Miscarriage guidelines - fabulous - but...

[hunkermunker]

mumsnet.com/miscarriagecodeofpractice.html

..will you be putting together some breastfeeding support ones?

If formula feeding is so hard, compared with breastfeeding, why do more than 90% of babies have it within the first six months of life?

Aitch, there'll be bitching about making up the feeds safely, you mark my words.

[chorus of "I stirred it with a rusty spoon in an old bean tin the dog used to piss in and my kids are OK"]

actually partly unrelated I found out I did not know how to change a nappy there I was 36 and the no clue
maybe it was the drugs

well FWIW I could have done with some straightforward guidelines when I started breast-feeding my dd-the only real advice I got from midwives was about latching on properly

was not really aware of how frequently I should have been feeding dd in the early days, think I let her go too long between feeds, and had trouble establishing my supply etc etc
things I maybe could have avoided with the proper advice...

oh yes. but i do think that even if you don't get into the cheats of how to do it safely and expediently then you can at least point out why the guidelines have changed and that there is a risk inherent in not making up at 70degs.

Oh, absolutely - and it's much safer to have a bottle you make up at 70 then cool (under tap or in jug of cold water) sitting about than a thing full of boiling water to warm a feed up that you can knock over and scald the dog with. Poor dog, having his rusty bean tin commandeered, then scalding water tipped over his mange-ridden coat.

gosh, you lentil-weaving bfing mafiose really love your stereotypes, don'tcha?

oh hunker - a thing of hot water to heat the feed in............that's why microwaves were invented isn't it??? To warm the bottle of milk up quickly

And I realise I've breastfed exclusively, but I don't live in a bubble. And I do read formula tubs and I do know current guidelines and the reasons behind them and I do know that what's on the tubs isn't what's in the guidelines - largely because manufacturers don't want to put "WARNING: This powder isn't sterile. Use water of no less than 70 degrees to make up the formula or you risk making your baby ill" on their fluffy kitten, duckling and bunny tubs.

ah well no, faq. official advice (this may even be on the side of the pack) is NEVER to use a micro cos of hotspots. fookin' health and safety.

fair enough FAQ

i still think that there is too much choice and confusion re formula

and as i said, they are in it for the money. hence money spinning things like toddler milk when cows milk is perfectly adequate and night time milk which is, IMO, like mashed potato in a bottle.....

less choice of brands and more concentrating on advising parents how to safely formula feed would be far more beneficial

FWIW - I was "unwilling" when I first started bottle feeding DS2 - I felt guilty, but I realised a few months later that I was guilty about it because I'd heard SO much stuff about "guilt" of not BFing, and all the reasons I should have persevered with the BFing I was expected to feel guilty! The assumption was that as BF hadn't worked out how I'd hoped it would (ie as long/longer than DS1) then I must be upset and feel bad about not doing the best for my DC.......a months later I realised that actually I had NO guilt about it at all, I had no reason to.

I do think that there's a lot of pressure placed on pg women to BF, so much so that when they don't (for whatever reason) they automatically feel guilty. They're led to believe (even before giving birth) that they'll have "failed" (even the sodding term "failure" to thrive!) if they don't succeed.

I tried to BF DS3 (more successfully than I did with DS2 ) but when I switched him over felt no guilt at all. When people asked if I was disappointed/upset/etc about no longer BF I was able to answer - no....whereas with DS2 for a few months I felt that I had to answer yes.

Ben and Jerry's Hunker???????

FAQ, do you accept there's a need for better breastfeeding support? And just answer that, please, without a "but there needs to be better bottlefeeding support" paragraph

And yes, B&J lovely, thanks

"ah well no, faq. official advice (this may even be on the side of the pack) is NEVER to use a micro cos of hotspots. fookin' health and safety."

WHAT!! You mean they inventor of microwaves didn't invent them to warm the milk up quicker............damn got that rather wrong didn't I .

Hunker I don't think I've read a formula tub the writing is too sodding small

Lulu - but you limit the number of different brands (yes cut out the toddler and night time milks by all means - complete waste of money) and you risk leaving some FF babies with milk that really doesn't agree with them (as I found with Aptimil and DS3)

I think the pressure on pg women to breastfeed is because it's the best thing for their babies and for them (in almost all cases - and I know it's not that simple). The transfer of breastmilk, if you take away all the emotive stuff, ought to be the baseline way to feed babies - put baldly, feeding any other way increases risk of various things (illnesses, etc) for babies and also for mothers.

Therefore the health service has a vested interest in getting women to do it - unfortunately they don't always employ people who give much of a toss as long as they can have another cup of tea Quite Soon. It's very easy to make a pregnant woman believe breast is best, it's very easy not to help her make that a reality once the baby's born.

ahhh now Hunker we've been down this path of discussion many times over the last (?) years and you know where I stand

sh*t just seen the time - Murray is about to start playing, the house is a tip, and I need to go to the shop yet to get some beans for dinner

some babies might be unsettled and pooey and windy anyway, FAQ, regardless of the formula

i really doubt that the milk per se is to blame. really i do. yes, that was your experience, but DS3 might have been like that anyway.

which is away from teh main point .

the issue is that we know, simplistically, breast is best, but don;t necessarily make the correlation that formula is not as good or worse... and that closer to breastmilk is not hte same as breastmilk as breastmilk is the best thing to give

we are not allowed to say taht as it makes formula feeding parents feel bad or guilty

there is so much emotion attached to how you feed your baby, and it took me a loooooong time to come to terms with having not breastfed

There's not much difference in the fat/carb/protein composition of the different milks. I'd be interested to know what the differences actually are - guess what? The manufacturers won't tell you.

Won't tell you.

I'm horrified by that, tbh - women feed their babies the same thing, day in, day out, for the formative months of their life and it's done on a best guess from a scientist somewhere and they won't tell you why they decided that it was a good plan to add eg fish oil.

hunker , just finished very good book written by someone australian about breastfeeding, cannot remember the name and it is upstairs, and i cannot be arssed to go and look !! but i shall post the title for you. it is very interesting.

Thank you, Lulu.

I'm not 100% sure I do know where you stand on bf support, FAQ - ff support, yep, tick

lulu - we were using one formula he was ok - several weeks later we tried to switch to a different one - he SCREAMED, became constipated and started refusing his bottles as well as generally being awful to look after.

24hrs later we switched back - and he was like a different child.

We had a similar experience when switching DS2 and 3 from Gold to White - I don't believe for one minute that both of them "suddenly" stopped being so unsettled between feeds out of pure co-incidence.

And DS2 refused a bottle of Cow and Gate when I'd run out and was at a friends house and that was what she had!! (his usually bottles and teats - and yes he was hungry(.

Anyhow- I have to go, I've done NOTHING this afternoon - and my new man is going to be here in 4hrs.............