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Breast-feed or else
Topic Started: Jun 18 2006, 04:07 AM (594 Views)
ICan
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/13/health/1...gin&oref=slogin

Do you think the campaign is going too far?
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U Tarzan Me Jane
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Rebbetzin
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definately goes too far! I just wanted to add that I pretty much exclusively breast fedall my children, (I used to give one bottle a day at bedtime), from the time my middle son was two months old, he lived at the doctor. When it wasn't an ear infection it was bronchitis....we still have this problem and he is already almost 4.

I had a similar experience with my youngest son, he was also almost always sick! and he nursed the longest from all my kids(14 months), and never took a bottle....I think breast is best but to go this far is utterly ridiculous, (besides, you catch more flies with honey than with vinager!)
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zuncompany
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But how much worse would they have been if you weren't nursing?

Personally I don't think it goes to far. Why? Cause people are ignorant. They don't for the most part know the facts. As a society we have gotten very meme oriented and away from family and group focus. So yes, it would be easier on ME right now to stop nursing Freida. I would love to have choc., corn on the cob, corn salad, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and everything on the six pages of the corn avoidance list. But is that best for my child? NO! The best way to combat the allergies is to 110% avoid it in any and ALL forms. You can't do this when you give formula. But society is putting LOTS of pressure on me to give her formula because than I could get out more, eat like a normal person, and be more independant.

We always say we would die for our kids...

Now I do think while they aren't going to far they aren'tgoing about it very smartly. They aren't going to increase nursing moms this way. Just going to increase the guilt. They need to educated more on the benefits, pro and cons. Studies have shown more educated women nurse than women with less education. It pains me when women say they didn't produce enough when tha majority (some women really don't) do! Its right around he six week mark on the bbc bb when the women start saying they had to go to formula cause they didn't produce enough. Why did they think this? Cause they weren't engorged, didn't feel full, the baby only nursed for 10ish mins, or my favorite the baby was still nursing every two hours or wanted to nurse all night. ALL of this is normal! If the kid is making wet diapers and is gaining weight- you have enough in there!!!

Yes, nursing isn't always convient!
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realgood
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aishes chayil
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I am B"h happily nursing my ds #2.

But i my bottlefed ds #1 didn't get a cold till he was 12 months old and my ds #2 has allready got a cold. This type of articles nake those paople who bottleffeed out of "force" feel guilty when they should only feel regret. cuz i am not guilty for bottlefeeding..it isnt a sin.i did what was for my son. but i can regret that i didn't have the experience of bf.
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SaraFR
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Can someone please post the entire article?
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jellybean
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i think the article is a little biased. and if the govt felt that "breast is best", then why does wic pay for formula? why don't they only pay for it if there is a medical need for it?
i thought i would nurse my kids totally, like my mother and mil. however, my baby wasn't thriving and had to be put on formula supplementation. i switched to nursing every other feed, simply because i was going out of my mind. feeding dd was taking hours, literally. my pediatrician is very pro nursing (and he's a frum guy too) and when i mentioned something about how maybe i should just stop nursing since dd isn't gainig weight, he looked at me and said "no! don't stop! your baby should get the best of both worlds! don't give up nursing!" and he made sure i was seeing a lc. and dh is very supportive of my nursing and he told me that i must nurse since there are allergies in the family.
but ... ear infections run in my family. and in dhs. many sibs have had tubes. and that is with nursing. when dd got her first ear infection last week, i called my mother and said "guess what tr got?" i didn't tell her that i was in the parking lot of the dr or that dd wasn't feeling well. she said "an ear infection!" so unfortunately nursing doesn't protect against everything.
nothing is perfect 100% of the time.
and may i add that i work in a frum school where there is onsite childcare and most mothers nurse. :nod :banana
hopefully for my next children i'll be able to nurse exclusively, but i won't go crazy about it.
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U Tarzan Me Jane
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zun, I'm with you, I agree nursing is best, but I also know how hard it is when your child is not thriving on breastmilk, and is having many problems despite the fact that you are trying everything.I was made to feel very guilty about supplementing, mind you from people who had know clue of what the situation was. the truth is that my oldest son, who had more formula then the other two put together is the healtiest of my children! at 5 he has never BAH, had an ear infection, he has had few cases of bronchitis, and he nursed the shortest amount of time, and had to have the most supplements, because he had a severe latch problem and literally could not suck.

To put so much guilt on a new mother who is trying her best, is not going to increase womens breastfeeding.
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zuncompany
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I agree- guilt is not productive. Thats why education is a better route.

I actually wonder sometimes how much worse my kid's allergies would be if I didn't bf. Zu had two sinus infections while nursing. Tev besides his allergies is healthy B"H! Not even a cold.
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chavamom
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Here is my problem:
Quote:
 
When her two babies failed to gain weight and her pediatrician insisted that she supplement her breast milk with formula, Ms. Petrone said, "I felt so guilty."

"I thought I was doing something wrong," she added. "Nobody ever told me that some women just can't produce enough milk."

Moreover, urging women to breast-feed exclusively is a tall order in a country where more than 60 percent of mothers of very young children work, federal law requires large companies to provide only 12 weeks' unpaid maternity leave and lactation leave is unheard of. Only a third of large companies provide a private, secure area where women can express breast milk during the workday, and only 7 percent offer on-site or near-site child care, according to a 2005 national study of employers by the nonprofit Families and Work Institute.


We have a whole society that knows BUPKIS about breastfeeding. The first woman most likely had enough milk (b/c 99% of women who haven't had breast surgery do), but needed help a la Jack Newman to make it happen. How many Jack Newmans (or even really good LC's) are there out there? And how many out there know that it is possible to work and still breastfeed? Not to mention that you have employers who make it difficult for mothers to pump. I think THAT issue needs to be addressed.

I don't think that the campaign goes too far b/c MOST Americans think that formula is 'just as good' or 'almost as good' as breastmilk. It isn't. There is plenty of research to back up the assertions of the campaign, so I think there should be a warning that formula carries risks. It does. Should we allow people to be ignorant just b/c they are afraid of making someone feel guilty? It doesn't work with medication, why should it work formula? Would you allow this? "Well, I know there are risks to thalidomide, but let's not tell pregnant women - they might feel guilty for having taken it." "Well, we know carseats save lives, but we don't want to make anyone who has put their child at risk feel guilty. Let's just keep that hush-hush." Why should formula be held to a different standard?
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jellybean
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chava - i guess i'm part of the 1%. and yes, i tried hard. but it was either supplement or ch'v who knows. my baby got to 4 lbs 6 ozs and she was born full term.
and in one of the breast feeding packs from similac there is a whole form letter for an employer on the importance of nursing and pumping and how an employer should provide space, breaks, time, etc for pumping.
and fyi - at the hospital where i delivered, the hospital is not allowed to ask or tell about carseats. once the baby is discharged the baby is discharged and they are not allowed to ask about carseats or make recommendations. (yes, i have a carseat, i have the safeseat, at least i get one thing right if i'm not nursing exclusively, right?)
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chavamom
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Every hospital I worked at was not allowed to send a child home without a carseat. There is a difference between not recommending a brand and getting out the info that babies/children need to be in carseats. It is against the law here up to age 8 or 80 lbs!

It is possible that you are part of the 1%. It is also possible that with better professional help and interventions (pumping and giving via SNS until your baby was bigger, medications such as reglan or domperidome, checking to see if there is an issue of low thyroid or other health problem sabotaging supply, etc) the outcome could have been different. I'm not diagnosing, just tossing out the possiblity. In our society we tend to see formula as the FIRST answer to any breastfeeding issues. I know many women who believed themself to be in that 1% who got better/different help either with that child or the next time around and found that *surprise*! They were able to nurse afterall. My best girlfriend was like this. She bottlefed her first two and had a lot of anger if anyone suggested she might have been able to breastfeed (first two had FTT). Someone gently suggested other options b/c she really had wanted to breastfeed. She got different help/interventions with her 3rd and she has now totally breastfed 4 children. She is not the only story I know firsthand like this. But I don't think the women are at fault. I fault a medical system that says 'well, you tried, now it's time to give formula' without investigating further or looking at other options. Most women I know who were able to make breastfeeding work in such a scenario, it was only b/c they agressively pursued the root cause of the 'breastfeeding failure'.
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zuncompany
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I thought it was a federal law that they can't release the baby without seeing the baby in the carseat. In our hospital you have to bring the carseat up to the hospital room and they check that the child is strapped in correctly. If you don't have an infant seat and instead have one thats a backward facing convertable seat they check that the child is strapped in correctly when they bring you down. They even watched us put the carseat in the base and checked that it was at the correct angle this time!

(btw- I just got the safeseat erev Shabbos and love it!)
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jellybean
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i tried pumping, hardly got anything out. bh, all tests seem to be normal. even with the lc (who is very aggressive) not so much came out. i have a pis, so who knows. if i work really hard at pumping i can get about an ounce total, but only if dd hasn't nursed recently.
we were shocked when the hospital couldn't help us with the carseat. we wanted to make sure the base was in okay, but apparently they don't want to take responsibility for anything. knowing the city we live in i'm not shocked.
and here the carseat laws are also very strict - children must be in the backseat and either 6 years and 60 lbs or 8 years and 80 lbs.
and i love my safeseat. sara - if you want a snap n go type of thing, i got this one from babyage. (click here) i figured for the price, it's worth it even if it breaks! and the best part is it stands by itself when folded. the only chisaron is that the bar is a little low for dh. i think they're in pa so you'll have to pay sales tax and shipping.
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realeez
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what's a safeseat?

here the law is strict too - for incorrect carseats or none at all you get a couple of demerit points and a fine but no one even asked me about carseats. i walked out carrying my baby - no one would have known if i had my baby on my lap for the way home! (OF COURSE I DIDN'T!)
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zuncompany
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the safeseat is the new infant seat by graco.

jellybean- pumping does not show you accurately how much milk you have. I personally have almost no luck with a pump. I maybe get half an ounce per side. I can get more just hand expressing the milk! The only way to accurately measure how much milk your child is getting is by measuring them before and after you nurse them and figure out the difference. I really hope they didn't tell you that you did not have enough based on how much you pumped!
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