Silly FF myths you need to avoid ;)

[Arisa]

So you know how there is rather a lot of propaganda against Formula feeding?
well there is in my local hospital anyway and just like there are bad myths with breastfeeding that are not true, the same can be said for formula feeding too

So here goes (from the baby books I read during my pregnancy)
Myth number one:
Formula fed babies are fatter than breast fed babies
WRONG!! My baby girl is in the 25th percentile meaning 75% of babies her age are larger than she is, and I was HUGE as a baby and breastfed, my nephew is a solid build and he was Breastfed and my little sister was breastfed and formula fed and absolutely tiny. So please do not buy into that myth because its not an actual fact

Myth Number two
Formula fed babies are six times more likely to end up in hospital with breathing problems and general health issues

My little girl would not feed at all and needed to be in hospital in her second week, this had nothing to do with formula feeding and she has no breathing problems or respiratory issues whatsoever

Myth number three
Formula fed babies have smaller IQ's than breastfed babies (not as smart)
Well my little girl is very active, alert and reaching all of her milestones and my psychiatrist, doctor and obstetrician (all occupations that require a rather high intelligence level) were formula fed

Myth number four
Breastfed babies are closer to their mothers than FF ones
Bollocks, my little girl loves me to bits and we bond together in other ways, when she sleeps on my tummy with me, when I sing to her and when I feed her close to my chest looking into her eyes

So please do not listen to the propaganda
oh and as far as diabetes being higher in FF babies, I cannot comment because I do not know if my little girl will have it or not, she does not show any signs of diabetes and I do not know any FF people who told me about their formula feeding that are diabetic. I know a diabetic woman who got type two diabetes in her early adulthood due to the way she ate and smoked, nothing to do with the way she was fed as a baby and i do not know how she was fed, so the point is i find it hard to believe that it causes diabetes

anyway please do not feel bad or buy into these myths

 

[Larkspur]

I'm not trying to be difficult but you do realise that you can't extrapolate data from a single case to compare against data collected across a population, right?

By that I mean that just because your baby doesn't happen to fit certain averages associated with formula feeding it doesn't make the averages 'myths'.

It's the same thing if I look at statistics that say 1 in 6 women smoke. I can't just say 'Well, I don't smoke, and neither do my 20 closest friends, so obviously that statistic is a myth.' It's not wrong, it's just that I am not comparing my particular experience with the experience of enough other people.

I mean, if you want to formula feed, by all means make that choice, and if your baby is healthy, then that's great. But your personal experience does not actually disprove averages, sorry.

 

[Mummythree]

on the bit where it says bf babies are closer to their mums than bf ones is a lot of crap!
my breastfed baby is a daddy girl, my 2 ff Lo's are mummy's girl and boy.

all thease myths are rubbish x

 

[aliss]

I'm not trying to be difficult but you do realise that you can't extrapolate data from a single case to compare against data collected across a population, right?

By that I mean that just because your baby doesn't happen to fit certain averages associated with formula feeding it doesn't make the averages 'myths'.

It's the same thing if I look at statistics that say 1 in 6 women smoke. I can't just say 'Well, I don't smoke, and neither do my 20 closest friends, so obviously that statistic is a myth.' It's not wrong, it's just that I am not comparing my particular experience with the experience of enough other people.

I mean, if you want to formula feed, by all means make that choice, and if your baby is healthy, then that's great. But your personal experience does not actually disprove averages, sorry.

Totally agree. TBH my own personal experience with FF and my son is a bunch of anecodes that support all these "so-called myths", so ....

N = 1 isn't a valid argument ever, for anything health related.

 

[Lady_Bee]

I agree that personal anecdotes prove nothing. That said, I believe these ARE myths, or rather flawed conclusions of studies where correlation is mysteriously confused with causation. There are studies out there that account for the confounding variables. There is a line somewhere, where legit research crosses into dogma, IMO. But hey hum. I think this thread is just going to get hijacked by a certain crowd unfortunately. Maybe better in the debate forum...

I hate number 4 sooooo much btw. Load of utter bollocks. And I do think it is largely propaganda. Sad really.

 

[kickass_MOM]

without being judgemental,just having a little fun with 'statistics' while trying to make myself feel better.the following is a link to countrywise breastfeeding rates and countrywise IQ .
https://www.childinfo.org/breastfeeding_countrydata.php
https://www.rlynn.co.uk/pages/article_intelligence/t4.asp
what caught my eye was Guinea in particular.Go figure.

 

[lozzy21]

The one about BF babys being closer to their mother comes from mothers and babys who BF have higher levels of the bonding hormone than mothers and babys who FF so while not a total myth they have twisted the wording for it to sound worse than it is.

 

[Lady_Bee]

The one about BF babys being closer to their mother comes from mothers and babys who BF have higher levels of the bonding hormone than mothers and babys who FF so while not a total myth they have twisted the wording for it to sound worse than it is.

Isn't that the skin to skin though rather than the milk? I always thought the whole claim was pretty weak. And have they made a distinction between directly breast fed babies and babies who are bottle fed pumped milk?

 

[lozzy21]

The one about BF babys being closer to their mother comes from mothers and babys who BF have higher levels of the bonding hormone than mothers and babys who FF so while not a total myth they have twisted the wording for it to sound worse than it is.

Isn't that the skin to skin though rather than the milk? I always thought the whole claim was pretty weak. And have they made a distinction between directly breast fed babies and babies who are bottle fed pumped milk?

Its the actual act of BF rather than the milk or the skin to skin because you can have skin to skin when FF or feeding EBM.

 

[bubbles123]

The vast majority of babies, where FF or BF, will be absolutely fine and have no illnesses. The majority of smokers will not get lung cancer. Most fat people will never get diabetes etc etc. Looking at whole populations though, you will see that more people in the at risk groups (FF, smokers, the overweight) are more prone to them so personal experience isn't that helpful unfortunately. Having said that though, FF will not make your baby an ill, weak thing whilst BF babies are a picture of health. All it means is that BF babies will have normal health and FF babies slightly below normal health.
PS. I FF myself. Also, the whole bonding thing, whilst BF does produce oxytocin, your body is also quite able to make it for other reasons too. That's why you love you OH, your OH loves you and their children and us FF'ing mummies love our babies just as much as our BF'ing friends X

 

[ramonaforever]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_evidence

 

[HellBunny]

What makes me laugh is the whole "breastfed babies don't get ill bollocks" i see sprouted everywhere. If thats apparent then its not a good advert to represent my nephews who are ill every flaming 5 minutes, foot and mouth, eye infections, stomach upsets, diarrhea, tonsillitis etc you name it they get it.

 

[shorman]

Lol what a lot of rubbish lol yes there is is loads of health benefits to bfing and has been medically proven that breast milk helps a baby's immune system, but I do agree with not all children are the same I have three children all ff hardly ever get ill at all, I have met plenty of bf babies and there are certainty not more intelligent than my children and also I found bonding with skin to skin very good and have a very good bond with my children

 

[Eala]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_evidence

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confounding_factor

 

[Liesje]

My baby was 50% breasfed, so he should only lose 2.5 IQ points rather than the whole 5% as evidence suggests... but then again the formula that was researched isn't the same as what I fed my baby so maybe this formula will tack on an extra 5 points...
All of their findings include words like "may" and "risk" and "increase" so it's really hard to disprove... Kinda like how hand sanitizer "kills 99% of most household germs"... So what does that leave, fruit flies?

 

[aimee-lou]

My favourite 'myth' is the bonding one too. I find it highly irregular as as far as I'm aware nowadays the proportion of ladies who at least try to BF is extremely high compared to yesteryear, yet we all* love our mothers regardless .

*Statistically 'all' can be defined as 90% +/-5% so therefore that can actually leave 15 out of every 100 people not loving their mothers.

You can see now my point. Statistics are a bitch, and as far as I'm concerned I do what's best and ignore the rest!

 

[Pink_Pixie]

These so called statistics make me laugh . Yes I agree that no two babies are the same and while some of those may be true in some cases I truely believe that information like that is put out there to scaremonger people into breast feeding. While the ff vs bf debate will always be there it's wrong for mothers to feel frightened by these stats/ myths especially if bf was unachieveable. My LO is ff from birth and so far (touch wood) is absolutely perfect in every way

 

[mrsf1234]

TOTALLY agree on the bonding myth......in fact the reason i stopped BFing was because it was seriously hampering my bonding with my LO. I found it so painful and all i got told was to 'perservere' and dont worry my bloody, chewed nipples would 'toughen up'..eventually.

I dreaded every feed and at the point i realised i was starting to resent my LO i thought this is crazy and never looked back. in fact my first bottle feed was one of the nicest moments of my life.

 

[HellBunny]

TOTALLY agree on the bonding myth......in fact the reason i stopped BFing was because it was seriously hampering my bonding with my LO. I found it so painful and all i got told was to 'perservere' and dont worry my bloody, chewed nipples would 'toughen up'..eventually.

I dreaded every feed and at the point i realised i was starting to resent my LO i thought this is crazy and never looked back. in fact my first bottle feed was one of the nicest moments of my life.

Totally agree with this, similar situation! x

 

[dizz]

What makes me laugh is the whole "breastfed babies don't get ill bollocks" i see sprouted everywhere. If thats apparent then its not a good advert to represent my nephews who are ill every flaming 5 minutes, foot and mouth, eye infections, stomach upsets, diarrhea, tonsillitis etc you name it they get it.

Let's see what we had trotted out...

We had the "if you breastfeed you will NOT get ovarian cancer" (it was actually phrased like that). My grandmother breastfed five kids - died of an ovarian tumour the size of a watermelon.

Breastfed babies don't get severe asthma or eczema - my breastfed brother had asthma so severe he almost died from it twice and what his consultant described as "the worst case of childhood eczema I have ever seen in my entire career", spent most of his childhood in bandages, ended up on immunosupressant drugs more commonly given to transplant patients. I'm also far, far smarter than him and I was the one who was bottlefed.

I didn't object to the statistics - I objected very heavily to the fact these tendencies were presented as absolute truths and total immunities at our (highly pointless) ante-natal classes. Present them for what they are, a statistical trend showing SOME difference in outcomes between FF and BF and I might have had a chance of taking their twaddle seriously (oh and knitted breasts not in bright blue might have helped too).