Nothing burps better than Breastmilk!!!
Sep 02 '00
I'll admit that I have been in a quandary about writing an Epinion on this subject. On the one hand, I am a full-blown Nipple Nazi who honestly thinks that formula should only be available by prescription. On the other hand, I do know some Mommies who while physically able to breastfeed, felt it was a better choice for them to bottle-feed. I also have friends who CAN'T breastfeed for a variety of physical reasons. One has a thyroid condition and had to wean her daughter at 7 months because the medication that she needed to be on was incompatible with breastfeeding. Another has SEVERE psoriasis and breastfed for two weeks before giving it up. Between the pain and the rash breastfeeding just wasn't doing the job for her and her son. Another friend discovered after her baby was born that she was bipolar coupled with severe PPD...guess what...the meds required for her to be able to bond and parent her child were incompatible with breastfeeding. Do I look down on any of them for formula feeding? Nope. Do I desperately wish there was another alternative? The answer to that would be a RESOUNDING YES!!!!!
Let's face it...we all know the truth. Breastmilk is far and away the best way to feed your baby for the first year at the very least. And yes, while today's formula is much better than in years gone by...anything except breastmilk is FOREIGN to a tiny baby's digestive system! Formula is very hard to digest for babies because they simply don't have the necessary enzymes to digest the proteins in formula completely. That's one of the reasons that formula diapers are so very nasty. Although I am not sure who was spreading the rumor that a breastfed babies diapers are all bubblegum and roses, Ripley can stink up with the best of them. But I believe my formula feeding friends that Ripley's dipes are nothing compared to their baby's diapers.
I know that it is mostly our culture gone awry, but really what is it with bottles? I honestly don't get why a woman with no physical problems wouldn't even TRY to breastfeed. Why is a bottle warmer a good shower gift? Why are formula companies trying to undermine breastfeeding? Is profit so much more important that people?
We have a couple of generations now of formula fed babies. Let's take stock. Allergies, reflux, colitis, obesity, depression and other brain disorders are at an all time high. Asthma is running rampant. Sleep disorders are so common that there are doctors trained to deal only with that. I firmly believe that this is all cumulative results of widespread formula feeding. Yes, as a generation we are basically healthy. But think...the intervention of formula feeding meant that anyone could feed the baby, not just the mother. It meant introductions of scheduling, instead of feeding on demand. It meant bottle washing instead of nursing bras. It meant bottle propping and mother/baby detachment. In my opinion it started a really bad trend.
Breastfeeding became something "dirty." Something archaic and something to be hidden if you were old fashioned enough to actually do it. Our breasts became strictly sexual, and it was "yucky" and vaguely pornographic to think of a baby sucking on your breasts. Only now are breastfeeding moms becoming tolerated in public places. But we're still pretty weird about seeing a baby put to breast, instead of being heartly bored with it as we should be of something that should be common and natural.
And I'll give today's bottle feeding moms a lot of credit. We know how important infant/parent bonding is now, and you just don't see a whole lot of bottle proping these days. And I do know that a lot of bottle-feeding moms "tried" to breastfeed, but failed. This I also blame on our society. There just isn't enough support for breastfeeding. And a lot of beginning breastfeeders don't know where to get the support and help they need. I do know what it is like.
I'd like to say that my daughter took to the breast like a frog to a lily pad, but she didn't. She had a poor latch, and a disorganized suck. After a day and a half, and 3 different nurses and a lactation consultant and still no latch, we broke out the fingerfeeder, the breastpump and the Similac. Ripley needed to learn how to nurse, and meanwhile since my milk wasn't in she needed calories. No bottle or cup feeding, neither of those would help her to learn. Believe me, it wasn't easy. The day we left the hospital was the first time she had a good meal direct from my breast. After that it was one step forward and two steps back until she was off the fingerfeeder for good and on the breast exclusively. She got formula in the fingerfeeder until my milk supply was such that there was enough for the fingerfeeder and the breast. My nursling is 6 1/2 months old and could nurse upside down (done it), in line at the grocery store (done it) walking through said store (done it) and in a cave under several tons of rock (done it) and while I am writing this review (doing it).
I guess my point is this: as a society we need to be weaned off the bottle and stop turning up our noses at the bounty mother nature has bestowed upon us. Breastmilk is free, convent, nonpolluting, consumer-friendly, sterile, alive, comforting and attractively packaged. It is Mother Natures most perfect food, and we should know by now that when we mess with Mother Nature we never come out on top.
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Epinions.com ID:
CeltMom
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Member: Heather
Reviews written: 42
Trusted by: 26 members
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