Breast is best - and for very different reasons

As I said earlier, I was aware of these issues when my own dd was small, 20+ years ago. It's not a new concern.

Farmor,
I agree that the follow on milk is unnecessary, but the advice now Is no cows milk until 12 months old.
Breast or bottle for 12-24 months & then blue milk.( ween at 6 months)

Things change constantly, when i had mine 30plus years ago, we weren't encouraged to breastfeed at all & weened at 4 months!

I do understand the purpose of this thread but just felt inclined to add my tuppenceworth about BF especially in the olden days. Someone was wondering if the babes of old couldnt be BF, many would have died.

I found a book about the history of childrearing which has been given, with a wry smile, to my DD. In it there are records from ancient times of babies being artificially fed and presumably surviving. The rich had wet nurses.

My FiL's mother died in childbirth so he would have been fed on bottled cows' milk.

The politics and money involved; the global business of turning us into poor creatures who know not how to feed our own infants or ourselves is a disgrace,

One could say the same (environmental cost, etc) about many foods that people eat. We don't actually need exotic vegetables or fruit, for instance, but many of us like to eat them.

One can say the same about many, possibly most, human activities.

Other animals (we are part of the animal kingdom of our planet) also effect changes to their environments, perhaps not to the scale that we hyperadaptable animals do, but still...

I don't think I'm going to worry about the environmental effect of baby milk formula production and marketing except insofar, as in the Nestlé case from the eighties, it is damaging to people.

And since, in the end, throughout the world far fewer babies are dying and far fewer women are dying in childbirth, it does look as if, overall, we've improved things.

I also think breast is best generally speaking but I'm all for choice.

Whether a mother breast or bottle feeds is entirely her choice and she shouldn’t be stigmatised if she doesn’t want to breast feed. Everyone knows breast is best but some mums just can’t breast feed for one reason or another. As a Midwife in the 1970’s most women breast fed whist they were in hospital (sometimes for 8-10days) and they were rewarded with a bottle of stout after visiting at 8pm. Those that didn’t had their breast bound....poor things. Things have changed of course, not for the better either in my opinion.

I breastfed my sons and feel it's best if possible for a mom to do so. Everyone is entitled to their own choice for whatever reason. I only desire two things - accurate information to be readily available for new moms and outside influences to be kept to a minimum. When I was a new teacher in the classroom, the "Dairy Council" in the US provided free "educational materials" for all teachers and I used them, to my chagrin. That was when the 4 food group model was in vogue and milk products were promoted heavily. It was more marketing than education.

I bottle fed 2 cos I thought boobs were a sex thing how silly! They have reflux and excema. Breast fed babies no issues! Wish I knew better then x