Controversial?!

[Boo44]

This post popped up this morning on Facebook put there by someone I'm friends with. It was accompanied by a ranting post (attached to the pic, not by my friend) about BF and slamming someone who said formula was an adequate replacement. To be fair it was a well proportioned 'argument' and put forward both sides. But it was just seeing the word 'lactivist' which I'd never heard of and made me laugh (!) and think how you can't escape the debate even on Facebook, lol!

 

[emaritska]

Lol, we ff for personal reasons but made me chuckle!!! I snorted at m midwife when she informed me the other day:
"We can only discuss breastfeeding with you after all this is a baby friendly hospital"
I said "surely feeding your baby in the way that suits you both is acceptable? Some of us cod av medical/personal reasons" to which I was bluntly told "we do not support artificial feeding here and even if you struggle you will have to approach us we will never suggest artificial feeding, in fact if you ask to we will discuss it with duty midwife!!!"

Well that told me . Not.

 

[Insectile]

It took me forever to figure out what that said! That weird "A" threw me off. I kept seeing it as a tree or a kite When that argument gets to the point where formula becomes the devil and bottle-feeding women are made to feel shameful of their choice, my brain just hits the IGNORE button.

 

[CeeDee]

Lol, we ff for personal reasons but made me chuckle!!! I snorted at m midwife when she informed me the other day:
"We can only discuss breastfeeding with you after all this is a baby friendly hospital"
I said "surely feeding your baby in the way that suits you both is acceptable? Some of us cod av medical/personal reasons" to which I was bluntly told "we do not support artificial feeding here and even if you struggle you will have to approach us we will never suggest artificial feeding, in fact if you ask to we will discuss it with duty midwife!!!"

Well that told me . Not.

Do people struggle to bottlefeed?

 

[Boo44]

Lol, we ff for personal reasons but made me chuckle!!! I snorted at m midwife when she informed me the other day:
"We can only discuss breastfeeding with you after all this is a baby friendly hospital"
I said "surely feeding your baby in the way that suits you both is acceptable? Some of us cod av medical/personal reasons" to which I was bluntly told "we do not support artificial feeding here and even if you struggle you will have to approach us we will never suggest artificial feeding, in fact if you ask to we will discuss it with duty midwife!!!"

Well that told me . Not.

Do people struggle to bottlefeed?

Think she meant even if you struggle to BF?

But anyway yes people can struggle with bottle feeding, LO's can go on feeding strikes just the same and have trouble with certain teats etc

 

[Lola90]

The "baby friendly" thing confuses me. I had to ask my mum what they were on about when I was reading through the hospital leaflets! If someone can't or choses not to breastfeed, surely the baby friendly thing to do is...y'know..FF them. As opposed to just..not feeding them. Would it be more baby friendly to just throw them a kebab or something?

 

[Celesse]

https://www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/

The Baby Friendly Initiative is a worldwide programme of the World Health Organization and UNICEF. It was established in 1992 to encourage maternity hospitals to implement the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and to practise in accordance with the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.

 

[CeeDee]

Baby Friendly has something to do with being certified by WHO/UNICEF or something like that. Just like certified organic, it just meets a certain critieria.

 

[Shoogle]

Lol, we ff for personal reasons but made me chuckle!!! I snorted at m midwife when she informed me the other day:
"We can only discuss breastfeeding with you after all this is a baby friendly hospital"
I said "surely feeding your baby in the way that suits you both is acceptable? Some of us cod av medical/personal reasons" to which I was bluntly told "we do not support artificial feeding here and even if you struggle you will have to approach us we will never suggest artificial feeding, in fact if you ask to we will discuss it with duty midwife!!!"

Well that told me . Not.

Do people struggle to bottlefeed?

We tried to bf at first he didn't want it so I exclusivly pumped for 5 weeks then got him back on the boob and pumped. He still didn't like to eat. Moved on to formula and he still hates it. So yes we had major issues with bottle and boob. At least now he is on soilds we dont have any problems with that though it is still a struggle to get him to have milk.

 

[dizz]

I have a friend (she's lovely really) who suffers from the complete inability to think before hitting the facebook share button on images.... I think I had to suffer 33 lactivist ones in a row one particular day (and she's someone who knows full-well what we've been through in terms of why we feed the way we do). I think I wore the hide post button out that particular day! If she does it again I'll say something - but I know her and it was simply not thinking about who she was clicking share WITH on that particular instance.

And yes, people need to be given the information to prepare feeds and bottles safely and hygienically - and I don't personally think it's very "baby friendly" to be sending families out on discharge with the formula feeding box ticked without making sure they actually KNOW that information - and that includes actually sitting and discussing it with them, without berating or brow-beating them once the decision has been made BY THEM, rather than just clagging a leaflet in their hand or shrugging shoulders and saying "it's in the NHS birth to five book" that they don't actually even tell you exists in our local hospital these days, and they don't give a copy out to you because of costs but expect you to go online and find it for yourself (which if you don't know it exists...)

Of course the idea of needing to provide information on that, plus things like possible allergies, or the idea that different brands may agree with different babies, things like when to move up teat sizes and the like doesn't fit in with this nice little stereotype that formula's somehow parenting on easy mode for dummies or similar (as typified by the nice snide little dig that "do people struggle to bottlefeed").

 

[summer rain]

It's actually baby friendly rules that they have to not only discuss safe FF with parents who choose to FF but they must also be shown how to safely make up bottles and given FF leaflets, a new one of which they have just published recently. If individual staff are not following the rules of the baby friendly initiative then if enough people complain the baby friendly status of the hospital can be withdrawn (and yes this includes them giving incorrect FF advice or refusing to) xx

 

[CeeDee]

Dizz, I don’t bottlefeed so I don’t know, why are you taking that personal?

I thought all the information you needed to know was on the box or can of formula as far as safe feeding practices. Everyone says it’s so much easier, but I guess it really isn’t that much easier. I think that’s a problem and everyone should have all the information they need to successfully feed their child.

 

[special_kala]

To be fair the instructions on how to prepare a bottle are on the tub.

I post pro breast feeding stuff on facebook all the time.

 

[special_kala]

I have bottle fed its not difficult to understand. That's not a snide comment that's how I found it.

 

[Boo44]

It's not preparing the feeds that can be difficult. Actually getting the baby to take milk can be a struggle FFing just as it can be BFing. I've struggled with both!

So thinking that FF is easy just because instructions are on the tin....pretty naive!

 

[dizz]

It's not preparing the feeds that can be difficult. Actually getting the baby to take milk can be a struggle FFing just as it can be BFing. I've struggled with both!

So thinking that FF is easy just because instructions are on the tin....pretty naive!

Babies (no matter how often you go on about "ooooh he's sooooo advanced") sadly can't read the instructions on the tins... and often turn out to be right picky little critters in terms of turning their noses up at various bottles, teats, formulas etc.

 

[Soph n Chris]

To be fair the instructions on how to prepare a bottle are on the tub.

I post pro breast feeding stuff on facebook all the time.

I don't think this by the way...

BUT

Is this not the same as isn't breast feeding just a matter of getting your boob out.....

There's more to feeding a baby than where the milk is coming from....

 

[special_kala]

Of course formula feeding practicality wise is easy. You make the correct feed you give it to baby they drink some you offer a bit more when they are hungry again.

It's a lot more effort though. River was fully ff I know the drill

 

[mrsrof]

Dizz, I don’t bottlefeed so I don’t know, why are you taking that personal?

I thought all the information you needed to know was on the box or can of formula as far as safe feeding practices. Everyone says it’s so much easier, but I guess it really isn’t that much easier. I think that’s a problem and everyone should have all the information they need to successfully feed their child.

The info is right there on the box...but not everyone reads it unfortunately (I know my husband asks me instead of reading the blooming instructions on just about everything)....and, very sadly in this day and age, not everyone CAN read! When I was last in the hospital there was a girl there who couldn't even fill in her own name on the sheet, she simply couldn't read or write.

There was someone here the other day saying they'd seen a couple give their baby a bottle of formula made up with the tap water from a pub bathroom. Some people just don't know, so they do need to be given the info.

My cousin has a midwife friend who told her that she had been to visit more than one family who were making up a full bottle for a newborn baby before bedtime and leaving it out in the bedroom and just feeding the baby another couple of ounces when they woke up through the night! Made up formula that's not in the fridge is supposed to be thrown out after 2 hours if untouched or 1 hour if the baby has drunk from it! Clearly no one had thought to inform them either!

 

[ilysilly]

Of course breast is best, but giving your child formula doesn't make you Satan...