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patsylabrador

Breastfeeding

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I don't know where we would all be without the powers that be controlling and vetting everything we view and say, so much for freedom of speech... :wink::lol:

 

Its not about control its about making sure that the forum stays family friendly - some members are as young as seven :D

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The supermarket topic has now been considered and reinstated.

 

Yay, common sense prevails... Go chucky mama, go chucky mama, it's your birthday... :dance::lol:

 

Thanks for the update, I will try to keep my mouth :silenced: from now on, it will be very hard to do mind, so feel free to put me in my place if needs be!! :lol:

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I am amaazed this thread is still going. Everyone to their own - I have seen women in tears cos baby wont feed and they are exhausted and child is fractious - once they realise that they have a choice and it doesnt have to be that hard they and only they can make the decision whether to try for longer or abandon it. I am not anti breast feeding just like seeing happy mums and bubs. For too long breasts have been used for purposes of titilation and not for the purpose for which they were intended.

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I've never understood the way some people seem to dislike public breastfeeding so much. My mother breastfed us in the 70's when it was unpopular (or so she insists :)) yet refused to do it in public and dislikes it being done by us. That said, she's more than happy for us to do it in the house with other people around... mum's are strange creatures!

 

Why is it though? I mean, we tolerate eating in public and we tolerate bottle feeding in public, so what's the difference? Is it the fact that so many people equate breasts with sex? If so, why is it that we can draw distinctions between say male nipples and sex but not female ones?

 

I'm not getting at anyone here, I'm the first to admit I'm liberal to the point of laissez faire but I really struggle to see why this is the case.

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I don't mind seeing mother's feeding in public, the majority do it very discreetly and probably don't want their boobs flashed to the world anyway. Personally when I did try breastfeeding it was one of the things that worried me, and I really wasn't keen on the idea of feeding in public. Probably because I didn't get much past the stage of really struggling to get him to feed, and I really didn't enjoy the experience. If I was on the bus or somewhere, I would much prefer to hear a baby feeding than to have it screaming the place down.

 

It is all down to choice, even though breast is the 'natural' way to feed, it has to be accepted that it's not right for everyone. As I said in a previous post, I did try it with my eldest but by the end of 2 weeks I hated it, and made myself physically ill, dreading every feed. The relief once I changed to bottles was immense. Happy mummy, happy baby.

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Well i might rattle a few cages here but when my kids were little, if they needed feeding (i breastfed) they got fed Im afraid, didnt care where i was or who was there. I was very discreet and most people would never have known, but they got fed!

So there :lol:

Me too! If you can eat your dinner in a public place why can't your baby? It is possible to do it discretely so if a mummy wants to feed she should. If people don't want to look, they don't need to. However, I still think that it is a personal choice and that bottle fed babies are as healthy (in developed countries) as breastfed. If you had a class full of kids, could you pick out accurately who had been breastfed and who hadn't? :?::wink:

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Well i might rattle a few cages here but when my kids were little, if they needed feeding (i breastfed) they got fed Im afraid, didnt care where i was or who was there. I was very discreet and most people would never have known, but they got fed!

So there :lol:

Me too! If you can eat your dinner in a public place why can't your baby? It is possible to do it discretely

 

Not always :?

My boobs got huge when I was feeding - I was in a JJ cup :shock:

With them things flying about,it isn't always easy to be discreet 8):lol::lol::lol:

 

Seriously,I preferred to feed in private - I felt more relaxed so the baby relaxed & we all got to the end result quicker.

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.

The health benefits of breastfeeding over formula feed are well known and documented.

 

Really - where? I think a lot of the claims are rather misleading.

 

Mis-leading??? Breast milk is perfectly made and unique to each baby, with just the right consitencies, fat content and nutritionally developed my mother.

 

All of breast milk's components, including lactose, protein (whey and casein), and fat, are easily digested by a newborn's immature system. Commercial formulas attempt to reproduce these ingredients and are coming quite close, though the exact combination cannot be duplicated. Breast milk contains the vitamins and minerals that a newborn requires

 

formula milk is manufactured from cows milk (with the exception of goats / soya / rice) and has added vitamin drops. there is a risk of contamination once the tin is opened, poor steralising etc.

 

there is also evidence that most gastro-intestinal infections admissions in hospital arise from bottle fed babies.

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that is possibly true BUT like alot of things with babies/childrens there are so many things that you chose to do , like make your own food / use jars packets , use terry nappies/ disposables. these things are a choice that a mother (usually ) makes and rightly or wrongly i don't feel any one particularly choice makes a huge difference in a childs life (not including sick or prem babies where i can see the definate pros. A happy mother is the most important thing.

breastfeeding in the 80's was quite unusual and bottle was normal, i was young and none of my family had breastfeed so i was not confident to have a try or encouraged, i feel now maybe if would have been nice to have a go but i have 3 very healthy , happy adult children, who I would suggest (not DS :D ) to give it a go just to see how they get on.

Done discreetly in public and i don't mean covering the baby just putting your top over your breasts i have no prob with at all BUT flopping your boobs out of your jumper and not even bothering to cover them a bit is a bit off putting when sat down at a toddler group i go to when you can't help but look :lol: and i do think like with other mothers choices some women think they are better for doing it , hmm so they will carry on to make the 'right' choices through out the childs life, i seriously doubt that , no-one can claim that!

Each to their own with a bit of advise to help them make the right choice for them and their baby, there are much bigger things to worry about in their life i feel than where their milk comes from and in the end the baby will not care as it will hopefully be being fed from a happy mum either way!

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I haven't read the full thread but I agree with Patsy's initial comment that it's a shame we haven't reached the point where a woman can decide what she wants to do and have her choice respected.

 

I loved Sarahs description above about how it isn't always easy to be discrete :lol: for just that reason I always fed in private but that was so restrictive I switched to bottles after a while. And I'm eternally grateful to one friends husband who when I did have to feed in public at a kids birthday party came and sat down beside me and chatted to keep me company - over a decade ago now but I still remember his kindness.

 

Just as I think the womans viewpoint should be respected and they shouldn't be made to feel guilty whatever they do I don't believe mothers should have to be discrete or tuck themselves away in a corner. I think it's lovely seeing babies being breastfed, the mother baby bond is so evident it always makes me smile :)

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Wet nursing seems to be on the increase actually...

 

I have wet nursed my sisters and my SIL children. They were young babes that had been left with expressed milk but wouldn't take it from the bottle. I felt happier doing that then leaving them screaming.

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I could have stayed at home but I wouldn't have ever got anything done. Three other children to run around after so needs must. To be honest I don't want anyone else seeing my boobs anymore than they want to see them. I can't wait til our laws catch up with Scotland though it'll be too late for me

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I'm expecting twins in October and am gonna give breastfeeding a go but i'm not going to beat myself up about it if it doesn't work. If it was 1 baby i would be more determined to perservere but as its 2, getting them to latch on at the same time could be tricky so i will just have to see how it goes... Even if i can just feed for 3/4 months i will be pleased. 6 would be ideal and is my aim.

 

congrats gooner.girl! I shamefully admit to being quite smug about having twins! :oops::D

 

they were a bit early so i started expressing when they were in SCBU and then fed them from there. My midwife insisted i bottle feed the smaller lad but it used to make me cry so much that i had to give that up and trust my instincts: he took a while cause he was small but i wasn't rushing to do the housework anyway... :lol:

twins are bloomin' hard work so, for me, breast feeding was the perfect 'slackers excuse' to sit down with a V shaped pillow, two lads in a football hold on each side and a book propped up in the middle.... bliss!

 

If you find that feeding both at night is exhausting at times so you probably can borrow a humilactor (sp?) from your local hospital and express if your partner can do one, while you do the other. I kept all of SCBU in milk for weeks :lol:

the only people who ever gave me the impression they were uncomfortable about me feeding the kids were my in-laws, but it was my house - my rules. I would love to have been a militant 'lactivist' and had a speech all prepared in my head for anyone who expressed objections but the only comment i ever got from anyone over 7 years of almost continous breastfeeding was an old dear in a cafe who came over and said "ah, that's lovely'". I never did get to air my 'radical' views :lol::lol:

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Ahhh, I remember the electric milking machine, Laurie :lol:

 

My ex-MIL was so disgusted when she visited me in hospital and found me to be breastfeeding that she walked out... good riddance I said!

 

I usually tried to feed before we went out, but Rosie usually needed a top-up while I was out. I was always discreet and thoughtful of others' sensibilities; never had any adverse comments. I had (reluctantly) to return to full-time work very early, so ended up combined feeding, but it suited Rosie who is now a strapping lass and a champion swimmer.

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If I hadn't fed Mog while out occasionally I would never have gone out at all, and it might have been a bit tricky to move house when she was three months old :lol:

 

I can guarantee "Ooops, word censored!"ody saw my bbs though, the moby wrap was brilliant at keeping everything tucked away. My mum never fed us in public either, but after the descriptions of feeling isolated and miserable and hiding in the bedroom to feed us when my grandparents were around, I decided I might take a slightly different approach to breastfeeding. ;)

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I'm expecting twins in October and am gonna give breastfeeding a go but i'm not going to beat myself up about it if it doesn't work. If it was 1 baby i would be more determined to perservere but as its 2, getting them to latch on at the same time could be tricky so i will just have to see how it goes... Even if i can just feed for 3/4 months i will be pleased. 6 would be ideal and is my aim.

 

congrats gooner.girl! I shamefully admit to being quite smug about having twins! :oops::D

 

they were a bit early so i started expressing when they were in SCBU and then fed them from there. My midwife insisted i bottle feed the smaller lad but it used to make me cry so much that i had to give that up and trust my instincts: he took a while cause he was small but i wasn't rushing to do the housework anyway... :lol:

twins are bloomin' hard work so, for me, breast feeding was the perfect 'slackers excuse' to sit down with a V shaped pillow, two lads in a football hold on each side and a book propped up in the middle.... bliss!

 

If you find that feeding both at night is exhausting at times so you probably can borrow a humilactor (sp?) from your local hospital and express if your partner can do one, while you do the other. I kept all of SCBU in milk for weeks :lol:

the only people who ever gave me the impression they were uncomfortable about me feeding the kids were my in-laws, but it was my house - my rules. I would love to have been a militant 'lactivist' and had a speech all prepared in my head for anyone who expressed objections but the only comment i ever got from anyone over 7 years of almost continous breastfeeding was an old dear in a cafe who came over and said "ah, that's lovely'". I never did get to air my 'radical' views :lol::lol:

 

 

My niece is a maternity nurse who specializes in helping mothers of twins. Her advice is to combine breast feeding with formula because she finds that it is not long before the babes need 1.5 breasts-ful of milk at each feed and as we are blessed with only the two breasts, the maths does not add up! She suggests supplementing particularly at the early evening feed and expressing in the mornings if there is excess milk, which can be given later. She never finds any problem with babies being both bottle and breast fed. She recommends the rugby ball position as laurmurf says.

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Sorry there is absolutely no reason why twins cannot be exclusively breastfed. True it is perfectly acceptable to combine the two (and can be a lifesaver for some parents) but babies do NOT need '1.5 breasts per feed'. Ever. I would imagine that statistic comes from poor breast stimulation due to the use of formula.

 

I am not arguing with combination feeding in any way. But that is incorrect information and poor 'advice', which I do not feel is helpful to a new mother.

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Mine always seemed to need that much.

They would go from one side until it was done,then finish on the other :?

 

Of course,a lot would depend on the babies routines, & on how well the mother kept herself rested & well fed.

 

Gooner girl,you are in for some wonderful times with your twins - many congratulations,but you must rest up a lot & make sure you are really well nourished so that your body can produce all the milk it may need to feed your new additions :P

 

Do keep us up to date,won't you?

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For anyone worried about giving bottles whilst trying to breastfeed too, it worked for me :) . ES failed to gain weight adequately so I was advised to supplement with bottles. I only did that for a few weeks till he was a good weight then stopped the bottles :) . I breastfed him for 14 months and YS for 12 (although only morning and night for the last few months).

 

He's now 6'3" so he's made up for being a bit scrawny as a babe :lol: .

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