after the first few days and was apprehensive about telling my MW but she was very supportive of my decision. She said that they have to use the 'breast is best' line but that it doesn't work for everyone. She did ask my advice on antenatal classes (I said that they did not mention it at all) and I said that information should be available and discussed too. After all, it is much easier to make a baby ill by mixing a bottle than it is by breastfeeding and that however the baby is fed, everyone should know how to do it safely.

What made me angry was that at my local clinic there was a breastfeeding support group that met monthly for a chat/coffee talks about baby health/massage/1st aid weaning etc general postnatal support.

However the fact that it was called a breastfeeding support group excluded us bottle feederes and there was no alternative session for us to attend.

I was given bad information about breast/bottle feeding which led me to not even try to breastfeed. I felt if the midwives had listened to me more and discussed my needs instead of just having a one policy fits all and you must do this attitude things would have been much better.

I think it depends on the area you live in as to what information and support you are given.
I breastfed for about 6 weeks (mixed feeds from about 2 weeks) and bottle only from then on.

There was information on bottle feeding in the book that I was given from my local NHS trust. I also found that if a magazine like 'Mother and Baby' had an article on feeding for newborns, they devoted the same space to breastfeeding as to bottle feeding.

I found the difference between the two as that information regarding BF was actively given to me by midwives, in parenting classes, etc. When I decided to introduce formula I spoke with my midwife, who was supportive of my decision as she could see the negative effects that BF was having on me, and she asked me if I wanted her to show me how to do the bottles, etc.
I was familiar with bottle feeding from having looked after my nephew and from what I had read, so I was ok, but the offer was there.

Just thought I would add my tuppenceworth...

I tried breast feeding my twins who arrived early but didn't get enough support in the hospital as they were understaffed.

I taught myself how to deal with bottles, no help, nothing. It is like, if you don't breastfeed you are a lazy so-and-so!

Now I wish I had been able to express and then feed them my milk from the bottle but I didn't know I could do that.

Zebra, your comments about 2 babies in the UK died due to improper feeding has really worried me.
I use formula milk and just follow the instructions on the packet. As for storage and heating I try to be sensible, i.e. try the warmth of the milk on wrist and never keep a bottle in the fridge for over 24 hours, and out of the fridge for over 2 hours.

Is there more info on this out on the web and I wonder if I am doing anything wrong?

This link will help

here

Maybe Zebra's classes were around 1999 when a 3mo baby died because his parents fed him Ready Brek and instant mashed potato and gravy in addition to his formula because he was hungry.

There's more about that particular story here.

I also found this about bottle-feeding which may help.

I seem to remember that the advice used to be (my DD is 6.5yo!) not to keep milk of any sort around at room temp after feeding for longer than an hour. But I imagine that is very much going to depend on the temperature of where you are. Personally, I would now throw away a glass of cow's milk DD hadn't finished within about half an hour of her leaving it.

The NCT /DoH Access survey done about three years ago asked many hundreds of parents (among a zillion other things) if , during and after pregnancy, they would have like more information about feeding. The same proportion - IIRC it was about half - said yes, whether they ended up breast, formula or mixed feeding.

It is not a question of breastfeeders getting more than formula feeders, with the implication that this is somehow unfair.

It seems that a large number of parents feel under-informed and under-supported, whatever they do.

There is plenty of evidence that breastfeeding mothers maintain breastfeeding for longer if they have social support from friends, and access to good info and advice. That's why it is entirely appropriate to have breastfeeding support groups at clinics....and no one who was bottle feeding would be excluded, though I can see they might feel uncomfortable.

Formula feeding mothers are sometimes left wondering what to do, and of course they need support and information. As do breastfeeders. It's not a battle!

Paula, who made you feel you were lazy in using bottles? Did anyone say that or imply that?

Once breastfeeding gets established, it's a lot easier than bottle feeding, so the lazy option would be to breastfeed!!

Actually I found bottle feeding really easy and not a bind at all. The only thing was that I couldn't put my baby to breast purely for comfort (breast feeding friends all did this but felt guilty - i guess they'd been advised not to) but I found other ways to comfort him. I think both ways are easy once mastered and hell when going wrong.

About the improperly fed babies who died:

Yes, my antenatal class was in 1999. The "ReadyBrek" baby had recently died. But there was also a local (Leicestershire) case of baby whose parents decided he (the baby) was so hungry, he should have an extra scoop of formula in his bottle. Baby seemed satisfied.... and then he died. Presumably of kidney failure/dehydration. That was why our antenatal-class teacher went to such care to carefully measure the formula out in front of us. And told us to follow instructions exactly. She also said explicitly that we should buy the cheapest brand formula, as they were all as good as one another.

I also recall a nationally-publicised case (more like 5-8 years ago) of a 6-wk-old breastfed baby who died due to his 18-yo mother not realising the baby had "Failure-to-Thrive" (not getting enough milk). Much outcry about where the HLL* was the Health Visitor who should have been monitoring. May be one reason Health Visitors are so paranoid nowadays about breastfed babies gaining weight fast enough.

I also got very irritated about the weak support/info available for bottle feeding. Mostly I found lists of what to do and what not to do, with no explanations why.
As I remember the books I had ("What to expect in the first year" and the usual stuff) both said boiled water, not bottled water, should be used for formula feeds. It took me ages to discover that bottled water with a low sodium content like Evian is quite fine. (And that the advice in many countries is to use low-sodium bottled water rather than boiled tap water).
Also I religiously measured out the scoops of formula, flattened out with a knife and so on, but now I wonder quite how sensitive the measuring needs to be. I would think you would need to be consistently putting in too much formula and not giving extra drinks of water over quite a period of time to kill a baby.
Also, heating a bottle in the microwave -- surely if you shake it well afterwards and wait for a minute or two there won't be any of those "superheated" patches in the liquid?
And finally, a question that still concerns me now -- DS2 is 10 months and so still on formula. Recently DS1 (30 months) has been asking for a bottle of formula too. Apart from the issues of using a bottle again, are there any other concerns about a toddler drinking infant formula?

Sorry, I forgot one other thing -- nipple/teat confusion. I think all my books went on about the dangers of nipple/teat confusion, but I never found a problem there. Also I've yet to meet a mother who has....

Lorien, nipple/teat confusion is controversial. There are some experienced people who feel that bottle teats are less likely to 'confuse' a baby if breastfeeding is going well, or if breastfeeding problems are being addressed.

It is certainly the case that some babies end up preferring the bottle if their experience at the breast isn't rewarding - they aren't confused, but sensibly voting for the method that works best for them

I agree with your other post - mothers should be given an explanation for the 'rules' of bottle feeding and encouraged to use common sense with them. However, microwaves are really not safe, sorry. There have been incidents of explosions; hot spots in the milk still occur with shaking.

Babies don't need their milk heated up anyway. There is no totally safe method of heating - standing the bottle in a jug risks spills and scalds.

There has been stuff in the BMJ about this - babies are fine taking their milk straight from the fridge or at room temp.

tiktok - I don't suppose you have any references from the BMJ for the cold milk issue? Just so that I can read it and feel vindicated!

My mother-in-law and Health Visitor were constantly horrified (and vocal about it) because I used to give my ds milk at room temp sometimes. I didn't understand what the big deal was - in the maternity unit I worked in when women chose to bottle feed we gave them little bottles of formula straight out of the cupboard - at room temperature. And this was for babies who were minutes old. When I pointed this out to the HV she said, "Oh, but that is special milk, it is not the same at home". Special in what way??? And besides, I thought we were talking about a suitable temperature??? Arrrrgh!

Anyway - just needed to get that off my chest!

I agree - I never heated my DD?s bottles up as I was totally unaware that it was even an option let alone a good/bad thing to do. The water was always pre boiled in sterilised bottles and at room temp - didn?t keep any in the fridge as preferred to make them up when needed. She didn?t suffer from wind or tummy ache - seemed quite happy to have them "cold".
With the convenient little powder containers you can buy, not sure why anyone would go to the lengths of adding the powder early, then stick it in the fridge only to worry about the temp. later on. Surely it is easier to prepare the water first, scoop out the right powder into a box and then mix at the last minute - a lot quicker too.

Lorien - just noticed your post about bottled water - hadn?t heard that before and would have made life a lot less stressful when out and about and caught short of boiled, cooled water. I will remember that one if I end up bottle feeding the next one. If that is the case then surely doctors know about it - so why on earth don?t they let us know these sort of facts?

When ds decided to go cold turkey on me as far as breastfeeding went (8 months) we gave him formula straight out the fridge. Decided I couldn't be bothered to heat his milk if he couldn't be bothered to choose the most convenient food delivery system for me

He loved it. Was never any worries about heating a bottle up anywhere, and no issue switching to cows milk when the time came as he was already used to cold milk.

However, thinking about it, room temperature would have been more handy for when we were out as StripyMouse says

Is the water for formula not meant to be boiled to ensure it's sterile? Is bottled water sterile?

BMJ paper is

\link{http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/320/7229/235?view=full&pmid=10642236\here

and you can check on the subsequent correspondence that backed it up.

Why anyone would think it horrifying to give room temp or cold milk I don't know...what do they think will happen?

The bottled water bit is controversial too - yes, any water has to be low in sodium, but there is also an issue with cleanliness. Water from bought bottles, despite all the 'pure' marketing guff, never claims to be bacteria-free, and I have heard HVs recommend boiling the bottled water, and maybe they have a point. The water has been a long time coming from its mountain spring to the factory to the bottling plant to the shop to your house. I think with a new baby, common sense would suggest boiling it....though this is only my opinion.

Stripymouse - doctors usually don't know a great deal about infant feeding. They certainly haven't got a clue about the minutiae of boiling or sterilising, unless they have had children of their own and have been talking to midwives and health visitors. This is babycare stuff, not medical, so I think it's fair enough not to know....what irritates me is that they think they do know, and will give mothers erronious information!

Bollocks, link didn't work...try

this

Oakmaiden, the formula in hospitals is ready-to-feed, like the ready-to-feed bought in cartons for home use. There is nothing special about it. It is UHT, which means it does not go 'off'.

I used low-sodium bottled water for bottles on holiday in Spain but at home still boiled it up for extra safety.

I used ready-made formula when out and about and never heated it up - open the carton and tip it in the bottle. That's the wonder of them. Warm milk can taste rancid anyway.

I used to take the chill off formula from the fridge but that's all. As it was summer I probably didn't even need to do that. Besides by the time ds had finished drinking it was cool anyway.

There should definitely be more info available about bottlefeeding, like a leaflet from HV's when you say you are bottlefeeding. I did mixed feeding and have just changed to bottles exclusively and there are so many little things I have had to learn myself which would have been easier if someone had just told me from the start, like;

1. Keep the baby as upright as possible if they are particularly windy - don't lay them down automatically like with bf'ing.
2. The difference between formulas - I was going to go for SMA as I recognised the brand but luckily I had a good HV who explained that Aptamil would probably be much better for my dd.
3. The fact that there is a huge difference between different makes of teats. I thought they were all basically the same but later found, through trial and error that some are much harder silicone than others. It was only when I got a softer teat that dd started drinking as much as she should have been in the first place.

I could go on and on but I'm waffling enough already. Some books may have good advice on bottle feeding but not everyone will know which book to get. If there was a leaflet from the HV, everyone who needed it could get it with no problems.

I am glad you have been able to come to a final decision. You may well find your breast get engorged over the next few days - keep a supporting bra on and keep your fluid intake up. Women used to be advised to reduce drinking but that doesn't help and can cause you to feel unwell. You can take paractemol for dicomfort but you should find it starts to resolve in around about a week.

This might help wobblymum - don't know if you have seen them. I saw a demonstration of them and they looked good. I also know a few mums who have found them to be great. You can get them in mothercare.

bottles