Breast is best - and for very different reasons

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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,

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!

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.

Well done Alexa for being a rebel! Unfortunately a lot of young mums do what they are told/expected to do especially where medical/nursing issues are concerned.

PS "beast" was a good Freudian slip. The commercial powers have tried to persuade us we are not animals.

Yes OK this time it's because of the environmental impact but as I was saying, there's always been a reason to try and make new parents feel inadequate. Would follow my instinct now if I was to do it all again!

The answer to the immoral excesses of capitalistic enterprise especially the multinationals is better and better education especially for children.

Children must be taught how to use their judgement for moral and prudential matters.

It's clear there are political forces that want children to be educated to be units of production, and we must resist these right wing political forces.

in 1956 I beast fed my baby in a station waiting room during a break in a long rail journey. I was always a rebel and thought nothing of it.But a rather posh woman in the waiting room came up to me and congratulated me on breast feeding and doing so as of right. There were people even in 1956 who did what came naturally. My point is kids need to be taught to think for themselves in order to resist the multinationals. Someone mentioned Follow On milk; I imagine they sit around their conference table discussing novel ways to fleece the public

The book tilted Fresh milk is a very good read, explains the full story.

I became aware of the nestle scandal in the 80's ...

More fool people who buy follow on milk and so on.
Every single thing these days is hyped up to encourage us to buy more and more and more things that aren't needed.

If someone can breast feed, all well and good, and if they can't, it's still well and good.

Granny gravy, blue sky..
rtft.
This is not about ff v bf it's about the impact on the environment & multi nationals making money by promoting formula..

being made aware of the facts, and the huge influence of the big formula companies in promoting their products as 'superior' to BF- and give choices in making decisions, is positive surely.
As said, I had never considered this aspect of formula. Worldwide- the environmental implications are huge. A lot of debate currently about eating less meat- but this goes for dairy too- and formula is very much part of this.

Exactly Iam64 new parents are and have always been made to feel guilty for whatever decision, for whatever reason!

Its impossible to disagree that we need to take better care of our environment. David Attenborough has been such a brilliant advocate or getting people to think about the impact of their actions. The demonstrations by XR have made sure it's at the forefront of our minds.
It seems everything about having babies becomes increasingly demanding of young parents. The costs and benefits of breastfeeding v bottle, the expectation that young parents who are working full time return to washing and drying endless nappies to avoid land fill with disposables.
I don't mean to minimise any of these issues, only to acknowledge the possibility that campaign fatigue can hit anyone, anytime.

I understood the point of this thread, jura but last link explains it better. There has been very little mention of the environmental impact of formula milks.

We know that breastfeeding doesn't work for everyone, but the formula companies are still allowed to promote "follow on" milks which are completely unnecessary. After 6 months, whether breast or bottle fed, and babies are being weaned, normal milk will do, diluted a bit until they're about a year.

It would be interesting to see a few more articles about the environmental effect of milk formula.

Well said GrannyGravy! They want us to feel guilty whatever we do!

sorry about above link

www.imperial.ac.uk/news/193226/environmental-cost-formula-milk-needs-global/

A more detailed explanation here

www.sciencealert.com › no-one-is-talking-about-..

This thread is not at all about BF or bottle - but about the environmental issues linked to formula production and landuse, packaging, plastics, transportation, litter, and other environmental issues.

The discussion came as we were talking about the need to eat less meat, and to buy more local- for environmental reasons. This even more so when whole continents, like Africa dn China, switch to formula as it is seen and marketed as being 'superior'. None of the above arise with BF at all- simple.

I breastfed both of mine, but only for 6 weeks as they had suctions like a lavatory plunger and I was crippled every time and bleeding because I was so tender, so I had pills to get rid of the milk and fed them Ostermilk.

Whatever a new mother is comfortable with is best for her newborn.