Without sparking a debate, this article has taught me an amazing amount of things... it is probably particularly most comforting and motivational for women struggling with bfing. It explains why and how bfing has come to be the "alternative" choice.

http://www.theecologist.org/trial_in...mula_food.html

Again, no ff v bf debates perlease

PS. Get comfy, it's quite the read.

thanks femme, really interesting!
i like the ecologist - we used to subscribe but had to stop because it was getting that it would give me panic attacks about the state of the world/planet and the future

SUCH an interesting article thank you!!!

what an interesting read, thanks.

This is SO true. I am so glad I stumbled across BabyandBump and La Leche League sites BEFORE I started to breastfeed. Otherwise I would have had no knowledge of the "mechanics" of breastfeeding!

I had no idea advertising formula was illegal in the UK, though. Certainly not the case here... Yesterday I received a Nestle leaflet through the mail!

Very interesting article, thanks!

Really? Wow...

I especially liked the part about them advertising follow on milk but using younger babies in it... I'd never noticed it until I read that!

x

They're subtle here too... The first page of the leaflet is all "BF is best for babies, yaddah yaddah yaddah" and the second page begins with "If you can't BF or don't want to..." It made me sad. I have a lot of friends who told me they "didn't have enough milk" or were plain unable to BF their LOs! I think they were mostly ill-informed but of course, I dont say anything! Not being able to BF when you want to must be heartbreaking and I don't want to add to the guilt feeling...

It's a touchy subject really. There are women who fail to lactate and there are women whose supply seems limited and then there are babies who seem not to be thriving as they fail to gain or even lose weight. But, all current research indicates that the above only amounts to 1-2% of mothers/babies. So, it is most likely that the support is severely lacking.

I had good, knowledgeable midwives for the most part. One or two who said "She can't possibly still be hungry" and one neonatal nurse fed Molly formula without consent. For some reason I have never assumed she fed so much because she wasn't getting enough, I just figured she was comfort sucking at first until I came into this forum looking for advice. Shocking really.

So, it's easy to see why, without support, many women believe they are those rare types who fail to lactate or who haven't got enough or simply worry that their baby is too hungry for them to ever possibly be able to satisfy them and that is a huge educational failure.

However, for those who don't try/don't want to and hide behind these reasons as excuses it must feel to them like they have to justify this so I don't think it's all bad.... the general consensus is that we should BF our babies and attitudes are spot on, it's just when it actually comes down to it it doesn't always happen.

Really good article! I bookmarked it :-)

It is a good piece in so many ways and i agree with the message it's trying to promote... But... I would like to see the studies that some of the statistics quoted in the first half of the article particularly are based on and taken from.
I found the article on Calpol to be much more honest and based on proven studies i've read myself and less political.