Breastfed baby risk investigated

[JayleighAnn]

You're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't (not just with feeding, with any kind of choices) they publish studies all the time slamming someones choice (there was a recent one about forward facing pushchairs can mentally harm your child, and putting your child into childcare is damaging)

It's good to make people aware of what can happen, but surely the study should also highlight that there is this problem with both types of feeding? not just bf

 

[Jem]

Do you know what, I FF and I'm proud of it!!!!!! Seriously though I agree it's good to have all the info out there but wish we didn't all get upset over BF and FF! As long as our children are happy and fed, does it matter how they get their milk? x

 

[AppleBlossom]

Do you know what, I FF and I'm proud of it!!!!!! Seriously though I agree it's good to have all the info out there but wish we didn't all get upset over BF and FF! As long as our children are happy and fed, does it matter how they get their milk? x

Here here!

 

[leeanne]

Well I think the article is a good one, it will help at least one person who reads it I am sure. At the end of the day it is a survey, and if there is a cause for it, what is the problem it doesn't affect any of you, nor your views.

I had Jade over 10yrs ago, I was a young mum and I never had a clue about babies and I never had a forum to go to for advice. Although I did live with my Mum and Dad. Now my Mum and Dad have had had 6 kiddies between them and I know damn well they knew what they are doing. The truth of the matter is, although common sense tells you "you would know" that is not always the case. (Not to scare anyone, but it DOES happen). Jade has always been very laid back right from the second she was born, I never heard her cry until she was 5 days old. I had been seeing the MWs every day, but no one had picked up there was anything wrong, and they are the qualified ones!!!!

MY GP just happened to pop in as she was passing, and it was just by chance my Mum was changing Jade's bum whilst she was there. She looked at her legs and asked if she could see her nappy. When she saw the stool in it, she said immediately to get me (I was having a lay down) - Jade was dehydrated and starving, it turned out I had very high blood pressure and odeama and we both had to be monitored 24hrs a day!

Jade was absolutely fine in my eyes, I didn't have a clue there was anything wrong. In that article it also says that this can be undetected as babies can appear 'pink & alert'. This is what happened to me.

Now this thread should be taken as a rare problem that has been highlighted......not a debate. I dread to think what would have happened if my GP never turned up that day as we never had a clue, and she had already gone from 7lb 14oz to 6lb in 5 days! It really doesn't bare thinking about. x

That must have been very scarey, Tam.

 

[tasha41]

I swear the next time someone asks me if I'm going to breastfeed or formula feed I will just say "Oh, I have to feed my baby?" or something like that. I'm going to formula feed.. and I am in some sort of breastfeeding hell over here. Doctors, nurses, other people push breastfeeding so much that I feel like they're saying it'll be my fault for not breastfeeding if my child ever gets ill, or that my child and I will never form a bond without doing that. I have so many pamphlets, work books, and papers on breastfeeding I could have a decent bonfire, lol.

 

[Vickie]

I swear the next time someone asks me if I'm going to breastfeed or formula feed I will just say "Oh, I have to feed my baby?" or something like that. I'm going to formula feed.. and I am in some sort of breastfeeding hell over here. Doctors, nurses, other people push breastfeeding so much that I feel like they're saying it'll be my fault for not breastfeeding if my child ever gets ill, or that my child and I will never form a bond without doing that. I have so many pamphlets, work books, and papers on breastfeeding I could have a decent bonfire, lol.

That's why I never told my doctors any different, they just assumed and I never corrected

 

[sam's mum]

I have so many pamphlets, work books, and papers on breastfeeding I could have a decent bonfire, lol.

I'd hate to have that much pressure - would completely put me off bfing, even if I really wanted to do it. It's like having people stalk you around their shops, looking over your shoulder...makes me run away

 

[reallytinyamy]

I swear the next time someone asks me if I'm going to breastfeed or formula feed I will just say "Oh, I have to feed my baby?" or something like that. I'm going to formula feed.. and I am in some sort of breastfeeding hell over here. Doctors, nurses, other people push breastfeeding so much that I feel like they're saying it'll be my fault for not breastfeeding if my child ever gets ill, or that my child and I will never form a bond without doing that. I have so many pamphlets, work books, and papers on breastfeeding I could have a decent bonfire, lol.

I got loads too- they made a great lining for the cats litter tray!!

 

[heather91]

I have so many pamphlets, work books, and papers on breastfeeding I could have a decent bonfire, lol.

I'd hate to have that much pressure - would completely put me off bfing, even if I really wanted to do it. It's like having people stalk you around their shops, looking over your shoulder...makes me run away

I really really wanted to BF but in the end it was pushed on me and forced so much that I just couldn't hack it and decided to formula feed instead. One of the midwives in the hospital made me feel like I was the worst mother ever for doing this Ah well, if baby is happy I'm happy and Tiffany is very content and established with her bottles now

 

[Mrs_Nesbit]

You're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't (not just with feeding, with any kind of choices) they publish studies all the time slamming someones choice (there was a recent one about forward facing pushchairs can mentally harm your child, and putting your child into childcare is damaging)

It's good to make people aware of what can happen, but surely the study should also highlight that there is this problem with both types of feeding? not just bf

Qft x
I defend everyones right to feed their babies as they please without judgement or question, however although ladies here make themselves well informed of facts and read entire articles, there may well be a vast amount who just skim over "Doctors are launching the first study to establish how many breastfed babies fall dangerously ill after failing to take in enough milk.", and then point blank refuse to give breastfeeding another thought and thats a shame. Here we have the opportunity to somewhat absorb each others experiences and learn to pick up on problems should they arise in our lives, but others miss out on that.

I remember back in the day when I had my daughter they were bashing the "Breast is best" message out with gusto. Luckily I was fortunate to have an easy time of it, but in the ward both then and 3 years later when I had my first boy I seemed surrounded by poor ladies in pain and tears with starving babies desperately trying to nurse and made to feel like the shit for asking for a bottle. That was awful and my heart desperately went out to these ladies. Today is sooo much different. Maybe it's just in my area things have changed, but when I had Sam just over 6 weeks ago EVERYONE in the ward bottlefed apart from me!. Even my HV utterly GOBSMACKED me earlier telling me that out of all the mums under her care I'm the ONLY BF'er!!

Personally I've always got comments from people who think it's odd to BF, somehow innapropriate, not needed in this day and age or made to feel like my own milk is plain and simple not good enough, plus tut's from the general public. You brush it off, it's still not as bad as those poor girls made to feel like lepers the moment they'd had their babies and either didnt want or couldnt BF.

Stuff all chance of me being elitist, as with all my children gone from breast to formula at some point and tried Sam with the a couple of bottles just to see how well it sits with him, but for now I prefer to go back to full BF. What the hell? At least if need be or an emergency arises we know what brand suits him.

To you all.

 

[JayleighAnn]

You're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't (not just with feeding, with any kind of choices) they publish studies all the time slamming someones choice (there was a recent one about forward facing pushchairs can mentally harm your child, and putting your child into childcare is damaging)

It's good to make people aware of what can happen, but surely the study should also highlight that there is this problem with both types of feeding? not just bf

Qft x

What does qft mean? lol

 

[Pyrrhic]

quoted for truth

 

[JayleighAnn]

quoted for truth

thanks

 

[elm]

I don't have time to read the 14 previous pages, just wanted to share my experience.

Elliot was a baby who went back into hospital with dehydration (and jaundice) at 6 days old. He'd been seen by both a midwife and dr the previous day who hadn't noticed that there was anything wrong with him (other than the jaundice which they said should go away on it's own - he actually needed light therapy).

We took him to the out of hours dr because he was having more urates in his nappies than the leaflet we had said we should expect. Even then the dr was going to send us away after ringing the hospital for advice, it was only because we pushed it that we were referred to the hospital and then stayed there for the next 6 days...

I think that what happened in hindsight was that because of the jaundice (and probably effects of the pethadine in the first couple of days and a tongue tie that wasn't diagnosed until we'd been in hospital for 5 days!!!) he didn't have the energy to feed as much as he needed to. He was feeding though and I presumed that when he stopped he had had enough. We were getting lots of dirty nappies (but they were nowhere near as heavy as they should have been we later learnt but had no way of knowing that at the time) and he seemed fine until day 5 when he spent most of the night crying.

I felt hugely guilty that I hadn't been feeding him properly etc, but none of the medical professionals hadn't noticed any problems with him either which is scary! I've had loads of support with breast feeding since and with alot of persistence we're getting there now.

Just really wanted to say that it is easy for a baby to get dehydrated and there be no signs that it's happening unless you've had a baby / been around a newborn before and even then it's only the nappies that were the real outward sign (and he was producing loads of dirty nappies).

Support with breast feeding (if that's what you chose to do) is hugely important and should include more nappy education!