Mumsnet undermining breastfeeding again.

[Redebs]

Just read the Mumsnet article on caring for newborn babies. It's sponsored by a bottle manufacturer.

Much of it is misinformation that will seriously interfere with mothers' success with breastfeeding. For example trying to get a feeding routine for a two month old baby. This is totally against normal practice for on demand breastfeeding.

Anyone aiming for regular naps will be seriously frustrated and will think there is something wrong with them and their baby. Night feeding is treated as if it's a massive burden that should be shared by using a bottle.The massively negative impact of inaccurate information and expectations is aimed at discouraging breastfeeding.

There's a 'helpful' link to another article on 'combination feeding' aka introducing formula, along with references to a whole lot of bottle feeding products you should buy.

The WHO condemns companies that use misinformation and pressure on mothers not to breastfeed. While it may be subtly disguised, that is exactly what articles like this are doing.

And for money.

Sure she would do the same after a lecture about her increased risk of breast cancer. Lovely!!!!

Ha busted

What you talking about. FF is the most common choice. Compare getting your boob out in public to a bottle and see. Even the language we use treats ff as the default. Its always bf 'reduces' this risk of (long list of conditions) it's never ff 'increases' the risk of .

@Tygertiger

porkies…your dd doesn’t have younger siblings so how did she watch you breastfeed them? 😂

So everyone piling on me with the assumption I’m a terrible shaming mother and will disown my daughter if she doesn’t bf my as-yet-not-conceived grandchildren is reasonable, but me linking to established evidence that BF reduces risk of breast cancer in women is outrageous? It’s on the Cancer Research UK website, FGS. You don’t have to like it but you can’t say it’s not true. I accept that choosing to drink wine raises my cancer risk. I don’t like that either but I absolutely accept that if I contract breast cancer in the future, there’s a chance I wouldn’t have done so had I been teetotal. That’s just making an informed choice, surely. I can’t stamp my feet and pretend the risk isn’t there just because I enjoy a bottle of Sauvignon at the weekends.

Honestly. If your only argument is to start hurling insults at my parenting, you really need to take a look at yourself. It’s possible to have these discussions without mudslinging, FFS.

@OzzyOzworn he refused a bottle. To this day won't have any kind of silicone in his mouth.

You feed how you want to but don't ignore the fact that it is better to bf. What did we do before formula? The human race would have died out. Yet so many say they can't. It's lack of support mainly. In the UK we can choose You, do you?
Read up on babies and their needs before getting pregnant and continue the research during.

It's not hard.

If you need support ask the health visitor, read the packet of formula. You do you n yours.
Why should I be shamed for my choices?

You shouldn't either.
Why can't we say our experienced and not attack others?

Why feel guilty if you genuinely can't......

Why do they never say? I thought they loved ‘factual, accurate information’.

I can only assume you’re stalking me on other posts. In which case you should know it’s pointless as I change my family circumstances on threads and name-change all the time. But you crack on 😆

You have just answered my question re how you would respond if your daughter said she didn’t want to breastfeed @Tygertiger

Might as well point her to the stately homes thread now op

Ah so you go around spouting all this under different names?! 😂

Op sounds like a self-righteous puritanical fanatic.

Fed is best.

The fact that you admit to frequently name changing @Tygertiger perhaps explains why on mumsnet breastfeeding / formula feeding is stuff an “issue” whereas in RL - very much “each to their own”

I suspect there’s a hardcore of BF fanatics that have multiple guides to give the impression that there’s so much more of them than there actually are!

Multiple guises

@Merryweather80 are a satirical poster or just a bit dim?

you say Why feel guilty if you genuinely can't

yet in the exact same post you said it is better to bf

Good observation!

I’ll be interested in response

Okay, I looked it up. Breastfeeding lowers your relative risk of breast cancer by 4% for every year of breastfeeding, but only certain types of breast cancer. Your risk of developing breast cancer over a lifetime is 15%, versus 14.4% if you breastfed for a year or longer.

I wouldn’t scare women over that to be honest.

OK. I’m a conspiracy theorist because I name-change frequently, as do loads of posters on the site. Sure.

Look, think what you want. I said nothing in my earlier post that isn’t true. I pointed out that the risks are at societal level and small on individual level so I’m not trying to exaggerate anything at all. Anything I said can be found in the BMJ or any number of medical journals with credible research studies. I’m really not sure what there is to get so outraged/personal about, but I’m not so insecure that I can worry about what internet randomers think of me. You enjoy your Sunday.

@Merryweather80

were you breastfed?

So you would lecture your daughter if she told you although o suspect she wouldn’t dare that she didn’t want to breastfeed

i hope for her sake that she tows the line

Actually I think on a population level, that a significant difference. I wonder how many actual women that adds up to?
Also, why don't we say ff increases this risk rather than bf reducing it?

Because they don’t know which it is, and they’re less likely to end up with a court case this way round 🤷🏼‍♀️

On a population level, perhaps. But nobody makes decisions based on population level statistics; they make the choice best for them.

Have a look at what nestle did and you'll see what the issue is.

In this country we have the wealth, education and sanitation to make formula feeding safe.

That is not the case for everyone and the unethical marketing practices led to the deaths of babies.

It's an issue that goes way beyond the individual and her choices.

I couldn't give a monkeys about how a woman feeds her baby.

I do give a monkeys about hidden advertising that prays on people's fears. I saw something the other day that was published in 2014. A well known TV doctor telling women that breastfeeding past 6 months would cause psychological issues in their children .... is that ok?

its not better. And even if it was how do you think you’re making women with medical issues feel when they can’t do it and you’re saying that. Bore off

So campaign for clean water and education in third world countries 🤷🏼‍♀️ how will banging the drum and irritating women on here help? The posters are U.K. and occasionally USA.

YANBU. They used all the unusual tricks in that advert. Presenting baby routines that could only possibly be stuck to if you were formula feeding as the norm, insinuating that mothers who breastfeed are standing in the way of fathers bonding with their babies.

That is more than ‘giving women their options / supporting their choice’ this is a deliberate attempt to present bottle feeding as the norm and breastfeeding as problematic. It is deliberately devaluing one ‘choice’ in favour of another, playing on women’s fears and myths about breastfeeding to do so.

Some people are too thick to read the subtext, as unsubtle and unoriginal as it is (it’s the same form of manipulation that pretty much every formula company use to push formula to those who may otherwise not consider it)