Breastfed babies are better behaved, says research

[Belle]

(tu)

[minder]

Sure it was a lady called Clare that was on my workshop 12 years ago - I tried one last time to breasfeed (after 3 babies, premature birth, mastistis) but after falling ill with a pulmonary embollism 2 days after birth, wasn't really given any advice. Was just left to get on with it.

My own three have been bottlefed formula since birth, albeit maybe tried to breastfeed for a few weeks.

Need I say, I'm happy with their outcome.

The Aptamil advert gets me a bit upset - "nothing compares to breastmilk".

[Belle]

Minder - the formula companies are bound by European (I think) law to say things like that, same with the disclaimer on the website Jennyh mentioned. They're also restricted to advertising follow-on milk only i.e. post 6 months. Must say I've never felt their advertising was effective - think we just chose what we could find in a carton when we first went onto formula. Especially hate the Aptmamil babies laughing - somehow turns what is a lovely sound into a very irritating one!

[cuppa tea]

"Stay-at-home-moms and working moms fight about who's raising their children correctly, when they could be banding together to demand reliable, safe, low-cost daycare from our governing bodies. Women instead of men quit their jobs to be full-time parents based on the rationale that their men's salaries are larger, instead of asking why women are paid less than men for the same work. And when it comes to breastfeeding, women sit there battling each other over the evils of formula supplementation instead of lobbying collectively for extended, paid parental leave so early parenthood would be less stressful."

This is a really brilliant point. I find this in all areas of mothering. We are so busy getting at each other and defending our choices that we fail to see that we need to be a united front to fight for the freedom of choice. Then we may get somewhere. All the bickering just gets in the way. Personally I don't find "brestapo" helpful either. When you give something a name it then suddenly exists. As far as I know there is not an organised group of militant pro-breastfeeders. There are lots of individuals with different opinions about how to feed babies. Anything that helps support someone's individual choice is good. I found this study unhelpful because it was very dubious science and more opinion than anything else.