Breastfeeding vs formula

[Keyboard91]

I have a medical condition that means I will need to be on medication within 2 weeks of birth which will mean I cannot breastfeed from that point.

I always had the ‘I’m going to breastfeed’ dream and if it wasn’t for my disability, we’d be planning on BF from day 1. However, knowing that the longest I’ll be able to do it is 2 weeks, and that it may well be less than that, I’m now in two minds.

I’ve read a lot about how it takes time for it to establish etc and unfortunately I just won’t have that time (as in I will have less than 2 weeks). I’ve also read that unless you are actively feeding then expressing is very difficult and unproductive.

Has anyone got any advice? This is my first baby so it’s not something I have any experience of. I just want to do the best I can for him.

I’m also at high risk of a C-Section if that has any bearing?

I’m fully aware breast is best so please don’t hammer that in and make me feel any worse than I already do. And I am sure I can’t BF with the medication. It’s nasty stuff, caused at least 1 of my 2 MCs ... but it keeps me alive and able to walk so is a necessary evil.

Thank you in advance :)

Yes, Dr Wendy Jones has been awarded an MBE for her work. Definitely not ‘some random’. Most doctors know very little about breastfeeding and very little about drugs and breastmilk. Of course it’s sensible advice to tell someone to check with an expert in the area before making any decisions.

And I’d continue to take the professional advice of my medical team, rather than asking some randoms on Facebook

The highly respected PHARMACIST who runs the bfn IS who healthcare professionals turn to for advice.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting THE Wendy Jones, and she is a lovely lady! Definitely not ‘some random’ lol

Food is food

But that’s just it - for babies, it’s not that simple.

This is why ‘fed is best’ riles me up so much.

Fed what?

Big Macs? Coke? Condensed milk with honey and rusks? Baby rice in goats milk? Apple juice? Soy milk? Promax? Liquidised bolognaise?

So many foods are really not suitable for babies. ‘Fed is best’ is ridiculous.

Breast milk is what babies are supposed to drink. They need the live hormones, antibodies and bacteria in breast milk. These can’t be replicated - ever.

Any breastfeeding is great. If you can’t breastfeed, then donor milk is next best, followed by formula.

All foods are certainly not equal.

"Fed is not best, all the research states that. Breast milk is the best for babies, formula is the only other option so second best."

God, I hate this attitude, it makes so many women feel so shit about themselves for no reason.

The research actually states that the difference between a breastfed and a formula fed baby is minimal at best. There are a lot of people with agendas who use figures for their own purposes though.

What do you think is better for baby? A stressed, upset, crying mum who desperately tries to breastfeed despite supply/other problems because it's "best", or a calm, chill mum who can sleep and whose partner can easily get up to feed the baby too?

Besides which, the above is completely irrelevant to the OP because she can't breastfeed. So why make her feel bad about it?

I say this as someone fully planning to breastfeed when my baby is born next month. But if I can't for whatever reason, I will be perfectly happy to feed with formula. The only reason I'm breastfeeding is to save money, and when my breastfeeding enthusiast friends go on about 'bonding' and stuff, it honestly leaves me kind of cold.

Ignore the lactivists, OP, if you need to take medication, there's not much you can do about it so just be happy that we live in a time and place where there's access to formula which works just as well as breastmilk.

@WellErrr

So you can point us to a reliable study that looks at siblings from the same families (thus isolating socio-economic factors as far as possible) and identifies better outcomes in the breastfed siblings?

"Breast milk is what babies are supposed to drink. They need the live hormones, antibodies and bacteria in breast milk. These can’t be replicated - ever."

If they need it, then how do formula fed babies survive?

As for McD and coke and whatever, are you honestly comparing that to formula fed babies? Really?

Aren't you ashamed to go on about this when the OP literally can't feed her baby due to medical reasons? Don't you feel even a hint of shame to make another woman feel bad for something she literally can't do?

Is this still going on?

I'm a big believer in breastfeeding. We had a rough start but managed to persevere and are still going as DD approaches one. I fully buy in to all the stuff about health benefits and bonding because that's my experience and I'm glad and fortunate we've been able to breastfeed (although it was also bloody hard work to start so I am proud of me and DD for persevering with it too. It was something very important to me.).

But that's nothing to do with this thread. There's no point in debating the merits or otherwise of breastfeeding on the post of someone who is unable to do it through no choice of their own.

I agree that fed is best is a crap phrase. Fed is bare minimum. Most people know breast is best. That's not in question here, even the OP herself said it. That's got nothing to do with this thread either. OP is presumably going to feed her baby, so the only question is whether practically it's worth/possible to do it for two weeks (which I believe it very much is, and she's got some good advice on that).

"I really don’t know why people still say ‘fed is best’ in this day and age."

@TwinkleStars15

I'm all in favour of breastfeeding (I'm breastfeeding my 16 month old and he's never had formula) but I still think 'fed is best' is a good thing to say. 'Breast is best' is very black and white and, while it may be technically true from a purely scientific level, doesn't take into account women who are unable to breastfeed for whatever reason. Life is not black and white.

Op, if you can breastfeed your baby for the first couple of weeks then great. If you can't or don't want to, you'll still have a beautiful and growing baby on formula. Please don't beat yourself up. Good luck

celebelly but it IS in question. Because the research doesn't actually support it.

How do you know your bonding experience or your daughters health would be any different if you had formula fed instead? It's just confirmation bias.

So you can point us to a reliable study that looks at siblings from the same families (thus isolating socio-economic factors as far as possible) and identifies better outcomes in the breastfed siblings?

Probably if I wasn’t on my lunch break - but really, although I know you love your one sibset study, you really don’t need to compare siblings to see how breast milk and formula affect a baby on a cellular level.

If they need it, then how do formula fed babies survive?

Since you ask (although I will be flamed for stating facts) in many countries formula fed babies don’t survive. Formula fed babies have poorer immune systems, so they get more infections and when you don’t have access to the healthcare and drugs that we do, outcomes often aren’t great.
In the UK however, we have the resources to treat these babies so it’s not as much of an issue in terms of mortality rates.

As for McD and coke and whatever, are you honestly comparing that to formula fed babies? Really?

No. Which you’d know already had you read my post properly.

Attacking anyone who speaks factually about breast milk is one of the reasons this country has such dire breastfeeding rates.

OP can breastfeed her baby for two weeks. It would give his/her immune system a real start if she does. After that, in a first world country with clean water and access to doctors - formula is a perfectly good (and in this case, crucial) alternative.

There. Pick that apart at will.

@WatchingTheMoon Perhaps so, but you can turn it around and say the opposite too. I can only talk about my own experience and that's from 12 weeks of bottle feeding expressed milk first as she wouldn't latch on. I find breastfeeding a much closer experience than I did bottle-feeding her and it's something special that just me and her share and no one else does. I don't expect others to have the same experience, but that's mine and if anyone asks, that's what I'll tell them 🤷‍♀️

And of course breast milk is better than formula purely as a substance. How much better is a matter or debate and ongoing research. That doesn't mean formula is junk, though, or that people need to feel guilty for feeding it. We all make a thousand different choices over the course of our children's lives, and this is just one of them.

But all of this is, again, pointless in terms of this thread.

@WellErrr I don't think you've read the original post properly.

It clearly states: "I’m fully aware breast is best so please don’t hammer that in and make me feel any worse than I already do. And I am sure I can’t BF with the medication."

You're being very insensitive.

She can breastfeed for the first two weeks. She’s wondering if it is worth it as she won’t be able to carry on.

The answer is YES. Colostrum and breast milk in the early days will have a profound affect on her baby’s development and immune system. So yes, absolutely worth it. Even if she only does two DAYS it’s worth it! :)

Fed is best the only reason I've chosen to give breastfeeding a go is so i don't have to faff with bottles and milk and sterilizing etc but if it doesn't work its not the end of the world they are only fed on milk for sure a small time in their lives it doesn't matter your DC will be on solids and into the toddler years before you know it

This thread is ridiculous, I hope OP doesn't come back and read it. But just in case, OP harvesting or directly feeding colostrum in the first few days is definitely worthwhile, past that I would see how it goes. Formula in this country where we have access to clean water and information and facilities to sterilise etc and prepare bottles correctly, is perfectly safe. It's really nasty and spiteful for women to be saying about how awful formula is when OP has stated that she understands the benefits of BF but can't due to her medication, absolute witches.

Formula fed babies have poorer immune systems, so they get more infections and when you don’t have access to the healthcare and drugs that we do, outcomes often aren’t great

The issue is no access to clean and safe water, breastmilk can also be dangerous to babies if the mother has a transmittable disease such as HIV, but that doesn't render it less beneficial for others. Saying formula fed babies have weaker immune systems is absolutely unfounded. The mother can produce antibodies for the baby if they are poorly and mother already has it, but that's transferring those rather than strengthening babies immune system as such. I think breastfeeding is amazing, but I also like science and facts.

Saying formula fed babies have weaker immune systems is absolutely unfounded.....I think breastfeeding is amazing, but I also like science and facts.

You’ll love this then - jaoa.org/article.aspx?articleid=2093315

And this - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/16627775/

And this - www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2017.00584/full

And this - academic.oup.com/jn/article/138/9/1782S/4750857

All academic journal articles or studies.

Each to their own, but please let’s stick to proven scientific fact. Breast milk research is part of my job, I just can’t sit by and watch someone state publicly that the science isn’t real.

@WellErrr I'm sorry but that is absolute bullshit re formula and babies dying.

Well to put it more accurately, it's not bullshit but it is completely and totally irrelevant to compare formula fed babies from developing countries with poor hygiene, poor education and lower access to clean running water with people feeding formula in England.

It's the risks of formula feeding that cause those issues, not the formula itself and not the benefits of breastfeeding in those circumstances are that it eliminates those risks of formula feeding because there is no clean water, clean bottles etc to worry about.

Those risks can also be reduced by living in a clean modern house with a good water supply and by making the formula up according to instructions. It's honestly not rocket science.

I'm seeing a lot of 'difficult to prove' and inconclusive studies which have been repeated with no clear outcome in those, so I don't really love them, they just help prove the point.

Not bullshit Cloudy, please do feel free to peruse the several links I just posted to studies on the effects of breast milk on immune system and infections 👍

If there's any conclusive scientific facts then please share those. Or more likely is looking through research trying to back up assumptions.

Sandaled really!? You haven’t read any of the selection I linked to then?

Remarkable new findings clarify the multifunctional nature of human milk bioactive components. New research techniques have expanded our understanding of the potential for human milk’s effect on the infant that will never be possible with milk formulas. Human milk microbiome directly shapes the infant’s intestinal microbiome, while the human milk oligosaccharides drive the growth of these microbes within the gut. New techniques such as genomics, metabolomics, proteomics, and glycomics are being used to describe this symbiotic relationship. An expanded role for antimicrobial proteins/peptides within human milk in innate immune protection is described. The unique milieu of enhanced immune protection with diminished inflammation results from a complex interaction of anti-inflammatory and antioxidative factors provided by human milk to the intestine.