Comments on: This is Why I am Fed Up with “Fed is Best” https://breastfeedingworld.org/2017/04/fed-up-with-fed-is-best/ Spreading the Breastfeeding Love, One Latch at a Time Mon, 26 Aug 2019 14:42:55 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8 By: Anonymous https://breastfeedingworld.org/2017/04/fed-up-with-fed-is-best/#comment-774 Mon, 02 Apr 2018 03:02:31 +0000 http://breastfeedingworld.org/?p=5400#comment-774 Lauren, you didn’t demean formula once. You stated hard knock FACTS. Problem as I see it is OWNERSHIP. If breastfeeding isn’t for you…. ok! But don’t start accusing everyone who acknowledges it’s FACTUAL benefits as shaming. OWN YOUR CHOICE without trying to change the facts. BREAST IS BEST!!!!

]]> By: OSuzyQuilts https://breastfeedingworld.org/2017/04/fed-up-with-fed-is-best/#comment-773 Sat, 24 Mar 2018 22:02:19 +0000 http://breastfeedingworld.org/?p=5400#comment-773 Breast is best, fed is adequate. I felt this 36 years ago and was determined to breastfeed my newborn when it wasn’t widely supported. I was 20 years old, 1000 miles away from home, and had no previous experience with mom, grandmother or aunts or friends to go to for help. At two months, when my son was probably going through a cluster feeding growth spurt, I thought, I’m not making enough milk. The education and information wasn’t there or readily available for me. Same happened with my second. By my third, I learned of la Leche league and I nursed him for three years. He, too, went through a growth spurt cluster feeding at two months, and I realized it for what it was, but still tried bananas at two months, which at first he liked then rejected. He didn’t like pacifiers. I somehow managed. He’s almost 30. My milk came in with him after only a day, because he nursed for 2.5 hours after he was born. The nurse said your nipples will crack. They did. It hurt when he latched for the first week. But the milk actually helped heal the cracked nipples. I didn’t know that would happen, but I was determined.

My 20 year old daughter was born, we had trouble with the nursery that night, she was born at :147 and after an hour, they took her to nursery and we didn’t get her back till after 8 am, a supposed supportive hospital tried tube feeding her without our consent or knowledge because she was low blood sugar, and she wouldn’t take a bottle. We left as soon as we could at noon, and that night, she cried for five hours. With all the stress and lack of sleep and everything, I nursed her for hours, but finally gave her a touch of formula, because I think my milk or colostrum supply was affected by the stressful night and birth and not getting enough to eat or sleep. I knew that early supplementation could cause supply issues, but we all needed to sleep. I heated the formula in hot tap water, offered her the nipple, and she barely drank a teaspoon, and crashed. No problems after that.

The point of my story – I was a well seasoned mom who had been through both feeding types. Education and information is key. Lactation consultants may be like doctors who only see the problems. I was so glad for la Leche league when my son went on a nursing strike for 4 days at 15 months.

Normalizing breastfeeding and getting people help from people that really know is key. Professionals don’t always know. That’s just my take.

Thanks for your article.

]]> By: Laura Hill https://breastfeedingworld.org/2017/04/fed-up-with-fed-is-best/#comment-763 Mon, 01 Jan 2018 21:39:45 +0000 http://breastfeedingworld.org/?p=5400#comment-763 Definitely agree with all of this, Elizabeth.

]]> By: Laura Hill https://breastfeedingworld.org/2017/04/fed-up-with-fed-is-best/#comment-762 Mon, 01 Jan 2018 21:03:50 +0000 http://breastfeedingworld.org/?p=5400#comment-762 I agree with you that no-one should shame others or feel ashamed because of their feeding choices (although sometimes, as in mine and my baby’s case, it wasn’t a choice- I simply wasn’t making enough milk to feed my baby, so combination fed for a few months until he decided one day not to take the breast any more). However, I think you’re missing the point of the message of Fed is Best- you should read in detail some of the publications from the Fed is Best Foundation. They actually support and promote all the benefits of breastfeeding, but what they’re against is the pushing of breastfeeding at all costs by health professionals and policy makers who are supposed to put the interests of the individual patient first, and the failure to inform parents of the risks of starvation and dehydration through exclusive breastfeeding if not enough milk is present for the baby and of how to monitor if the baby is getting enough. Starvation and dehydration can lead to the need for rehospitalisation, hypoglycaemia, jaundice, and even brain injury and death; my baby had to be rehospitalised and we were very lucky there were no long-term effects. No benefits of exclusive breastfeeding can justify these risks. This is the message of Fed is Best, which is run by health professionals and parents and based on sound, recent scientific research- I notice that the most recent study cited in your article is 24 years old.

]]> By: Elizabeth Harbison https://breastfeedingworld.org/2017/04/fed-up-with-fed-is-best/#comment-520 Sun, 07 May 2017 21:21:00 +0000 http://breastfeedingworld.org/?p=5400#comment-520 It’s funny when people say formula isn’t hated. The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative which is centered around the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and The Ten Successful Steps to Breastfeeding does not allow the advocation of formula, which is what the Fed is Best Foundation is trying to undo. Formula cannot even be mentioned by a healthcare professional if a hospital participates in this initiative. It is against the very basic rules. So there are some pretty harmful things that happen because of it. So don’t think that the Fed is Best Foundation is all about sticking it to “lactivists” but moreso about trying to undo harmful and even in some cases fatal situations because they take the slogan “Breast is best” to the extreme.

]]> By: Elizabeth Harbison https://breastfeedingworld.org/2017/04/fed-up-with-fed-is-best/#comment-519 Sun, 07 May 2017 21:16:48 +0000 http://breastfeedingworld.org/?p=5400#comment-519 Thank you! It is so harmful when you tout one slogan that promotes one method of nutrition over all others. Safe feeding is best.

]]> By: Lauren Lewis https://breastfeedingworld.org/2017/04/fed-up-with-fed-is-best/#comment-513 Tue, 02 May 2017 14:16:59 +0000 http://breastfeedingworld.org/?p=5400#comment-513 Hi Melissa. I’m not sure that this post demeans formula, or “exxagerates the cons”. Could you please provide an example?

]]> By: Melissa Wright https://breastfeedingworld.org/2017/04/fed-up-with-fed-is-best/#comment-511 Tue, 02 May 2017 04:23:43 +0000 http://breastfeedingworld.org/?p=5400#comment-511 It’s one thing to promote the vast benefits of breastfeeding. It’s another to exaggerate the cons of formula. We all know that breast milk is superior. That’s not on question. But institutions go so far to promote it that really do make it sound like breast or nothing. Vulnerable mothers who struggle with wanting to do things perfectly opt for nothing in hopes that they can make it work with breastfeeding. There are so many women who cannot breastfeed. They need to hear that their baby will thrive on formula because, ultimately, fed is what IS TRULY BEST. The shaming of formula use is adding to perinatal and postpartum depression. You need to know that. The pressure to be the perfect mother is already in full swing. Mothers need to hear all sides. Not just the promotion of one side as if it is the only viable solution for feeding our babies. You may see fed is best as self-righteous but that’s the definition of breast is best. Saying one way is the only right way is righteousness.

]]> By: Severn https://breastfeedingworld.org/2017/04/fed-up-with-fed-is-best/#comment-487 Mon, 17 Apr 2017 20:31:46 +0000 http://breastfeedingworld.org/?p=5400#comment-487 Yes, “Fed is Best” takes away from the message of “Breast is Best.” It does so because the message of “Breast is Best” is wrong. Babies have starved, and occasionally died, and mothers have suffered, because they heard “Breast is Best.” Hospitals have been far less supportive of new mothers who need or want to supplement because they have to repeat “Breast is Best.” Support breast feeding all you like by advocating free education and lactation consultation to new mothers. The slogan is wrong. You’re right when you say, “Fed is Best” is the minimum. “Breast is Best” is below the acceptable minimum. It is a harmful and self-righteous slogan that deserves to be thrown out.

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