Exclusive BF for 6 months may be harmful

[Longtalljosie]

Oh bloody hell

The problem is it's only one study but will be seized on even if later it's put into context.

The other problem is the way it implies that breastfeeding is in some way a problem.

The third problem is the possibility they might turn out to be right, because I loved BLW and want to do it again...

I can hear certain members of my wider family from here...

Ooooh i so get you swallowdAfly!

To be honest i did loads of things i wasn't meant to do but they worked for us and we had no problem at all. Luckily my best pal (being very similar to me) gave me some great advice and that was to not fight what's natural. i.e. i would breast feed my daughter to sleep at night then put her in her cot...no fuss, no fight, no tears...lovely and comforting for us both but everyone i spoke to was horrified that i did that saying "i was going to make a rod for my own back and what will happen when i stop breastfeeding" blah blah - well guess what, when i stopped breastfeeding i put her in her cot gave her a snuggle and kiss and walked out...no fuss, no fight, no tears but OH NO i should have listened to the experts ha ha!

You're so right each to their own, it's great to have guidelines but you don't have to be rigid and follow them 100% that's why when my pals ask me for advice i tell them what worked for me but that it won't necessary work for them.

My DH and his exW followed everything rigidly, text book ...blo*dy no wonder he's still traumatised by having a newborn - i told him how easy i found it and i was a single mom - i did things totally differently to them, kept it simple and would be more than happy to go through it all again!

the whole thing is a total booby trap

Ok do you know what,waking up on the 7th day of the six month of breast feeding my son..Yes I am one of those loyal protagonists that fed my son on breast milk alone for half a year only to read in the news on friday morning that new research could mean its harmful or can lead to allergies.

Do you know what! I have a rather spontaneous and happy V sign to throw up at the Dr hillary 's on day time TV and guardian reader debates on 'Am I harming my child after all?' how dare you! how could you! tally! with such a sometimes laborious and natural process (not for all granted) as breast feeding! which they reassure us! us women that is, is only ten percent of women ever make it the full nine yards, six months of solo breast milk anyway?

Thanks! yes thanks..thank's a lot mate after all the tiring nights lack of sleep, staying in doing my duty my duty as a mother of the Uk national standards board thank you so much. I will look forward to letting you know if my son grows up to be a vitamin deficient moron of society, a walking allergies nutcase. 'Oh thats the Paton-cox boy! they will say..'did you know' as he drags his feet up the clambering steps to my front door, (he is still living at home as he has an unnecessary mother dependency due to all those lone nights by my side..) 'did you know' they will say with a sigh, 'he could have been so different, had a better chance in life, if only he had had a little Cowgate/Aptemil fortified with iron, only £8.99 for a littre when he was four months instead of six, a little parsnip and mashed sweet potato and maybe pees..?. could have changed everything made him.. a better citizen maybe a little fatter but better none the less

Somewhere enmeshed in the final paragraphs of that guardian article was the possibility that this research was funded by the big baby booming food conglomerates..oh no they said we are qualified they cried, we are your voice! the voice of reason, your guiding light towards the perfect Mother Consumer.

thanks for the link ruby
I emailed all my BF friends the unicef rebuttal yesterday.

Very Unusual Behaviour!

"i'm afraid the kids who were gonna have allergies will have allergies, the kids who get overfed and under exercised will get fat regardless of what they had for the first six months of their lives etc etc etc."

Great insight, there, swallowedafly.

Do write and tell the scientists currently working on an assessment and review of current research into the links between infant feeding and subsequent health effects, and all the ones who have published on this very topic over the past 20-30 years, and tell them not to bother because you have the answer that it makes no difference at all, won't you?

Jeez.

But saying what you 'believe' as if it is a fact changes nothing, unless you believe it based on the science of it, swallowedafly.

Much of the research into infant feeding is ongoing, so we can be helped to assess what the impact of later environment is, compared to early nutrition, and/or whether these two aspects work together. So a baby might, for example, live in an environment with the parental behaviours and so on to increase his risk of becoming obese, but the fact he was breastfed in infancy might mitigate these factors, or make him less obese. This would be useful to know.

Fortunately, not everyone goes around 'believing' that none of this makes any difference. Many people remain open to having their ideas changed and challenged when new information comes along.

Whose 'big business' is making money out of this, BTW?

Hmm, Interesting debate between SAF and tiktok.

Agree with SAF that there are lots of things more important than nutrition to most babies development, such as being played with and talked to.

But agree with tiktok that BF'ing can be a powerful factor in reducing obesity, and helping children regulate their appetites, and grow up to make healthy choices about eating.