Bloomberg is at it Again (The War on Formula)

[Farmer Jane]

Really?

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Mayor Michael Bloomberg has banned smoking in New York City parks and is trying to ban the sale of sugary drinks greater than 16 ounces.

Now he has his sights on another target: baby formula.

He wants city hospitals to lock up formula — to encourage more moms to breast feed. He said it’s best for babies, CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer reported Monday.

Lock up your sodas, your salts, your transfats, your porn (okay, that was another mayor) and pull out your breast.

The mayor wants hospitals to hide their formula behind locked doors, and that’s not all.

Under the program the hospitals will stop giving out so-called “swag bags” with samples of formula and every time a new born is given a bottle the hospital will have to document a medical reason.

...

Officials said moms who demand a bottle will get it, but they’ll first get a lecture to explain why breast feeding is better.

Surprised he's not in the camp that says you should shove a camera up your yoohaa before you get an abortion.

[rocking chair]

the supermarket i worked at for a bit had the formula locked up. more for shoplifting than a stand on breastfeeding...

i guess that could be one point in favour of breastfeeding. more difficult to steal!

[Imago]

Urgh. Aren't there some ways in which formula actually is better for the kid? I always heard you were supposed to rotate the two, breastmilk for the antibodies, formula for some other thing.

[yams!!]

Originally Posted by Imago

Urgh. Aren't there some ways in which formula actually is better for the kid? I always heard you were supposed to rotate the two, breastmilk for the antibodies, formula for some other thing.

No. For the first six months, breast milk is best. Breast milk has been specifically designed by breasts for thousands of years, to best serve the needs of the baby. Not only is it full of antibodies (formula is entirely antibody-free) it has an optimal mix of macronutrients. Formula has been designed by formula companies for dozens of years to try and imitate breast milk. It is not nearly as good.

To further fight your ignorance on breast feeding, see this link about the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative.

Free formula given out by hospitals is actually an awful thing - it can screw up mom's ability to produce milk, paving the way for milk shortages and further formula supplementation. The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative says that qualifying hospitals can no longer accept the scads of free formula given out by formula companies, and then passed on free to new moms. The hospitals can buy formula and give it to moms in need, if necessary.

I am confused as to why anybody would consider the promotion of breast feeding to be a bad thing. I am not a fan of Bloomberg's ideas concerning other sugary beverages, but I think he is right on with this.

love
yams!!

[Dangerosa]

Because its a matter of choice.

There are a ton of things I can do to my children to screw up their lives that are legal, most of them will have far more impact on them than breastfeeding. I can feed them McDonalds four times a day. I can let them watch TV for twelve hours a day. I can unschool them. I can raise them as Scientologists. I can refuse vaccinations. I can sign them up for toddler beauty pageants or read James Joyce to them in their cribs.

Why breastfeeding? Is the marginal gain in health benefits really worth taking away a woman's freedom of choice. This is the liberal version of pre-abortion "counseling" and BOTH suck.

My baby, my body, my choice.

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

One problem with the swag bags with formula, is that once babies are started on it, it can be hard to sitch to breast. By giving samples of formula, you do send the message that formula is hospital endorsed and starting with formula can cause problems with later attempts at breast feeding. Getting rid of the corporate gifts of formula seems good to me.

However, I'd nix the lecture, as being silly, though. I'd offer initial education and support for breast feeding, but if mom asks for formula, let it be.

[yams!!]

Originally Posted by Dangerosa

Because its a matter of choice.

There are a ton of things I can do to my children to screw up their lives that are legal, most of them will have far more impact on them than breastfeeding. I can feed them McDonalds four times a day. I can let them watch TV for twelve hours a day. I can unschool them. I can raise them as Scientologists. I can refuse vaccinations. I can sign them up for toddler beauty pageants or read James Joyce to them in their cribs.

Why breastfeeding? Is the marginal gain in health benefits really worth taking away a woman's freedom of choice. This is the liberal version of pre-abortion "counseling" and BOTH suck.

My baby, my body, my choice.

Oh please. This isn't about taking away your freedom of choice. He's not outlawing formula. This is about not subsidizing infant formula, and about not encouraging new mom's to choose (or be suckered into) to formula feed their babies.

If you, as a new mom, decide that the "marginal gain in health benefits" is not worth it to you, fine, like you said, you can do whatever you want. That doesn't mean that hospitals should encourage you to make choices that are not in the best interests of your children.

Also, BTW, the "marginal gain in health benefits" of breastfeeding include:
*Decreased rates of gastroenteritis, respiratory disease, otitis media, UTIs, and necrotizing enterocolitis and sepsis in preemies.
*Reduced rates of obesity.
*Reduced rates of childhood cancer, lymphoma, leukemia, cardiovascular disease, allergies, and diabetes.

love
yams!!

[grude]

My son was born prematurely by C section because my wife had pre-eclampsia. He was four pounds and some ounces at birth, healthy thank god/s.

He would not latch on, he just wouldn't. We made the decision to go to formula when he had nothing to eat at 48 hours and still would not latch, the first bottle I prepared for him he drank 2 ounces! We decided it wasn't worth the risk as he was quickly dropping in weight to four pounds.

Fuck the formula haters, not every situation is the same!

[yams!!]

Exceptional cases break rules, they don't make them. Trying to argue against breast milk because you had an extreme baby situation is like trying to argue against seat belts because your cousin took out a minivan when he used his seat belt to autoerotically asphyxiate himself while barreling down the freeway at 85mph.

I forget this is the Dope, where every seemingly common-sense statement (Exercise is good! Breast milk is better than formula! You should look both ways when crossing the street!) needs to be followed by a string of qualifiers.

If you have a bone-disease where your femurs can't support your weight, then maybe you shouldn't go jogging.

If you have a premature baby who won't latch and is losing weight, then encourage him to eat whatever you can, breast milk or not. Breast milk is best. If breast milk is not possible, then, clearly, obviously, of course, formula is better than nothing. In non-urgent situations, why encourage a second-rate option?

If you live next to an elevator shaft, look up and down, not side to side.

Seriously - for fuck's sake.

love
yams!!

[Farmer Jane]

There are a lot of things that are 'best'. For example, it's better for my son to have healthy food all the time than for me to indulge in pizza. But we do. Parents do this in all areas of responsibility.

At any rate, Bloomberg isn't banning formula, but he has no problem actively discouraging it and lecturing moms! I'd like to see that areshole lactate.

[grude]

Originally Posted by yams!!

Exceptional cases break rules, they don't make them. Trying to argue against breast milk because you had an extreme baby situation is like trying to argue against seat belts because your cousin took out a minivan when he used his seat belt to autoerotically asphyxiate himself while barreling down the freeway at 85mph.

I forget this is the Dope, where every seemingly common-sense statement (Exercise is good! Breast milk is better than formula! You should look both ways when crossing the street!) needs to be followed by a string of qualifiers.

If you have a bone-disease where your femurs can't support your weight, then maybe you shouldn't go jogging.

If you have a premature baby who won't latch and is losing weight, then encourage him to eat whatever you can, breast milk or not. Breast milk is best. If breast milk is not possible, then, clearly, obviously, of course, formula is better than nothing. In non-urgent situations, why encourage a second-rate option?

If you live next to an elevator shaft, look up and down, not side to side.

Seriously - for fuck's sake.

love
yams!!

I was never bashing breast milk or breast feeding, I was bashing the breast feeding nazis who think formula is evil no matter what. And are happy making as woman who made a hard decision feel like shit for it.

[Simplicio]

Meh, its a public health campaign that hospitals can voluntarily participate in (or not). And part of the agreement is simply to enforce an already existing State hospital regulation that doesn't have anything to do with Bloomberg.

The articles trying to make a controversy out of nothing.

[yams!!]

Originally Posted by grude

I was never bashing breast milk or breast feeding, I was bashing the breast feeding nazis who think formula is evil no matter what. And are happy making as woman who made a hard decision feel like shit for it.

I don't know anyone who is "happy" to make another woman "feel like shit." I don't know anyone who thinks formula is evil "no matter what." Mommy-bloggers, maybe, (You had an epidural? Sniff. I never considered anything other than natural birth. I dried out the placenta and wove into a baby blanket.), but I don't know any in real life. In any case, no person worthy of any sort of consideration would think the best choice next to breast milk is starvation.

I do know people who think that since breast milk is better than formula, it should be encouraged whenever possible, but who recognize that there are women who desperately want to breast feed but, for whatever reason, are unable to (can't latch, no supply, preemie, etc.), and that these women don't need to be made to feel any worse. I think you can encourage breast feeding without being a breast milk nazi.

Like I said up-thread, this initiative just prevents hospitals from accepting free formula from formula companies. Hospitals can still give free formula, and encourage formula feeding, when appropriate. This just takes away the incentive to encourage breast feeding for everybody. This hardly smacks of breast milk nazism.

Anyway - regardless of what it was, I am glad you had something to feed your son, and hope he continues to thrive! : )

love
yams!!

[Tom Tildrum]

Here's an article about the difficulties in trying to measure the benefits of breast-feeding. Basically, it's really hard to get around selection bias between families, and at least one study that relied on intrafamily comparisons (to try to minimize bias) found that most of the benefits did not appear (although some still did, and others were too small to measure).

No obesity benefit was found in the largest study, and I think other research has apparently tended to correlate child obesity with maternal weight; i.e., when obese mothers breast-feed, the children still show increased risk of obesity.

Other studies have correlated breast-feeding with increased risk of asthma and nut allergy. Those studies may well suffer from the same problems of selection bias, though.

The Atlantic article linked above concludes thus:

What does all the evidence add up to? We have clear indications that breast-feeding helps prevent an extra incident of gastrointestinal illness in some kids—an unpleasant few days of diarrhea or vomiting, but rarely life-threatening in developed countries. We have murky correlations with a whole bunch of long-term conditions. The evidence on IQs is intriguing but not all that compelling, and at best suggests a small advantage, perhaps five points; an individual kid’s IQ score can vary that much from test to test or day to day. If a child is disadvantaged in other ways, this bump might make a difference. But for the kids in my playground set, the ones whose mothers obsess about breast-feeding, it gets lost in a wash of Baby Einstein videos, piano lessons, and the rest. And in any case, if a breast-feeding mother is miserable, or stressed out, or alienated by nursing, as many women are, if her marriage is under stress and breast-feeding is making things worse, surely that can have a greater effect on a kid’s future success than a few IQ points.

So overall, yes, breast is probably best. But not so much better that formula deserves the label of “public health menace,” alongside smoking. Given what we know so far, it seems reasonable to put breast-feeding’s health benefits on the plus side of the ledger and other things—modesty, independence, career, sanity—on the minus side, and then tally them up and make a decision.

My wife and I will be facing these questions in a couple of months. We're certainly going to try to breast-feed, but if it doesn't work out, so be it, and we'll skip the lecture.

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

Originally Posted by Farmer Jane

There are a lot of things that are 'best'. For example, it's better for my son to have healthy food all the time than for me to indulge in pizza. But we do. Parents do this in all areas of responsibility.

At any rate, Bloomberg isn't banning formula, but he has no problem actively discouraging it and lecturing moms! I'd like to see that areshole lactate.

But one issue with introducing formula early is that it can prevent successful breast feeding even for those moms who want to. It would be as if giving pizza the first time blocked you from giving healthier foods later. Argue pros/cons of breat milk, fine, but but there is a consequence to offering the bottle too early. If you try breast and it doesn't work for mom/baby, you can always switch to the bottle. The reverse direction isn't as easy.

In this society encouraging breast feeding is hard- ads for formula are on TV, you get coupons in the mail as soon as you begin seeing an OB, women breast feeding in public can still be harassed, etc. a small strong statement in support of breast feeding against the tide is not a bad thing. Lose the "lecture" but give new moms a fighting chance to actually make a decision, not have formula be the choice because the other side was quiet.

[Ludovic]

Originally Posted by Farmer Jane

Lock up your sodas, your salts, your transfats, your porn

They're banning everyone out here!

[Dangerosa]

Originally Posted by yams!!

I don't know anyone who is "happy" to make another woman "feel like shit." I don't know anyone who thinks formula is evil "no matter what." Mommy-bloggers, maybe, (You had an epidural? Sniff. I never considered anything other than natural birth. I dried out the placenta and wove into a baby blanket.), but I don't know any in real life. In any case, no person worthy of any sort of consideration would think the best choice next to breast milk is starvation.

I do know people who think that since breast milk is better than formula, it should be encouraged whenever possible, but who recognize that there are women who desperately want to breast feed but, for whatever reason, are unable to (can't latch, no supply, preemie, etc.), and that these women don't need to be made to feel any worse. I think you can encourage breast feeding without being a breast milk nazi.

Like I said up-thread, this initiative just prevents hospitals from accepting free formula from formula companies. Hospitals can still give free formula, and encourage formula feeding, when appropriate. This just takes away the incentive to encourage breast feeding for everybody. This hardly smacks of breast milk nazism.

Anyway - regardless of what it was, I am glad you had something to feed your son, and hope he continues to thrive! : )

love
yams!!

You just did it and seemed delighted to do so.

[Dangerosa]

Originally Posted by IvoryTowerDenizen

But one issue with introducing formula early is that it can prevent successful breast feeding even for those moms who want to. It would be as if giving pizza the first time blocked you from giving healthier foods later. Argue pros/cons of breat milk, fine, but but there is a consequence to offering the bottle too early. If you try breast and it doesn't work for mom/baby, you can always switch to the bottle. The reverse direction isn't as easy.

In this society encouraging breast feeding is hard- ads for formula are on TV, you get coupons in the mail as soon as you begin seeing an OB, women breast feeding in public can still be harassed, etc. a small strong statement in support of breast feeding against the tide is not a bad thing. Lose the "lecture" but give new moms a fighting chance to actually make a decision, not have formula be the choice because the other side was quiet.

Women who bottle feed are also harassed. I was with my son - who is adopted and obviously so. Strangers several times came up and berated me for feeding him a bottle. My daughter was breastfed for six months and rejected the breast after that time - I got the same lecture from strangers when she was on the bottle in public.

If a few $3 coupons on $13 cans of formula sway people, I don't think they were going to do anything other than breastfeed.

What happens is that in trying to justify "getting more women to breastfeed" you preach to the choir, miss the people who really aren't going to be swayed by anything (because frankly, if you make it through pregnancy without the whole 'breast is best' meme being run through your bloodstream, you must have lived in a box), and contribute to women who can't breastfeed feeling like shit. Now, have you really accomplished anything other than helping people like me and grude's wife feel like shit.

By the way, with my daughter my milk didn't come in for seven days and I had to resort to formula (or admit her to the hospital). I also had raging PPD (my grandmother probably died of PPD - she killed herself and the depression set in after the birth of twins). The lactation consultants lectures on how I shouldn't give up and resorting to formula at this stage might harm my daughter did far more harm than good.

[Alessan]

Let's not talk about the rights and wrongs of formula. Let's talk about Bloomberg.

I don't live in NY any more, but even from here, the man is starting to get on my nerves. He seems to suffer from the belief that he can make people... better. And I do not hold to that.

[Loach]

Originally Posted by Alessan

Let's not talk about the rights and wrongs of formula. Let's talk about Bloomberg.

I don't live in NY any more, but even from here, the man is starting to get on my nerves. He seems to suffer from the belief that he can make people... better. And I do not hold to that.

You just don't understand. He has fixed every problem in New York. There are just a few little details he needs to tweak before everything is exactly right.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

The next time that SOB is giving a public address, I am going to saunter up to him, smoking a cigarette, swilling tequila straight from the bottle and chasing it with a large Big Gulp of Coke, eating a second-helping meatloaf sandwich out of a styrofoam container and lob a baby-formula filled balloon at his face. Booyah!

[Ludovic]

Originally Posted by Loach

You just don't understand. He has fixed every problem in New York. There are just a few little details he needs to tweak before everything is exactly right.

We'll finally get to learn how the three seashells work!

[LavenderBlue]

Originally Posted by grude

My son was born prematurely by C section because my wife had pre-eclampsia. He was four pounds and some ounces at birth, healthy thank god/s.

He would not latch on, he just wouldn't. We made the decision to go to formula when he had nothing to eat at 48 hours and still would not latch, the first bottle I prepared for him he drank 2 ounces! We decided it wasn't worth the risk as he was quickly dropping in weight to four pounds.

Fuck the formula haters, not every situation is the same!

I agree. I nursed my first easily for two years. My second? Would NOT latch! Three lactation consultants couldn't get her to work it. I did what I could. I pumped and pumped and pumped and pumped. And sometimes I supplemented with formula. I finally got her to latch at eight months after trying and trying and trying. Bloomberg has never nursed so he doesn't know shit about the subject.

Women do the best we can. We shouldn't be made to feel guilty about it.

[Imago]

IMO, mandatory government lectures never changed any mind worth changing. The only people who are going to fall for a patronizing lecture are the same folks who lack the critical thinking skills to parent well.

I will never need to know anything about feeding babies. Besides being a lesbian, I'm an aspiring paramedic- which means a future of working 50 hours per week at all sorts of odd hours on $14 an hour. I'm not sure I can keep a wife, let alone a kid, and that's if I even wanted to adopt/do in-vitro/etc in the first place. So I guess my POV on this issue is about as unbiased as you're going to get from anyone with a vagina.

yams!!, you sound very extreme. If you're going try to fight ignorance, best not to come off as a zealot. Just a friendly tip. Consider me un-convinced about all these supposed breastmilk benefits.

Dangerosa, you did nothing wrong. Grude, you and your wife have done nothing wrong. Even if breastmilk were provably better, it's not sounding like formula is such a big deal. And if elective C-sections are allowed, formula should sure as hell be available to any mother. Seriously.

Originally Posted by FoieGrasIsEvil

The next time that SOB is giving a public address, I am going to saunter up to him, smoking a cigarette, swilling tequila straight from the bottle and chasing it with a large Big Gulp of Coke, eating a second-helping meatloaf sandwich out of a styrofoam container and lob a baby-formula filled balloon at his face. Booyah!

This sounds excessively fun. Can I join you?

Originally Posted by Dangerosa

I can sign them up for toddler beauty pageants or read James Joyce to them in their cribs.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

Originally Posted by LavenderBlue

Bloomberg has never nursed so he doesn't know shit about the subject.

Well, he did milk that runt kitten once.

[Jackmannii]

Originally Posted by Simplicio

Meh, its a public health campaign that hospitals can voluntarily participate in (or not).

And of course, having the top city official pushing it (a guy who has the power to make your life miserable in myriad ways) is not coercive in the least.

Yes, breast-feeding is typically a better choice, and medical professionals recognize this. They and new moms don't need Mayor Nanny-State lecturing them on the subject.

[Simplicio]

Originally Posted by Jackmannii

And of course, having the top city official pushing it (a guy who has the power to make your life miserable in myriad ways) is not coercive in the least.

Meh, lazy conspiracy theories aside, there's no actual evidence Bloomberg is putting undue pressure on hospitals to join. And a quarter of hospitals in NYC haven't joined the program, so whatever silly scenario you think is taking place, you appear to be wrong.

(plus Bloomberg is at the end of his last term)

[Loach]

Originally Posted by Simplicio

Meh, lazy conspiracy theories aside, there's no actual evidence Bloomberg is putting undue pressure on hospitals to join. And a quarter of hospitals in NYC haven't joined the program, so whatever silly scenario you think is taking place, you appear to be wrong.

(plus Bloomberg is at the end of his last term)

That's what they said at the end of his last term.

[Jackmannii]

Originally Posted by Simplicio

Meh, lazy conspiracy theories aside

You need to research the definition of "conspiracy theory".

[MsWhatsit]

Originally Posted by Jackmannii

Yes, breast-feeding is typically a better choice, and medical professionals recognize this. They and new moms don't need Mayor Nanny-State lecturing them on the subject.

Many medical professionals are extremely lacking in knowledge on the topic of breastfeeding, in my experience. Not all, but many.

Anyway, I think the ban on soda pop is stupid and so is the mandatory lecture to formula moms, but banning those formula swag bags sounds OK by me. There's never anything in them that supports breastfeeding (like nipple cream or breast pads or anything) so it does seem like an implicit hospital endorsement of one feeding method over another. And if the hospital is going to endorse one feeding method over another, it shouldn't be formula-feeding.

[Dallas Jones]

Originally Posted by Dangerosa

Why breastfeeding? Is the marginal gain in health benefits really worth taking away a woman's freedom of choice. This is the liberal version of pre-abortion "counseling" and BOTH suck.

My baby, my body, my choice.

This. Forced counseling is just harassment any way you look at it. Overt humiliation, intimidation and out right bullying.

But with oh just the best of intentions, so that makes it right, huh?

After all, we are just trying to educate you about your options. Then you can decide what you want.

Right.

[Dangerosa]

Originally Posted by MsWhatsit

Many medical professionals are extremely lacking in knowledge on the topic of breastfeeding, in my experience. Not all, but many.

Anyway, I think the ban on soda pop is stupid and so is the mandatory lecture to formula moms, but banning those formula swag bags sounds OK by me. There's never anything in them that supports breastfeeding (like nipple cream or breast pads or anything) so it does seem like an implicit hospital endorsement of one feeding method over another. And if the hospital is going to endorse one feeding method over another, it shouldn't be formula-feeding.

I got the breastfeeding bag at the hospital. Nipple shields, lanolin, a book on how to breastfeed and a little privacy shawl. No formula coupons, just a "compliments of Enfamil" (or whoever it was) on the book. The nurses asked which bag you wanted.

[MsWhatsit]

Originally Posted by Dangerosa

I got the breastfeeding bag at the hospital. Nipple shields, lanolin, a book on how to breastfeed and a little privacy shawl. No formula coupons, just a "compliments of Enfamil" (or whoever it was) on the book. The nurses asked which bag you wanted.

Nice. Wish my hospital would have taken a page. But maybe that's what I get for delivering at a university teaching hospital.

[Dangerosa]

Originally Posted by MsWhatsit

Nice. Wish my hospital would have taken a page. But maybe that's what I get for delivering at a university teaching hospital.

I also got advice to breastfeed from my GP, my OB, my OB's nurse practitioner, my pediatrician, the L&D nurses at the hospital, and the two lactation consultants I worked with. I didn't visit a dermatologist or a gastroenterologist during my pregnancy, so I don't know what they would have said, but any medical professional I talked to during my pregnancy and immediately post birth offered breastfeeding support.

Granted, some of it was soft peddled (my wonderful OB said something along the lines of 'give it a try and see and if you need a referral for a lactation consultant, give the office a call'), but there wasn't a lack of support or a demonstrated lack of knowledge.

[doreen]

Originally Posted by Dangerosa

I got the breastfeeding bag at the hospital. Nipple shields, lanolin, a book on how to breastfeed and a little privacy shawl. No formula coupons, just a "compliments of Enfamil" (or whoever it was) on the book. The nurses asked which bag you wanted.

Lucky you. I had both my children in NYC , and at that time and place, you wouldn't have known from the staff there was such a thing as breastfeeding. I suppose I may have been asked when I was admitted whether I planned to breastfeed, but no one asked me when they decided to give each of them a bottle before they were brought to me, (c section and time of birth caused some delay) When they were brought to my room, the bassinet had a convenient six pack of formula and one of water on the bottom rack. No mention of breastfeeding from the nurses, much less support. I certainly wouldn't have decided to bottle feed because I was given a few three dollar coupons- but perhaps if they hadn't made the formula quite so convenient ( for both me and the nurses) I wouldn't have given up so quickly.

[delphica]

This is yet another stupid thing from Bloomberg.

I delivered my daughter last year in an NYC hospital that is working toward being Baby Friendly certified. I will say upfront that I mostly had a positive experience, I thought my medical care was excellent, and the staff were all friendly, kind people.

But MAN ALIVE, the pro-breast feeding message was annoying as sin. I am an intelligent, college-educated person who received, and for the most part appreciated, a ton of breast feeding information from my OB, in childbirth classes, from strangers on the street ... and my decision was to go with a combo of breast feeding and formula.

In the hospital, EVERY TIME I asked for formula, I got a weird combo of a lecture and pep talk, and it was condescending and, well, if you don't like being lectured, imagine how much more infuriating it is when you're already uncomfortable for having blood and tissue ooze out of you, hooked up to a bunch of IV tubes, really tired, and having to listen to the lecture over the sound of your crying baby. By day three, I knew which nurses I could ask for formula and we would both pretend there had been a lecture. If I had had my druthers, or could go back in time, the one thing I would change about my birthing experience would have been to nicely but firmly let the staff know to STFU on this issue right out of the gate. Or the birth canal, if you will.

My swag bag was actually very nice and included pro- nursing items like cream and pads, and formula because I asked for it.

We went on to be very happy with the breast feeding and formula combo.

[Farmer Jane]

I'm sure I'm the only Doper mom to say it, but I bottle-fed happily. The only reason why I tried breast is because I was guilted into it. I hated it and it was a waste. I have no regrets. Fuck.Bloomberg- I honestly think the bottle made me a better mother.

[Sattua]

Some mother/baby pairs just can't breastfeed for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with the mother's efforts or intentions. Making it difficult and humiliating to feed your newborn baby is misogynistic, ignorant, cruel, and just plain moronic. I hope this initiative gets stomped.

[LavenderBlue]

Originally Posted by Sattua

Some mother/baby pairs just can't breastfeed for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with the mother's efforts or intentions. Making it difficult and humiliating to feed your newborn baby is misogynistic, ignorant, cruel, and just plain moronic. I hope this initiative gets stomped.

I agree. There are far better ways to help us create healthy babies and happy mothers. IMO, health and elected officials right now should prioritize vaccine education as much as possible as a baby well being initiative. We're dealing with yet another outbreak of measles around here as well as local cases of whooping cough.

If the mayor really wanted to help breastfeeding mothers he would push for a year's paid maternity leave on a national level but even as a RINO he still won't.

[Horseface]

More reasons New York is becoming the butt of jokes across the country.

[kimera]

So, instead of choosing options that will make it easier for mothers to breastfeed such as better maternity leave, paid maternity leave, encouragement of public breastfeeding, paternity leave, etc, the government plans to berate the poor mothers who may not have many other options. It's a lot easier to sit on a high horse and be judgmental, and I have no respect for those who take the easy, blind route on an issue that desperately needs real legal action.

Although I plan to breastfeed and will do everything I can to make that happen, I'm also getting formula in case I need it. If you really interested in making sure that my babies stay on my breast as long as possible, then pass laws requiring more paternity leave so I can get some fucking sleep.

[aruvqan]

Originally Posted by Dangerosa

read James Joyce to them in their cribs.
.

Why U want to B Mean to poor kidlet

Originally Posted by Farmer Jane

There are a lot of things that are 'best'. For example, it's better for my son to have healthy food all the time than for me to indulge in pizza. But we do. Parents do this in all areas of responsibility.

At any rate, Bloomberg isn't banning formula, but he has no problem actively discouraging it and lecturing moms! I'd like to see that areshole lactate.

<snicker>

My brother was bottle fed, he was a preemie [my parents had a picture of him in a shoebox, they wanted to see if he fit] and he is now a 6'2 viking type.

I was breast fed, I had lung issues and digestive issues most of my childhood [more or less until puberty] and I have a couple food allergies and sensitivities which my brother doesn't have.

Given the choice if all I really knew about was my family, bottle all the way.

[denquixote]

You guys from New York better hope he didn't see "60 Minutes" last night. It turns out that sugar causes health problems.

[Ambivalid]

While I am sometimes on board with Bloomberg's initiatives and ideas, this to me is just tailor-made material for the right to use against the very idea of regulations of all stripe: the government locking up the formula because it knows what is best for the mother's baby. Not simply recommending that mothers use their natural breast milk (and supplying the information as to why) but locking up the formula in hospitals so that the choice is removed for the mother. Could a republican strategist concoct a better story?

[richarddean]

Originally Posted by Ambivalid

While I am sometimes on board with Bloomberg's initiatives and ideas, this to me is just tailor-made material for the right to use against the very idea of regulations of all stripe: the government locking up the formula because it knows what is best for the mother's baby. Not simply recommending that mothers use their natural breast milk (and supplying the information as to why) but locking up the formula in hospitals so that the choice is removed for the mother. Could a republican strategist concoct a better story?

I agree. When I first heard about Bloomberg's proposed large soda ban I thought to myself “oh great, I’ll be reading about this in sentences containing the word ‘libs.’”

[Lynn Bodoni]

Originally Posted by Imago

Urgh. Aren't there some ways in which formula actually is better for the kid? I always heard you were supposed to rotate the two, breastmilk for the antibodies, formula for some other thing.

I've never heard that formula is in any way better, other than it's harder to digest, so the kid might sleep for a longer period of time. That's a convenience for the parents, not a benefit for the kid.

The only reason I can think of for rotating would be so that Mom could work outside the home and not have to pump, or not have to pump and save.

However, remember that it's been more than 30 years since I've breastfed, so my info might well be out of date.

If the mayor really wanted to help breastfeeding mothers he would push for a year's paid maternity leave on a national level but even as a RINO he still won't.

QFT. If moms didn't have to go to work after just a few weeks of bonding, they could nurse for several months, maybe even most of a year. But that would be too friendly towards women, children, and families.

[Waenara]

Originally Posted by Alessan

I don't live in NY any more, but even from here, the man is starting to get on my nerves. He seems to suffer from the belief that he can make people... better. And I do not hold to that.

But do you aim to misbehave?

[doreen]

Originally Posted by Ambivalid

While I am sometimes on board with Bloomberg's initiatives and ideas, this to me is just tailor-made material for the right to use against the very idea of regulations of all stripe: the government locking up the formula because it knows what is best for the mother's baby. Not simply recommending that mothers use their natural breast milk (and supplying the information as to why) but locking up the formula in hospitals so that the choice is removed for the mother. Could a republican strategist concoct a better story?

I'n no fan of plenty of Bloomberg's initiatives, but I think someone did concoct this story. Plenty of news stories talked about locking up the formula and mandatory lectures. First of all, there is mandatory nothing. The whole initiative is voluntary and not every hospital joined. Well ,there is one thing mandatory-hospitals will have to comply with a three-year old state law, the Breastfeeding Bill of Rights, that no one has ever complained about before. There is also no locking up of formula- at least not required by the initiative.

[ralph124c]

I have a suggestion for "do gooders" like Bloomberg: practice what you preach!
How can I get in on the burgeoning black market for 16 ounce cokes?

[Guinastasia]

Originally Posted by ralph124c

I have a suggestion for "do gooders" like Bloomberg: practice what you preach!
How can I get in on the burgeoning black market for 16 ounce cokes?

Regular or Diet? I can ship you some in from PA, but it'll cost you.