There are two reason many breasfeeding moms don’t use formula as a “break.” One is that breasts work on supply-and-demand. If hte baby nurses less, the body assumes the baby needs less, even if the real reason the baby is nursing less is due to having another temporary source of food. The other reason in that drinking from a bottle is less work for a baby, and sometimes the little buggers decide they like bottle nipples better. It can be hard to convince them to take the breast. Some of these problems might be solvable with some good techniques, but (and this is really an aside) most of the best sources of breastfeeding info also take an all-or-nothing stance on things. They don’t seek out or provide solutions for this. So if you’re a mom using both forms of feeding, you are on your own. That was my problem.
Anyway, you may think that formula is a good answer for Afghanistan and other countries, but the WHO and UNICEF don’t agree with you. You’ve picked a thorny example, because I don’t have good data on Afghanistan’s safe water supply, and because the oppressive Taliban regime has had other impacts on women’s health issues that make it hard to find data and to generalize. I do know htat WHO was doing pro-breastfeeding work last year there, but that was before relief workers fled.
I am all FOR breastfeeding. I agree that it superior in virtually every way than formula feeding.
My arguement is not at all about that. It is about requiring a medical prescription to buy infant formula.
I asked my boss, Liz, about this earlier today. Her qualifications are in an earlier post. Her comments:
She has never heard this suggested within the medical community.
There IS some talk among hospitals about insisting on an “informed consent” signature from the mother before she leaves the hospital, acknowledging that she has been educated about the relative merits of breastfeeding. There is some legal history of infants developing alergies as a result of formula feeding, with mothers successfully sueing hospitals for not being provided adequate information. At our hospital, at least, such a form is not yet required.
She knows of no basis on which the FDA could require prescriptions over “calories” – her term for it. My interpretation of her comments leads me to believe she equates formula with “junk food”.
It is a common and frequent occurence for mothers to temporarily be unable to give milk.
I am all FOR breastfeeding. I agree that it superior in virtually every way than formula feeding.
My arguement is not at all about that. It is about requiring a medical prescription to buy infant formula.
I asked my boss, Liz, about this earlier today. Her qualifications are in an earlier post. Her comments:
She has never heard this suggested within the medical community.
There IS some talk among hospitals about insisting on an “informed consent” signature from the mother before she leaves the hospital, acknowledging that she has been educated about the relative merits of breastfeeding. There is some legal history of infants developing alergies as a result of formula feeding, with mothers successfully sueing hospitals for not being provided adequate information. At our hospital, at least, such a form is not yet required.
She knows of no basis on which the FDA could require prescriptions over “calories” – her term for it. My interpretation of her comments leads me to believe she equates formula with “junk food”.
It is a common and frequent occurence for mothers to temporarily be unable to give milk.
I have no doubt that you believe in the benefits of breastfeeding. However, I do not find the opinion that a third world country would be better off with more formula to be compatible with that position.
In a country without a safe water supply, babies are at risk for diarrhea and subsequent dehydration and malnutrition. Families must either use bottled water or boil water. They must also boil water for the cleaning of bottles and nipples. A three-month old bottle-fed baby needs over three quarts of water a day for boiling and mixing. Don’t forget the fuel needed to heat that water. Now, as for the formula, you can either manufacture the formula there or import it. Importing it has its own costs and logistical problems. However, increasing the numbers of dairy cows in a third-world country (to produce formula) increases animal waste and nitrate fertilizer used to grow feed. It also means that substantial tracts of land must be converted from food production to pasture land, or else there will have to be deforestation to create new pasture land.
Other problems experienced in third-world countries where formula use was encouraged: lack of consistent refrigeration for prepared formula, leading to waste or taking chances with formula that has been left at room temperature. Temptation to mix it weaker to make expensive formula go farther, and illiteracy leading to mistakes in mixing. When problems do arise, access to health care is inadequate to address problems.
This is not to say that milk substitutes shouldn’t be available for special cases, but you haven’t convinced me that formula is generally a good thing for poor countries. It sure isn’t a convenience item when you don’t have a dishwasher and clean water.
I’m just trying to keep this straight. A couple of posts back, you said this post had nothing to do with the Third World. So, I dropped that.
Now, the Third World is all you’re talking about. And you keep speaking of the difficulties and disadvantages of formula feed, which I am in complete agreement with you about.
The OP was about requiring a PRESCRIPTION for infant formula, which I oppose, in this country or any other so long as the formula contains only FOOD.
Today I spoke to Jody, the doula (you were correct as to my error). Her opinion is that infant formula is essentially INCOMPLETE food, and dangerous in the long term, but useful as a temporary stopgap measure. Interestingly, she had some conflicting information than I got from Liz – Jody says that inability of a mother to PRODUCE milk is realtively rare.
My areguement is that requiring a prescription for formula places an undue burden on mothers, AND the medical system. AND, there is no legal basis on which it can be done.
You know, I hear from doulas and lacation consultants that the ability to produce milk - or feed your baby adequately from that milk - is rare. But ancedotally (just for you Cranky), I know an awful lot of women who have had problems.
Part of the difference between Liz and Debbie is semantics - Liz says its a common occurance for women to be unable to temporarily give milk - I think that’s true. You need medication for an illness, and its best not to breastfeed. Or your milk comes in late. Or you are sick and the stress inhibits production (or just stressed). Or you travel without the baby and haven’t been able to pump and freeze enough prior to the trip. But these tend to be temporary occurances. Debbie says the inability to produce milk is rare - which is probably also true. I can produce milk - even in adequate quantities, it just took a week and a lot of pumping to make it happen. My girlfriend produces copious amounts - too bad the fat content is so low that her children don’t gain weight on her milk. The only story I’ve ever heard about “unable to produce milk at all” is my mother - who says her milk “never came in” with any of us kids. (And if there is a genetic component involved - I’d believe it after my adventures with the pump to get mine to come in).
So there is a huge difference between “can’t produce milk at all” and “have issues breastfeeding that make substituting formula either as a stopgap or permanently desireable.”
Sorry, yojimboguy. When you mentioned Afghanistan I thought that the third-world argument was still a part of your position. I’ve continued to talk about it because I believed (wrongfully, I guess?) that you still believed that formula was in important convenience product worldwide, and I’ve got data up my ying-yang that compels me to believe otherwise.
Dangerosa, I too had problems with my milk coming in. I never produced enough to feed Cranky Jr exclusively. Here is where I think the difference between Liz and Debbie lies: Medically and biologically speaking, nearly all mothers can and should be able to provide milk in adequate amount and with adequate nutritional value. That may be true. But socially and culturally, a significant number of factors mean that for all practical purposes, the % of moms in our society who can breastfeed successfully is much much smaller. Stress, living arrangements, diet, drugs, lack of help… any of these can mean that even moms with the strongest of wills and best of intentions are not going to be able to breastfeed successfully. So the data is correct, but the anecdotes are valid as well!
What makes me mad is when breastfeeding advocates use the biological data as a reason to blame moms for their “failures” or to suggest that problems are not legitimate. It’s not moms, it’s a lot of other stuff. The list of culprits is high.
And then little Suzie or Michael starts pre school and comes in contact with everyone else’s darling little child who is a veritable walking petri dish.
Sorry for the bump; I saw this thread when I did a search for another thread.
I had to stop breastfeeding Aaron when he was about a month old. He was born tongue-tied, and couldn’t latch on properly. I had a lot of nipple pain and sleep deprivation, and Aaron got very frustrated because he couldn’t get enough milk at a feeding to satisfy him. So I switched him to formula, and he’s been doing MUCH better. He’s gaining weight like a champ, his height is in the 95th percentile, and his weight is in the 75th. He’s taking six ounces (give or take) at a feeding and is almost sleeping through the night.
Yeah, I wasn’t thrilled at having to stop nursing, but when it comes down to it, I had to do what’s best for Aaron.
As for the colds, Aaron got one at 2 weeks of age, but thank God it wasn’t serious enough to spread to his lungs. He was pretty miserable for a week, though.
I am for breastfeeding. I buy the studies that say it is better and produces smarter healthier people, but the idea of making formula require a prescription makes me angry. We do not need more curtailment of our freedoms. We do not need another class of busybodies that can say yay or nay over some aspect of our lives.
I have had it with all the nosy asses who popped out of the woodwork since I got pregnant who scold me for having my one cup of coffee a day. I can just envision these same induhvidual telling my husband what horrible parents we are because he is bottle feeding Loren. I am going to do my best to make sure what is in that bottle is mothers’ milk, but I don’t care to have nosy strangers inquire about my offspring’s eating habits.
I don’t understand why most of the arguments against the OP in this thread seem to focus on about maybe breastfeeding is maybe not so great. SuaSponte gave the true reason to be against the OP.
As for why the pro-breastfeeding crowd seems so militant:
Not so many years ago breastfeeding was not seen as best. Many grandmothers seem to think that doing so is not a good idea. Working against the existing mindset tends to make you defensive after a while. I have heard allegations from the older generation that breastfeeding is dirty, and should be left to the animals. I have also heard allegations that breastfeeding past age 1 is tatamount to sexual abuse.
2)The formula makers do push their product hard. They also seem to influence even allegedly pro breastfeeding articles. I just read an article supposedly touting the benefits of breastfeeding that gave the impression that breastfeeding is unreliable and leeds to only erratic growth in babies and the only way to be able to easily judge how well you are taking care of your baby is to measure how much formula is consumed. It was one of about 5 such articles thrown into magazines given to me by my OB. When I read a real pro breastfeeding article in the newspaper, I nearly fell out of my chair, but then that paper did not seem to have many formula ads.
Current attitudes that equate breastfeeding with indecent exposure and something that should only be done in the bathroom mean breastfeeding in public all to often leads to hassles. Attitudes are changing, but breastfeeding is a right that is being fought for still. Fighting for one’s rights seems to lead to militant attitudes. Women have been asked to leave our national parks because they had the audacity to breastfeed there. Only last year did we win that battle.
No, I don’t think a prescription for formula should be necessary. It’s FOOD, for heaven’s sake. I can see a prescription being necessary for special formulas like Nutramigen and Alimentum (both specialty formulas for kids with food allergies and digestive problems) to ensure the problems are being managed appropriately. But not for basic Similac with Iron.
What upsets me about this topic and the thread in general:
There have been several stories in the U.S. of babies that have died of malnutrition because the mother breastfed, didn’t produce enough milk, and refused to use formula to supplement, insisting that breast feeding, and only breast feeding, is good for the infant.
I’ll dig up a cite if anyone insists, but there was at least one story of this sort locally in my area and I know there have been others in the past couple of years.
I have no problem with breast feeding. I’m sure it’s natural, healthful, and generally a good idea. (and, yes, my kid was BF’d. So what?) But when BF advocation tilts so far that mothers inadvertantly starve thier babies to death to fulfill some Perfect BF Ideal, losing complete sight of the objective that all this is done to feed an infant, something is seriously out of whack.
As for the OP: how many babies will die because the mother refuses to use formula when breast feeding isn’t doing the job? If this were the Pit, I’d have choice words for folks who let doctrinaire dogma overwhelm common sense to the point that innocent kids may die to serve that dogma. Making it more difficult for young mothers to feed babies by outlawing or restricting formula is insane. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Breast feeding rocks. Fine. But feeding your baby, in whatever way makes the most sense and actually works, is more important.
Aside to lee: I agree with most of your points, but I think the mindset about BF has moved on and it’s more accepted now than even a very few years ago. In my state it’s actually against the law to prevent a woman from breast feeding in a restaurant or other public place. I personally applaud this: Mom’s need to be able to feed thier babies, in whatever way makes sense, and obstacles should not be placed in the way.