Let's fight back!

I have posed questions both to Aptamil and Cow & Gate asking why they don't display the health risks of using their products on their tins/cartons as cigarette companies have to do.  I have also asked why they don't print ALL of the ingredients on their tins/cartons.  Suffice it to say that I have subsequently been blocked from both Aptamil and Cow & Gate pages on facebook.  Whether this is due to the questions I was asking or because of the arguments that ensued from righteous (albeit rather ignorant) mothers, or both. 

I have since taken steps in obtaining both UK health statistics and global health statistics on the use of infant formula as well as approaching someone about starting an international petition to have the law changed so that formula companies HAVE to print the risks of using their products on their tins.  This could take YEARS to accomplish but if it saves just one baby's life, surely it is a very worthy cause? 

In the wise words of the Alpha Parent, "breastfeeding should be EVERY baby's human right". 

We need to educate those mothers that are too blinded by the cunning marketing web that has been spun around them.  We need to re-educate the health professionals who offer formula as an easy alternative all too often.  We need to impress upon mothers that they need to do their own research instead of just believing everything they hear.  The government needs to spend more on breastfeeding and limit the amount that is spent advertising on formula.  Unfortunately, I think there is a link somehow between governments and the formula companies, whether the formula companies sponsor politicians, or the government makes a hell of a profit on VAT income from the sale of formula I'm not sure.  It could be both. 

KNOWLEDGE is FREEDOM.  We are all pulled into marketing traps every day of our lives.  60 years ago Camel cigarettes were advertised as the 'healthy' option of cigarettes.  If such an advert displayed on our television screens these days, complaints would be made by the thousands to Ofcom et al.  The same approach needs to be taken with formula.  We need to be horrified that formula is marketed as 'healthy' or as an 'acceptable alternative' to breast milk. 

The sad truth is that we are victimised and our health is compromised by formula.  We are subjecting our babies to suffering from the day they are born to the day they die.  It's not fair.  We need to fight back!  We need to prove to these people that we CAN think for ourselves, that we are HUMAN beings, not lab rats!  No one can deny that formula has saved children's lives, but it was created for the sole use in cases of maternal death or physical inability to breastfeed.  The formula companies got greedy so they sexualised breasts and made us doubt our own abilities as mothers.  Why do women buy into the biggest lie, but not only that, the biggest lie run by MEN. 

What have we been fooled into doing to our children????

So after a long long think and much debating and arguing I have come to one conclusion.  The formula industry is as evil and twisted and corrupt as the tobacco industry.  They play a psychological money game with those in the health profession and in 3rd world countries they aggressively target mothers to use their products.  AT WHAT COST???  At the cost of millions of little lives every year. 

By no means am I having a rant about mothers choosing to formula feed.  No no no.  Mothers are led to believe by advertising and misplaced advice from health professionals that formula is just as good as breast milk.  I've heard of so many stories of mothers who have been to see their family GP and being told that there are 'no nutritional benefits to breast milk after 6 months old'.  W-T-F????  I wonder, does anyone know WHY they say this?  I do.  After reading an article from the Archives of Disease in Childhood, I know EXACTLY why these GP's say such things.  Here is an extract from the Archives of Disease in Childhood which is an offshoot of the American National Library of medicine.

"It is now known that the use of infant formula instead of breast milk is one of the most important causes of preventable mortality in infancy world wide.^1,2,3 However, there is growing evidence that this is not just an issue for poorer countries. Research in the United Kingdom has shown associations with increased morbidity,^4,5 reduced later intelligence quotient (IQ),⁶ and increased risk of adult ill health,⁷ and a recent paper from the United States showed an association with excess infant mortality.⁸ This places the use of infant formula high among the avoidable risks to health to which children in the United Kingdom are exposed. Yet in the United Kingdom, breast feeding rates are stagnant, after encouraging rises in recent decades, and there is a clear social class disparity, which means that children in the poorest families, already facing multiple adversities, predominantly start life without the protective benefits of breast milk.⁹ Globally, breast feeding is also under threat, with signs of reverses in rates of exclusive breast feeding in many countries.<sup>10"

So from this we can see that despite the governments breastfeeding campaign mothers are not getting the proper support and information on breastfeeding.  The government spent £729 011 on advertising breastfeeding in 2006/7 whereas the formula companies spent a staggering £7 626 847 in 2006/7 a 36% increase on the previous year.  Who can blame mothers for choosing to formula feed when they are bombarded by more advertising on formula than they are on breastfeeding?  We also have to take in the emotive factors that formula companies create with their consumers.  "Their product kept my baby alive, I'll keep using it rather than try breastfeeding the next one".  Only 2% of mothers aren't physically able to breastfeed according to WHO and the NHS.  Mothers come up with all sorts of excuses about why they 'couldn't' breastfeed, not realising that with the help of a proper breastfeeding peer counsellor that they could have had a long and happy breastfeeding relationship with their child.  Let us not forget about the sexualisation of breasts in Western society.  Thanks to.... The formula companies!!  Early advertisements of formula included images of breasts that successfully alienated the breast as the natural form of nutrition.  Let us look at another excerpt from the above article.</sup>

"Infant formula manufacturers have a duty to their shareholders to maximise sales of their products, which by definition means minimising exposure of infants to breast milk. Hence while publicly stating their commitment to breast feeding, as required by law, IFMCs are, in fact profiting from the failure of breast feeding. With growing knowledge of the hazards of infant formula, manufacturers need to seek ever more sophisticated ways of promoting their products as scientific and safe. Any link with paediatricians or other health professional is thus likely to enhance their products' credibility and sales. IFMCs are therefore happy to provide funds from their advertising budgets to achieve this. There are three main ways by which IFMCs forge these links with paediatricians: through educational activities, support of a department or organisation, and funding of research.

Sponsorship of an educational event promotes a company and its products at a number of levels. The firm's name is linked to that of the institution on widely distributed publicity, those attending the course receive material such as pens bearing the firm's logo, and all involved will then tend to have subtly enhanced respect for that company and their products. When companies fund clinical activity or support health related organisations, this also conveys an impression of the company as being “health giving” even if their products may cause net harm to children's health.

Research into formula milks, although ostensibly necessary, in fact serves an important role in promoting the use of infant formula, as the results are then used to enhance the impression of their “equivalence” to breast feeding, once compounds present in breast milk, such as “pre‐biotics”, are added. Every supposed enhancement of an infant formula, which EU law only requires be tested in trials of equivalence to other formulas, can then be advertised as making the formula “even closer to breast milk” even though there is no evidence that any such enhancements have actually increased the safety of formula. Paediatricians also tend to attach great significance to the role of IFMCs in developing specialist formulas, which may be useful for a tiny number of infants, without necessarily recognising that far more infants suffer because they were deprived of the protective benefits of breast milk by the use of that company's products."

 

Hmmm...  A stunning insight into the corrupt psychological games that the formula industry plays on the government and pediatric science...  What does this mean?  It means that the afore mentioned GP will tell you that your breast milk is not enough for your child after the age of 6 months so they should be fed an artificial, substandard, potentially harmful alternative instead?  Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight...  Thanks I'll stick to breastfeeding my 18 month old child rather than risk his health with a product that has the potential to kill him at the age of 40.  Lets look at another extract.

 

"If breast feeding, with all its benefits, is to be established as a majority activity, we paediatricians must learn to recognise the elaborate web woven around us by formula manufacturers, which currently ensures our goodwill and support for a product that we may acknowledge, but would mostly not wish to actively promote. Fifty years ago nearly everyone, including doctors, smoked and it was perceived to be a necessary and inescapable part of our culture. Now it is unimaginable that we would smoke in front of our patients or accept gifts from cigarette manufacturers. It is time for a similar shift to take place with respect to formula milk. Just because many mothers currently choose to bottle feed their infants and a tiny number of infants cannot be breast fed, it does not mean we should be seen to be endorsing a product that causes net damage to the health of children. The time has come for paediatricians to recognise the influence of IFMCs, shake off their silken chains, and become truly uncompromised advocates for breast feeding and against the hazards of formula milk."

 

Well at least SOMEONE knows something funny is going on right?  But the problem is, how to inform the public?  Mothers are very defensive about what choices they make when it comes to feeding their children.  They don't WANT to know that they are feeding their child something that can cause child/adulthood cancer, diabetes, obesity, gastroentiritis, SIDS, respiratory illness, asthma, eczema etc etc etc. 

 

Our responsibilities, not just as parents, but as human beings, is to expose this industry for what it really is.  A corrupt, power-hungry, money making scheme that kills millions of babies every year.  There need to be drastic changes in the medical profession and government attitudes towards infant formula.  Midwives need to stop offering gift vouchers to those who can give out the most samples of formula in a day (yes!  they do that!), doctors and scientists need to stop accepting 'funding' from these formula companies and need to study and promote breastfeeding more, laws should be changed with regards to infant formula. 

 

My aim, my GLOBAL aim, is to have a law passed that formula companies display the health risks associated with the use of their products on their tins so that mothers can make an INFORMED decision at point of sale.  Do I contact someone to help me breastfeed or do I buy this stuff and risk my child's health, both now and later on in life?

An Article EVERY mum and mum to be should read!

Hello everyone, sorry for the lengthy silence.  I have a 15 month old so a lot of running around to do!  I recently came across this article that I think is fantastic!  Please please have a read before considering formula...

Johann Hari: There is a smart drug – it's called breast milk

Imagine if today, scientists discovered a drug that could save 13 per cent of all the babies who currently die. Now imagine that drug also made your baby cleverer – and dramatically slashed her chances of developing heart disease, diabetes, leukaemia, asthma or obesity as an adult. Oh: and imagine it was free.

The "drug" exists. It is called breast milk. Yet in the developed world, we often stigmatise women who give it to their babies as "creepy". In the developing world, we allow corporations to tug babies from their mother's nipple, and put them on to powders that bring more profit – and more death.

I come at this from a strange perspective. My mother breastfed me until I was nearly three; she only stopped the day I wrote her a note saying I expected to be breastfed that afternoon. Today, whenever I have a success, she clutches her breasts and exclaims: "It's thanks to these!" Whenever my bottle-fed brother and sister have a failing in life, she howls: "Think what you could have been if I'd given you the tit." (Whenever she gets a bit too self-congratulatory, I remind her she also smoked 40 cigarettes a day. "Ach," she says, "it's stressful having a little bastard suckin' at you all the time.")

It's the best thing you can do for your baby – without it I'd be even fatter and more disease-ridden. It's good for you too, significantly reducing a mother's risk of osteoporosis and cancer of the ovary. Yet my mum was made to feel like a flasher. She was glared at in public places, and asked to leave restaurants, parks and even buses. Unsurprisingly, Britain today has the worst record on breastfeeding in the developed world, after Belgium. Some 24 per cent of our babies never taste breast milk at all – and by six weeks, a majority have shifted entirely to formula.

Why? Why do we hobble our babies, and our country? Let's rule out some of the more glib explanations. The number of women who physically can't breastfeed with the right support is negligibly small: the World Health Organisation (WHO) puts it at 1 per cent. Nor is it because women prefer the "liberation" of the bottle. A Department of Health study found that 90 per cent of mothers who stopped feeding at six weeks said they wanted to carry on, while 40 per cent of those who stopped at six months felt the same.

The most primal reason belongs to an old, old story: women are conditioned to find their own bodies disgusting, except when they can be used to entice men. A get-your-tits-out-for-the-lads culture doesn't want you to get your tits out for your baby: they're for titillation, not nurture. This week, one of the Government's best ministers – Harriet Harman – has succeeded in peeling this back, by including the legal right to breastfeed your baby in public into the new Equalities Bill.

But the biggest reason most women give for reluctantly pushing their baby on to the bottle is their need to return to work. How do we change that? For clues, look at the country where breastfeeding rates are still 90 per cent at six months: Norway. They give mothers a year off with 80 per cent pay, and give state employees breastfeeding breaks when they do come back. Yes, this costs businesses some money up front – but it saves a fortune further down the line, because you have a cleverer workforce that pays more tax and puts less pressure on the health service. If British babies were breastfed at Norwegian rates for just three months, the NHS would save £50m annually in the treatment of one disease alone – gastroenteritis.

That leaves another dark explanation for the fall-off: the role of unchecked corporate power. There is no profit to be made from a mother's milk, so at the turn of the last century corporations tried to find a way to divert babies from nestling at their mother's breast to Nestlé-ing at the corporate teat. They invented "baby formula" and marketed it as the classier, cleaner alternative. Cow & Gate powder was sold with a crown on the tin, bragging the Windsor children used it. (Look how that turned out.)

Gradually, in the democratic world, the corporations were restrained from making the most blatantly bogus claims about breast milk – but they keep slipping the leash. In Britain, they are banned from marketing baby formula to those younger than six months old. But instead they market "follow-up formulas" for older kids with exactly the same logo, covered with claims that it is "closer than ever to breast milk".

This has produced a situation of startling public ignorance, where a third of mums think baby formula is "as good" or even "better" than breast milk. The poorest women know least and shift to formula first – adding another milky layer of inequality to our island. This dodgy marketing needs to be banned today.

But this breast-con swells to a 52DD scandal in the developing world. I recently visited Bangladesh, where mothers are routinely told to abandon their healthy breast milk and spend great swaths of their income on formula. I think of all the dead and dying babies I saw, and wonder how many could have been saved by a substance that was there, free, all along. WHO calculates that 1.3 million babies die every year because they are not breastfed. That's a World Trade Centre-full a day.

Nestlé are still the most notorious offenders, controlling a near-majority of the world market. In Botswana, Nestlé has distributed a pamphlet claiming if you give your baby its "acidified" formula, "diarrhoea and its side effects are counteracted". In reality, babies who use this rather than breast milk are more likely to contract diarrhoea – and die. Public health campaigns can hardly fight back: the corporation's annual marketing budget is bigger than the entire annual budget of the world's 28 poorest countries.

Nestlé says they consistently promote breastfeeding as the first, best option – but in 1999, a British Advertising Standards Authority studied the evidence and ruled they had to remove from their advertising the claim they sold their formula "ethically and responsibly". It is only tight, binding international regulation – here, and abroad – that will tame corporations from milking the poorest with misinformation. To join the campaign to make it happen, visit www.babymilkaction.org.

And yet, for all the evidence, it still seems like an implausible story. Can a powder mix of misogyny and unregulated corporate power really induce women against their will to harm their own children? It does, baby, every day. These are still shockingly powerful forces. Now suck on that – or fight back.

Cover it up!

If breastfeeding offends you, put a blanket over YOUR head.  The attitude of modern society when it comes to breastfeeding really annoys me and I'm sure it annoys many mom's out there who do it and have received negative comments.  On our second day out of hospital I was walking around town with a blanket over my shoulder and over little one (only because it was drizzling and very cold out) and we went to my husband's work place to introduce our new addition.  On arrival, I whipped off the blanket in front of everyone so they could have a look at him even though he was nursing.  They all fell completely in love and ooohed and aaahed at him nursing.  It was fantastic.  The only person who has ever made me feel uncomfortable feeding is my mother.  She didn't want me to do it in front of her and if I did I had to "cover up".  This attitude annoyed me to the point of rage. 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with feeding in public and to any new mom's out there who are nervous about doing it, don't be.  When you're feeding you either have to pull your top up so no one sees anything anyway, or you have to pull your top down, in which case if you're uncomfortable, by all means cover up.  But don't be pressured into thinking you have to.  I'm not remotely modest (probably because I was poked and prodded at so much during pregnancy, the birth, after the birth and during my PCOS tests) and am proud to be a non-modest nurser!  It's the most natural and beautiful thing in the world and should be looked on with fondness and admiration. 

Happy feeding!  :-) xxx

Breastfeeding is such a pain!

Yes, it can be horrendously painful.  More painful for some than others.  I was lucky enough to suffer a minimal amount of pain (and I have a very low pain threshold) but I think your ability to cope with the pain depends very much on how much you want to breastfeed.  I was determined to breastfeed and so didn't give up when it got sore.  What every new mom/breastfeeder has to remember is that the pain is only temporary.  If you suffer with pain throughout a feed then your baby's latch is wrong.  If you only suffer pain in the first few sucks of a feed, then congratulations!  Your baby is latched correctly. 

There are many ways to minimalise the pain in those first couple of weeks of breastfeeding, and here they are:

Paracetamol -  yes, we come back to the only painkiller you're allowed to take throughout pregnancy!  Pop a couple of paracetamol, even if it doesn't do it for you, and I guarantee the pain will be slightly lessened if not greatly reduced!
Lansinoh - otherwise known as lanolin cream.  Apply before and after every feed.  It speeds up the process of healing and can toughen your nipples up quicker.
Nipple-shields - I personally have never used these but have heard fantastic success stories of those who have.  Be warned, nipple shields are NOT to be used at every feed.  Nipple shields should ONLY be used when you can't take the pain anymore and you need to give your nipples time to heal before the next onslaught.  If you wear nipple shields at every feed, your nipples won't toughen up.
Breastmilk - That's right!  Breastmilk!  It's fantastic stuff.  If you express a little and spread it on your nipple and allow it to air dry it can speed up the healing process.  (other uses of breastmilk are for your baby's eye infection - when their eye gets all gammy from a blocked tear duct, breastmilk will clear it up in a couple of hours.  Breastmilk can also be used in the treatment of eczema.  Express some into a bowl and use it as a wash after your baby's bath!)

I hope these tips will help you through those first few painful days of breastfeeding.  Just remember that the more your baby feeds, the quicker your nipples will toughen up.

I'd just like to say that I am NOT against formula feeding.  I realise that there can be legitimate personal reasons why someone may choose not to breastfeed.  I can fully understand for example, a mom giving up because she can't take the pain.  All I would like to do is to encourage mom's to battle through the pain because it is the most rewarding journey a mother can go on with her child by breastfeeding.  You build such a special special bond with your baby through breastfeeding and none can rival it.  I have many friends who formula feed, sadly I don't know anyone who still breastfeeds their baby, and I would just like my formula feeding friends to know that I don't judge you at all.  I know you ladies and you're FANTASTIC moms.  If you read my blog please try and understand I'm not having a go at formula feeding mom's, what I'm trying to do is encourage new and veteran mom's to give the best to their baby. 

Again, I hope these tips help anyone planning/experiencing breastfeeding.  Please feel free to post any questions you may have. 

Happy Monday!!  xx

Why Breastfeed?

Indeed...  Why should a mother breastfeed?  Why should she breastfeed when there is a perfectly "good" breastmilk substitute on the market?

The sad thing is, there is NOTHING, that can even come close to breastmilk.  My little boy has had one gastro bug and one cold in his 15 month life span.  I firmly believe that my breastfeeding and supplementing him with vitamins and minerals has prevented things like bronchitis, flu, pneumonia, allergies and so on and so forth.  In comparison, I know many bottle fed babies close in age to my son who are very sickly little souls.  This is not their mothers fault however.  My one friend was advised at her son's birth NOT to breastfeed because she was so badly torn "down there".  I fail to see the logic in the advice but I certainly don't blame her for listening to the professionals.  They are the professionals after all.  Aren't they?

Unfortunately, breastfeeding is not only a choice and preference of some mothers but it's also a choice and preference for many in the medical profession.  A doctor, nurse or midwife may have had a bad experience with breastfeeding and so during the rest of their career, wrongly and untruthfully advise their following not to breastfeed or that there's "no real advantage" to it.  I believe that they tell themselves and others this nonsense to validate their own insecurities when it comes to breastfeeding. 

What are the health benefits?

There are SO many health benefits to breastfeeding.  Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to describe them in detail to others because they feel resentful at being proven wrong.  But lets have a look at these benefits shall we?

Benefits for Baby

-  They have less chance of contracting diarrhoea and vomiting bugs and having to go to the hospital as a result.
-  They have fewer ear and chest infections and having to go to hospital as a result.
-  They have less chance of being painfully constipated.
-  They have less likelihood of becoming obese and developing type 2 diabetes in adulthood.
-  They have less chance of contracting eczema
-  It lowers the risk of cot death (SIDS) by 50%

Benefits for Mom

-  It lowers the risk of breast and ovarian cancers by a percentage each year that you breastfeed
-  Naturally uses up to 500 calories a day
-  It's free
-  It builds a strong emotional bond between mother and child

So why don't mothers give breastfeeding a go?  There are a number of reasons for this.  "I don't like my nipples being touched" - guess what love, if you were living in the 1500's your baby would DIE because you "don't like your nipples being touched".  Another reason is "I don't make enough milk" -  if you didn't make enough milk, your baby would DIE.  Your body is DESIGNED to make enough milk.  There are however, legitimate medical reasons why a mother SHOULDN'T breastfeed and there are only two of them.  1.  She has HIV.  2.  She is on medication that would harm her baby.  Anymore?  Nope.  There are only two legitimate reasons why a mother shouldn't breastfeed.  And yet, there are thousands of reasons that women use to justify not breastfeeding and unless they are the two afore mentioned reasons, the rest of them are selfish, silly reasons that would mean your baby would die if you were living a few hundred years ago.  As said in my previous blog, times may have changed, but that doesn't mean our parenting methods have too.

In my next blog I will be giving advice and tips on how to deal with the initial pain of breastfeeding.

Happy reading everyone!  :-)

Breastfeeding is disgusting!

The attitude of my mother...  What an old fashioned hag!  How the bloody hell do you think people fed their children before formula was invented?! 
Unfortunately this is the attitude of most people these days.  I can't stand it.  Breastfeeding has been the most unbelievably rewarding journey for my son and I.  So I thought I'd share a few tips for those mom and moms to be out there.

Latch

A baby's latch is very important if you wish to successfully breastfeed.  Bring baby to breast, not breast to baby is the best piece of advice ever given.  If you bring your breast to the baby you're undoubtedly going to get it wrong.  Bring your baby towards you with their head tilted back and their nose in line with your nipple, tickle their cheek to get them to open wide and then pop them on!  They need to get as much breast tissue in their mouth as possible so that they can successfully latch.  At first your baby will swallow often and rapidly as they drink the foremilk and cope with your let down, then you will notice they swallow long and deeply as they get the all important hindmilk out.  Don't worry if this doesn't happen straight away.  You and your baby need time to get the hang of breastfeeding and it will undoubtedly take a week or two of practise.  You never know, you might be lucky like I was and have a baby who latches perfectly straight away!  :-)

Clusterfeeding

Clusterfeeding is when your baby is feeding for hours on end.  Please don't make the mistake of thinking this means your milk is not enough.  Clusterfeeding is your baby's way of telling your body to make more milk to meet their growth requirements.  Babies typically have growth spurts every 2 - 4 weeks and the growth spurt and clusterfeeding can last a day or two.  When these times come the best thing you can do is have lots of skin to skin contact with your baby, maybe lie in bed with some drinks and snacks close by and just let your little one feed feed feed.  If you have a toddler in the house, the best thing you can do is have them over at your mom's or at nursery in those first few weeks of your baby's life.  If that's not possible, purchasing a sling is your next best option.  That way your baby can feed and sleep through the growth spurts and you can continue with your daily life.  Just make sure you've given yourself adequate recovery time after the birth before you get back to your daily tasks.

That's my advice for today! 

I have started this blog to try and influence more mothers to go back to basics.  For millenia breastfeeding, co-sleeping and attachment parenting have meant that the human race survived!  And just because times have changed, it doesn't mean our methods of parenting have to.

Have a lovely day all and I hope I've helped mother's and others to understand the joy and challenges of breastfeeding!  :-)