Thursday, 10 September 2009
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A Heated Post: Breastfeeding
In light of some recent rude blogs, a couple of rude messages, and some ridiculous comments I decided to write my post today on breastfeeding.
I received a message informing that my youngest was looking rather fat. I thought this was a little ironic considering she's in the 27th percentile for weight. I've been told that breastfeeding is making her fat and that soy formula is such a better alternative. Ironically, I'm being told these things by someone who chose not to breastfeed. For those of you that have children (which is most of you) who haven't thoroughly researched breastfeeding vs. bottle feeding, allow me to enlighten you:
There are MANY differences between formula and breastmilk. I could go into it all myself, but I wont.. Check out the article "The Unbottled Truth About Formula." When people have thin babies and those babies are on soy formula it always makes me chuckle. DUH they are skinny. They are essentially on a vegan diet. As BABIES. If your intent is for them to be vegan that's one thing, however, as this article points out, most babies do not need soy formula-- they are just having trouble digesting the harsh ingredients in formula.
Another interesting article is "What Formula is Missing" and some of the statistics are pretty interesting.
For example did you know "the number one risk factor for kids getting ear infections is bottle feeding? not day care, not smoke exposure, but formulas. Think about the loss of work, the exposure to antibiotics, the midnight purchases of medicine for fever and rehydration solutions, and visits to me that could be avoided if more families chose to breastfeed their infants.
You see, infection fighting cells of the body are present in abundance in breastmilk and are not found at all in formula. So children who are formula fed are not just at risk for ear infections but diarrhea (from rotavirus, E .Coli, cholera, Giardia), and respiratory infections (like RSV, influenza, H. flu, pneumococcus). Plus, formula fed kids get more meningitis (From H.flu, pneumococcus, herpes, and group B strep). Interesting. This article is just full of interesting information.
Another article "The Deadly Influence of Formula on America" if full of lots of information. Another statistic that blew me out of the water was this: the use of infant formula doubles the risk of infant death for American babies. Crazy, right? I guess I'd rather have Lucy be a little "fat" than to be dead...
There are many other articles I could list here to support my decision, but these contain the most information. I'd rather nurse my youngest daughter and have some people think she's "fat" than feed her a bottle of formula that's full of contaminants.
I support a person's right to choose how to feed their child. Breastfeed, bottlefeed, whatever. Everything I've stated above are simply facts. Hopefully I haven't offended any bottlefeeding momma's out there, that was not my intent. My intent was to put out my reasons for breastfeeding (aside from the fact that I love the bonding experience)... all factual.What do you think about breastfeeding? Bottlefeeding? What made you choose your method of feeding?
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Stats: This Week All Time Posts: 0 2 Views: 0 4646 Comments: 0 227 View all posts by AbsolutelyNormalChaos61308@xanga
Comments (166)
I'M 100% FOR BREASTFEEDING!
it's the best gift you can give to your kid.. oh and love too :)
seriously, that person who msged you, anti-breastfeeding? She needs to get her facts straight. Breastmilk is so much healthier than formula, formula tries to imitate, but it's still not the same as breast milk.
Well, I am terribly offended by your facts.
Lucy is beautiful and don't let anyone tell you any different.
I've BF'd my babies- some more than others. I really enjoy it- easier than making bottles for sure LOL!
Right now my 9 month old is the most "aggressive" nurser I've had yet- he doesn't hesitate to pull my shirt up or down and pop that boob in his mouth all by himself! None of my other kids did this- even well after they turned a year old- so I find it very amusing LOLside note: We recently started using soy formula for when I do supplement (like 1-2 bottles a week), I've done the research up and down and all around and from what I've found there is no evidence that isoflavones cause fertility or sexual development harm. And yes, we are vegan :)
I'm for breastfeeding. My daughter is almost 6 months, and I do supplement with formula, depending on the situation (sometimes it's just easier). But I try to breastfeed as much as I can, and plan on continuing until she's at least a year old.
And I think that in most cases, a chubby baby is a good thing. If there's no history of obesity or overweight tendencies in the family, it's likely just baby fat and will come off by the time they hit about 2 anyway. Babies are supposed to be chubby! I would worry about my daughter if she wasn't a little ball of chub right now.
i would breast feed if i could but my breast are just so sensitive. even before i was pregnant i just cant stand for them to be touched. i just cant take it. i've tried just for boyfriends to let them touch but i pretty much have a hands off rule. some people have said that i'm selfish because i refuse to just endure the pain so that the baby can have breast milk but they dont realize that it isnt just regular pregnant tenderness.
When I have kids I will be breastfeeding for all the reasons you talked about. You are right on. I know plenty of friends who told me they were always bottle fed and today, what do they deal with? ALLERGIES, increased incidence of illness and autoimmune diseases!. I hope other people catch on soon.
uhm, im never gonna do that.
i was bottlefed
i'll stick with the bottles.
i don't really want young children sucking on my nipples.... =S
but i'm not ANTI-breastfeeding.....(even though it kind of creeps me out)....I'm perfectly okay with others doing it, i don't care
I breastfed my youngest untill I had to go back to work, I then tried to feed when I was home at night but for some reason I just stoped producing milk so she had to go on formula... I really hated it. I acctualy felt GUILTY for having to go back to work because I wanted to breastfeed her. Now expecting with my second I stay home full time so I plan to breastfeed untill about one (as long as my milk production keeps up). I cant believe that person told you your baby was getting fat because you were breastfeeding! What a load!! My daughter had to go on soy formula because she had an allergy to the regular formula. I hated them both. She spit up so much more and got sick more often. It was also hard to keep her at a healthy weight. Id rather a little heavier baby then a sickly skinny one.
i plan to never breastfeed. not because it's bad, but honestly, it grosses me out. i don't want a kid chewing on my nipple.
i'm not anti-breastfeeding though (unless it's one of those mothers who purposely pops her whole boob out in public even though she doesn't have to and stares daggers at everyone who does so much as glance at her. but that's more about the mother than the breastfeeding). i realize there are a lot of benefits to it, and i can definitely see why any mother would choose to breastfeed her children. however, i just don't want to. and that doesn't scare me, i know plenty of children who weren't breastfed and are fine now.
@shunny@xanga - you will MAKE her breastfeed?
you know that it can possibly cause a lot of discomfort for the mother, right? also, that it's her body and mainly her choice?
Breast fed babies smell better than bottle fed babies.
I was bottle fed and since I can't breast feed, I will use a bottle to feed my kids when I have them. :)
I had one of each. The first took to breastfeeding and it was wonderfully convenient. The second was premature, and had trouble latching on. We also had moved and had no network of support for the second.
A future mom should consider breastfeeding, but I'll not condemn one who doesn't. All the positives the author noted are true, but there may be pain and frustration for mom. A support network is vital.
Breastfeeding, FTW!
I'm kind of cheap, I admit, and I liked being able to feed my baby for next to nothing. But it was the health benefits for mother and child that catapulted me over the fence for breastfeeding.
@shunny@xanga - You are going to make her breastfeed ?!? Can we say 'control freak'? Like @soyeahthatswhathappened@xanga said, it can cause problems with the mom, and quite frankly they are HER boobs, so it's HER choice. No man would EVER tell me that I had to breastfeed.
As for the post... I totally support breastfeeding. I didn't breasfeed either of my children because of personal issues. If I ever have another (prolly not) I plan on breastfeeding him/her, but we'll see. I've always had 'chubby' kids and neither one of them was ever breastfed and my son didn't get his first ear infection until he was six.
i bottlefeed my daughter and not by choice
i was able to breastfeed up until a surgery that I had which caused me to be unable to do so for 6 weeks and by that time my milk dried up i tried to relactate but was unsuccessful
i'm all for breastfeeding. it's definitely best for the baby. and babies are supposed to be "fat." it just means they're healthy.
@XDaemonessX@xanga - okay well I wont make her I will just list out the benefits to her... My comment was slightly irrational. I still support breastfeeding.
@soyeahthatswhathappened@xanga - Yes thanks for pointing out... I now understand that some women would feel discomforted. I do have a question though for anyone that knows. What about, not sure what it is called, but the breast pump thing. If I could I would have rephrased the comment I have said before.
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I agree that there are more health benefits to breastfeeding and I do support it.
That said, My daughter was primarily formula fed. I tried breastfeeding, but due to reasons I won't go into, it just didn't work out. So after 6 weeks, we went to full time formula. She is now 13 months and has never had an ear infection and has never had to go to the doctor for anything other than her well child visits. Considering she was a preemie, she is now very healthy and grew very well. I would definitely use formual for any future children if necessary, but I would try breastfeeding first. I hope with the next child, God willing, I can be more successful with breastfeeding.
It's also definitely a personal decision. No one should be condemned either way. Trust me, I've had people tell me that I SHOULD be breastfeeding when they didn't even know the reasons for our situation. There's definitely a lot of senseless judgement out there that is just plain stupid.
I think everyone needs to make their own decision and not worry about what's best for others. It's hard because people always want to tell you what you should or should not be doing. At some point, you just gotta work out what's "best" on your own.
One more thing which escaped you, breastfeeding is what make us mammals.
It is quite literally the natural course of life.
I dont see it mattering either way. It's a personal decision and in the end its up to the mother to make.
Personally, I'd like to keep it as natural as possible, and breastfeed for the first year. But thats just me.
Ah the joy of nurturing a baby! Either way is OK. (But BF is better.) Did I say that out loud?