FAO Midwives out there - is this barking or what?!

[rachelhill]

Did my bit of mummy community service today, went along to the local parentcraft class as invited speaker to demonstrate breastfeeding.

However was presenting alongside midwife from hell type figure who claimed the following:

(1) If you are breastfeeding and you give your baby just one bottle of formula,and you have allergies anywhere in your family, you are condemning your baby to asthma, excema etc. Period.
(2) Breastfeeding burns 600 calories PER FEED (no, not per day per feed)
(3) Ideally you just carry on breastfeeding exclusively till 12 months (I thought you had to add solids at six months because the baby's iron reserves were depleted by this point?)

The poor parents to be looked really frightened. I WAS FRIGHTENED and I'm mum to a four month old and had enough info to know to ignore this.
Made me really angry actually, you shouldn't have to guilt parents into making good choices!

Rachel

Hmmm, She seemed a bit misinformed there. Maybe she just made a mistake when she said that bf burns 600cal per feed. Maybe she meant per day.
I also think she didn't make herself very clear when she said exclusively breastfeeding for 12m. With that she would have meant that the recommendations are that babies should be bf for 12 months. Obviously solids will be introduced at around 6m, but that should be alongside bf as opposed to formula IYKWIM. So I think that that is what she meant with the term exclusively, although it is not quite the correct word to use.
With your first comment she also has a point. 1 bottle of formula will affect the ... oh I can't think of the word now... lining of goodness that the breastmilk would have left behind (that's what I'll call it for now as I can't think of the right words) and prime your baby for a cow's milk allergy if it would be sensitive to allergies. So yes, despite what many people think 1 bottle of formula can do quite some damage.

I believe the phrase is "virgin gut" - there have been a few discussions about it on here in the past.

But despite the fact that what the MW said was based on facts, her presentation could have been a little better!!

I did the same thing (went to a parentcraft class to talk about b/fing) last year when ds was 9m - fortunately the midwives there are excellent and give lots of great advice and support.

I'm with Miaou.

I know two BF mums who have had kids with severe dairy allergies (epipen and everything), which they are pretty sure is down to a single bottle of formula given in the early days.

Lots of the rest of that is cr*p, but still, yes, a single bottle can do harm. (Obviously it doesn't always, thank goodness!)

Thanks miaou, virgin gut. That was it. It's been a long day.