fed up of being told breast is best!!!

[izzysmummy]

I haven't once said that giving your child formula will make them overweight and fat! Nor does it stop their developement.

I merely stated an experience of my own. The only fact i stated was that formula milk artificially stretches a babies tummy, which is true.

I am not responsible for people reading too much into my post, and as i stated earlier i meant NO offence by it. I have taken quite a lot of offence to some of the posts on here but as it is an open discussion have kept my personal thoughts to myself.

My sister was FF and was underweight until she was 2, so does that mean i am saying that formula milk is not good enough. No it means that every child is different.

 

[AppleBlossom]

Even if you think that your breasts are empty and baby isn't getting anything, this too is wrong as you always have 25% of milk in your breasts weather they feel empty or not. Even if you think baby isn't getting anything as long as baby is suckling or you are pumping with a pump and stimulating the nipple, within a day or 2 your milk supply will be higher.

Try telling someone like me that when you are sat for up to 3 hours with a distressed screaming baby who is crying for food that they can't get it and are instead causing you a massive amount of pain...

Alot of people on here are quite quick to have a go at the government for pushing BF and not encouraging FF. Another Fact is that FF artificially stretches your babies tummy, Breastmilk is a natural food made for your baby and is digested quickly and easily. Formula milk is much harder to digest, and stays in babies tummy for longer, causing their tummies to stretch.

I totally agree that if a mum decideds to FF then she should be shown how and told how much by someone who knows what they are doing. Most new mums do not know that a babies tummy at birth is only big enough to hold something tiny like 20mls of milk at 1 time, it horrifies me that you see new mums tring to force 4 oz bottles down their newborns neck every 3/4 hours because the carton of formula says so. This is the reason you have a sicky baby as they have been given too much.

When i stopped BF my daughter at 7 months, due to her wanting to stop, she would never take more than 4/5 oz bottles as she just didn't want it.

My friend has a baby who is due to turn 6 months old shortly and weighs 19.5lbs. My daughter is 16 1/2 months old and weighs 22lbs. He is formula fed and has massive 9oz bottles 5/6 times a day! My daughter is very healthy, she was fast at doing everything as a baby and i put that down to her not been over weight, she was able to roll front to back at 10 weeks, back to front at 16 weeks. She was sitting up unaided by 24 weeks, and began crawling and cruising at 29 weeks. She was walking with ease by 9 months old.

My friends little boy cannot even roll over at 6 months old because of all the weight he has to shift! lol poor thing.... hopefully he will be able to run it off when he starts walking.

It is so easy to overfeed your child by following what it says on a tin, rather than seeking expert advice on the matter.

Anyway i have said enough on this thread, it is clealy getting alot of peoples backs up!

All of the above, especially the bit in bold, is ridiculous. My daughter was FF from 2 weeks old and was on hungrier baby formula by the time she was 8 weeks old on advice of a HV. She is not fat and never has been and was always either on or just below her average percentile for her age. Just because a baby is FF doesn't mean they will be fat and slow. Grace guzzled formula like there was no tomorrow and at almost 2 only weighs 25 lbs, very small for her age. When Grace was very little I used to take her to get weighed every other week. One time I went a woman was in there getting her baby weighed who was a bit younger than Grace and weighed more. The MW was asking about her feeding habits. And surprise, she breastfed. The MW told her she had to stop feeding on demand or her child would end up being overweight for it's age. So it works both ways...

sorry but shes actually right, the breasts never completely empty even if you think they have. the more your baby suckles the more milk is produced so it is actually worth it. this is why people perservere

as for the second bit she used an EXAMPLE. she didn't say every formula fed baby would be fat. But she has a point, studies have shown that formula fed children generally weigh more and up to the age of 18 there are much higher numbers of child obesity in formula fed children.

There's no need to be sarcastic. I'm sorry I wasn't a perfect supermum and just decided to carry on BFing and resent my child. That's just life actually. I'm fed of all these "studies"... FF is practically giving your child a McDonalds every day etc etc. Try real life instead of bloody studies. I have never met an overweight FF child. I have met one or 2 overweight BF children. But nobody ever likes to mention that do they? I understand BFers like to be praised for "persevering" but I don't see why FFers should A) Get it shoved down their throat that breast is best and B) All these so called studires telling us how terrible we are for giving our children formula milk

 

[Blah11]

Think you're reading something that isn't there and taking offense to it.

 

[alio]

at the end of they day this is such a tired debate. i couldn't care less that a bfing mum chooses to breastfeed / nor that a ffing mum chooses to do so either. neither are to be worn as a badge of honour - it's just feeding your kid! some people lose their kids. can't we get things in perspective and not try to have a battle of one upmanship?

 

[AppleBlossom]

I'm in a really shitty mood so excuse my attitude in this thread (and any others lol)

 

[Blah11]

I'm in a really shitty mood so excuse my attitude in this thread (and any others lol)

 

[alio]

I'm in a really shitty mood so excuse my attitude in this thread (and any others lol)

you've no reason to apologise bexy. x

 

[winegums]

Even if you think that your breasts are empty and baby isn't getting anything, this too is wrong as you always have 25% of milk in your breasts weather they feel empty or not. Even if you think baby isn't getting anything as long as baby is suckling or you are pumping with a pump and stimulating the nipple, within a day or 2 your milk supply will be higher.

Try telling someone like me that when you are sat for up to 3 hours with a distressed screaming baby who is crying for food that they can't get it and are instead causing you a massive amount of pain...

Alot of people on here are quite quick to have a go at the government for pushing BF and not encouraging FF. Another Fact is that FF artificially stretches your babies tummy, Breastmilk is a natural food made for your baby and is digested quickly and easily. Formula milk is much harder to digest, and stays in babies tummy for longer, causing their tummies to stretch.

I totally agree that if a mum decideds to FF then she should be shown how and told how much by someone who knows what they are doing. Most new mums do not know that a babies tummy at birth is only big enough to hold something tiny like 20mls of milk at 1 time, it horrifies me that you see new mums tring to force 4 oz bottles down their newborns neck every 3/4 hours because the carton of formula says so. This is the reason you have a sicky baby as they have been given too much.

When i stopped BF my daughter at 7 months, due to her wanting to stop, she would never take more than 4/5 oz bottles as she just didn't want it.

My friend has a baby who is due to turn 6 months old shortly and weighs 19.5lbs. My daughter is 16 1/2 months old and weighs 22lbs. He is formula fed and has massive 9oz bottles 5/6 times a day! My daughter is very healthy, she was fast at doing everything as a baby and i put that down to her not been over weight, she was able to roll front to back at 10 weeks, back to front at 16 weeks. She was sitting up unaided by 24 weeks, and began crawling and cruising at 29 weeks. She was walking with ease by 9 months old.

My friends little boy cannot even roll over at 6 months old because of all the weight he has to shift! lol poor thing.... hopefully he will be able to run it off when he starts walking.

It is so easy to overfeed your child by following what it says on a tin, rather than seeking expert advice on the matter.

Anyway i have said enough on this thread, it is clealy getting alot of peoples backs up!

All of the above, especially the bit in bold, is ridiculous. My daughter was FF from 2 weeks old and was on hungrier baby formula by the time she was 8 weeks old on advice of a HV. She is not fat and never has been and was always either on or just below her average percentile for her age. Just because a baby is FF doesn't mean they will be fat and slow. Grace guzzled formula like there was no tomorrow and at almost 2 only weighs 25 lbs, very small for her age. When Grace was very little I used to take her to get weighed every other week. One time I went a woman was in there getting her baby weighed who was a bit younger than Grace and weighed more. The MW was asking about her feeding habits. And surprise, she breastfed. The MW told her she had to stop feeding on demand or her child would end up being overweight for it's age. So it works both ways...

sorry but shes actually right, the breasts never completely empty even if you think they have. the more your baby suckles the more milk is produced so it is actually worth it. this is why people perservere

as for the second bit she used an EXAMPLE. she didn't say every formula fed baby would be fat. But she has a point, studies have shown that formula fed children generally weigh more and up to the age of 18 there are much higher numbers of child obesity in formula fed children.

There's no need to be sarcastic. I'm sorry I wasn't a perfect supermum and just decided to carry on BFing and resent my child. That's just life actually. I'm fed of all these "studies"... FF is practically giving your child a McDonalds every day etc etc. Try real life instead of bloody studies. I have never met an overweight FF child. I have met one or 2 overweight BF children. But nobody ever likes to mention that do they? I understand BFers like to be praised for "persevering" but I don't see why FFers should A) Get it shoved down their throat that breast is best and B) All these so called studires telling us how terrible we are for giving our children formula milk

Sorry I wasn't sarcastic on that post so not sure where you got that from.
i never said anyone should be praised for perservering i explain WHY people do.... the more the baby has the more milk is produced. its a cycle. when people are too impatient and think all this milk should be automatically flowing out of their boobs, without their body knowing how much to produce it baffles me.

i guess no one mentions the overweight breastfed children as there are much less of them than the formula fed ones.

Hey I used to ff and i don't have a problem with it! i'm just giving info. if you get offended by information that isn't my problem.

 

[Dragonfly]

Just a note there are two size charts one for formula fed and one for breastfed babies, there is a difference. So much so that my HV dosnt have a breastfed one still and I have been told my son is underweight according to a formula chart but apparently that didnt matter as it was the wrong chart.

 

[fuzzylu]

sorry i dont post on hear very oftern as i tend not to have alot to say but thought i would add to a few points i have seen.

i have some exprience with midwifery training, all midwives while thay are at uni and before they are alowed to qualify have to have the knowledge and skills to assist women with breast feeding (they are assesed on this) so all should be able to support you with feeding your baby. there are specilist midwives who have had further training to help thoughs with very challenging breastfeeding issues like premature babies and thos with toung tie, or multible births.

xxx

hiya i'm not sure where abouts you live but where i live midwives do not have proper breastfeeding training. They get told about breastfeeding and qualified enough to show a women how to do it etc but it's just the bare bones! the breastfeeding specialists do thorough training of every aspect including perfectly normal women where neither they nor the baby have any known problems but for some reason breastfeeding is failing.

i thought the degree was pretty standard throughout the UK but i may be wrong?

no all midwives learn to give breastfeeding support during the training, it is standared across the course for degree and diploma level. not sure who has told you that they are not trained but they are. of course there are midwives that are more exprienced and just better at supporting women but all have learnt the theory and pratical. i had to be watched by an assesser while i was supporting a woman and to lead a parent craft class on breast feeding plus write an essay on this. the kinds off assesments do vary from diffrent uniiversitys but the learning content is very similer.
having said all that a midwife cannot deliver adequate breastfeeding support without the time to do so, unfortunatly this is more to do with nhs resorces.

i dont want anyone thinking i am anti ff i just see it as having a place in some peoples lives where nessecery.

it is true that ff takes longer to digest in a babies tummy, hence y ff babys tend to sleep better at night as they stay fuller for longer. however it will not make ur baby overweight a baby will eat as much as it wants weather its breast or bottle fed.
also its not the ff that increases the risk of colic its the bottles that do that so feeding a baby breast milk with a bottle is just as much at risk. reflux however is much more apparent in bottle fed babys as well as constipation.

a womans breast milk will provid all the nutrition needed for baby no matter what the mothers diet if the womans diet is poor it will affect the woman not the baby. although certian foods can come through into the milk ie some spicy foods can make a diffrence to the taste so baby may not like it or orange juice may cause loose nappies.

as long as you know the facts and make an informed decision based on the facts how u feed your baby is your choice and you should not be made to feel guilty about this.

xx

 

[Dragonfly]

Breastfed babies are fatter in the first 6 months also till they start getting active then burn off the weight to this is what prevents obesity later on to.

Also your babies silva tells your nipples how much milk to make! for about a few months though leeks happen this is until your body knows how much your baby wants and you always have enough for your baby if your exclusively breastfeeding.

A lot of woman dont trust their bodies and they have been made to feel that way, like they dont have enough or baby isnt getting enough.

 

[izzysmummy]

I agree that some BF babies do try and suckle for comfort or to get to sleep, and some mums go along with it for an easy life. I never let my child fall asleep whilst feeding as i was not making a rod for my own back, i gave her a dummy against my better judgement to soothe her as i was not going to let her suck my breasts just to fall asleep. I hate the bloody thing now as it is the only thing she has ever woken for in the night if she lost the damn thing.

I also introduced water at a young age about 4 weeks, even though i was told that she didn't need it as she gets all she needs through BM. I did what i thought was best as her mother and she would drink 4/5 oz a day.

 

[AppleBlossom]

Sorry, I'm not offended by it. I don't get offended by anyone challenging the way I parent my child. Nobody has the right to tell me what I should and shouldn't be doing so why would I waste my time listening to them and worrying about it. I do what I think is right for me and my child. End of story. I just get fed up when people try and shoot down FFers, even the ones that really tried Bfing and just couldn't do it and make us feel like failures. Like, Grace genuinely wasn't getting enough milk. It's not an excuse because I don't need to make excuses for my parenting decisions. But someone then telling me that actually, I was wrong. It annoys me rather than offends me tbh.

Anyway, FOB has been a complete pain in the arse today so it's put me in a bad mood so sorry if I seem a bit touchy lol

 

[winegums]

sorry i dont post on hear very oftern as i tend not to have alot to say but thought i would add to a few points i have seen.

i have some exprience with midwifery training, all midwives while thay are at uni and before they are alowed to qualify have to have the knowledge and skills to assist women with breast feeding (they are assesed on this) so all should be able to support you with feeding your baby. there are specilist midwives who have had further training to help thoughs with very challenging breastfeeding issues like premature babies and thos with toung tie, or multible births.

xxx

hiya i'm not sure where abouts you live but where i live midwives do not have proper breastfeeding training. They get told about breastfeeding and qualified enough to show a women how to do it etc but it's just the bare bones! the breastfeeding specialists do thorough training of every aspect including perfectly normal women where neither they nor the baby have any known problems but for some reason breastfeeding is failing.

i thought the degree was pretty standard throughout the UK but i may be wrong?

no all midwives learn to give breastfeeding support during the training, it is standared across the course for degree and diploma level. not sure who has told you that they are not trained but they are. of course there are midwives that are more exprienced and just better at supporting women but all have learnt the theory and pratical. i had to be watched by an assesser while i was supporting a woman and to lead a parent craft class on breast feeding plus write an essay on this. the kinds off assesments do vary from diffrent uniiversitys but the learning content is very similer.
having said all that a midwife cannot deliver adequate breastfeeding support without the time to do so, unfortunatly this is more to do with nhs resorces.

i dont want anyone thinking i am anti ff i just see it as having a place in some peoples lives where nessecery.

it is true that ff takes longer to digest in a babies tummy, hence y ff babys tend to sleep better at night as they stay fuller for longer. however it will not make ur baby overweight a baby will eat as much as it wants weather its breast or bottle fed.
also its not the ff that increases the risk of colic its the bottles that do that so feeding a baby breast milk with a bottle is just as much at risk. reflux however is much more apparent in bottle fed babys as well as constipation.

a womans breast milk will provid all the nutrition needed for baby no matter what the mothers diet if the womans diet is poor it will affect the woman not the baby. although certian foods can come through into the milk ie some spicy foods can make a diffrence to the taste so baby may not like it or orange juice may cause loose nappies.

as long as you know the facts and make an informed decision based on the facts how u feed your baby is your choice and you should not be made to feel guilty about this.

xx

ok the people i have asked are midwives that run the midwifery degrees at certain unis and student midwives

im starting my midwifery degree next september and all the open days etc i have been to i have discussed this topic as im very interested in it. Every lecturer as every university has told me the same thing, as have the student midwives and qualified midwives i have asked!

My hypnobirthing teacher was also a a midwive and then a doula she had to do extra training as it was so poor in the degree apparently

 

[Blah11]

I was engorged and leaked for months and months i think amelie was about 9 months old until my supply regulated!

 

[Aidan's Mummy]

My MW told me they were trained in helping women breastfeed. It should be part of the training if they are promoting it they need to know how to support what they are promoting
xx

 

[Blah11]

I agree that some BF babies do try and suckle for comfort or to get to sleep, and some mums go along with it for an easy life. I never let my child fall asleep whilst feeding as i was not making a rod for my own back, i gave her a dummy against my better judgement to soothe her as i was not going to let her suck my breasts just to fall asleep. I hate the bloody thing now as it is the only thing she has ever woken for in the night if she lost the damn thing.

I also introduced water at a young age about 4 weeks, even though i was told that she didn't need it as she gets all she needs through BM. I did what i thought was best as her mother and she would drink 4/5 oz a day.

its not really an easy life to have your baby attached to you all night I let her feed whenever she wanted and she still naps on the breast. I dont agree with CIO so... besides, she wont want to be held forever so i cherish the cuddles now.

 

[winegums]

Sorry, I'm not offended by it. I don't get offended by anyone challenging the way I parent my child. Nobody has the right to tell me what I should and shouldn't be doing so why would I waste my time listening to them and worrying about it. I do what I think is right for me and my child. End of story. I just get fed up when people try and shoot down FFers, even the ones that really tried Bfing and just couldn't do it and make us feel like failures. Like, Grace genuinely wasn't getting enough milk. It's not an excuse because I don't need to make excuses for my parenting decisions. But someone then telling me that actually, I was wrong. It annoys me rather than offends me tbh.

Anyway, FOB has been a complete pain in the arse today so it's put me in a bad mood so sorry if I seem a bit touchy lol

glad your not offended you just sounded like you were!
again i was just giving info
and no one on here has 'challenged' your parenting or told you what you should or should not be doing.
You may not need an excuse why you ff and thats fine. i dont need an excuse why i ff either, i know my reasons and thats all that matters to me.
who told you that you were wrong? i didn't say you were wrong that your baby is hungry i said that most babys are the more you feed them the more milk produced to satisfy them. it does take a while for more milk to be produced and after the first couple of weeks many people find that they and the baby start settling down. it can be a bit all over the place for the first couple of weeks

 

[winegums]

My MW told me they were trained in helping women breastfeed. It should be part of the training if they are promoting it they need to know how to support what they are promoting
xx

as i have said before they are trained but it is the 'bare bones' thats why they have specialised training just as in most professions you do the general course and then you can do further training in any aspects you particularly enjoyed.

the midwifery degree is bloody hard enough 3 years full time in hospitals and unis and then loads of them have to work whenever they are free to afford anything... if they had specialised training for every aspect of pregnancy and childbirth the course would probably be about 10 years.

 

[izzysmummy]

My daughter at birth weighed 6lb 6oz and by 9 months weighed 17lbs 12 oz. I always thought she was putting on more weight than all my friends Children at the group i went to.

I was always told not to worry and her weight gain was excellent. She was classed as underweight at birth and didn't seem to touch the normal weight for her age until 8 months old. Some weeks she would gain 11oz! I was amazed as she was a 5 min feeder, 3/4 hourly and sleeping though from 8 weeks.