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Bullying is not okay obviously. But people do need to be informed. If breast milk is an option you should take that option. I have actually gone as far as seei

Bullying is not okay obviously. But people do need to be informed. If breast milk is an option you should take that option. I have actually gone as far as seeing people buy breast milk (legit sources - some sort of breast milk bank) to ensure their kid has the best. Why would someone do this if formula was just as good?

dpark 8y ago
> I have actually gone as far as seeing people buy breast milk (legit sources - some sort of breast milk bank) to ensure their kid has the best. Why would someone do this if formula was just as good? Because they don’t know any better. There are women who feed their babies juice or even soda. That doesn’t mean it’s a good choice. There is some evidence that breast fed children have some minor immune benefits. There is to my knowledge no evidence that children fed from breast milk banks have any benefit over formula fed children. The health benefits are not well understood but one reasonable theory is that the feedback loop from breastfeeding (bacteria/viruses migrate from the child’s mouth through the mother’s nipple) is what allows the milk to provide useful antibodies. If the milk is from a bank or the mother exclusively pumps, that feedback loop does not exist. The bonding/nurturing that is sometimes hypothesized to help the child is also missing with bottled milk, no matter the source.
- mirceal 8y ago
  http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/breastfeeding/conditioninfo/benefits http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/breastfeeding/conditi... Yeah. Right! Fuck all these “scientists” and “doctors”. And let’s also forget millions of years of evolution and the refining of breast milk, through natural selection to be just what a baby needs. That’s fake news.
  - dpark 8y ago
    Where on that page do you see any claims that milk from a bank provides any health benefits over formula? You are presenting an idealogical belief here, not one based on science.
    - mirceal 8y ago
      Hmm. It’s breast fed children vs formula fed.
      - dpark 8y ago
        The problem is treating “breast feeding benefits” and “breast milk benefits” as if they are interchangeable. They are not. There are lots of things that happen with breast feeding that don’t happen with breast milk from a bottle, especially when the milk is from a bank. This is akin to the flawed logic that lets people tell themselves that juice counts as fruit or that simply owning books will make their children smarter. Breast milk banks seem to exist primarily to allow wealthy parents to buy off their anxiety about not being able (or choosing not) to breast feed.
  - sctb 8y ago
    Could you please try to keep things civil and thoughtful? A pause before replying often helps. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- usaar333 8y ago
  > There is some evidence that breast fed children have some minor immune benefits. I don't think it is fair to characterize the immune benefits are merely minor. Eczema rates halve (6.3% to 3.3%) while gastrointestinal tract infections are cut by a third (13.2% to 9.1%). See https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/193490 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/193490
  - dpark 8y ago
    Pretty interesting. That looks like a good study. Thanks
endorphone 8y ago
The formula lobby has done a pretty good job portraying a simple scientific reality (the overwhelming benefit of breast milk is not even debatable any more, and contrary to a response you received is not "minor") as an attack on the very small minority of women who can't breastfeed. It's a convenient misdirection. We're already seeing the same thing with the whole plastic straw thing: The overwhelming majority of people have no need or benefit to using disposable plastic straws, so to abate the conversation the narrative was quickly misdirected to the very small minority of disabled who truly need them (and who could easily and obviously be accommodated).

dpark 8y ago

> I have actually gone as far as seeing people buy breast milk (legit sources - some sort of breast milk bank) to ensure their kid has the best. Why would someone do this if formula was just as good? Because they don’t know any better. There are women who feed their babies juice or even soda. That doesn’t mean it’s a good choice. There is some evidence that breast fed children have some minor immune benefits. There is to my knowledge no evidence that children fed from breast milk banks have any benefit over formula fed children. The health benefits are not well understood but one reasonable theory is that the feedback loop from breastfeeding (bacteria/viruses migrate from the child’s mouth through the mother’s nipple) is what allows the milk to provide useful antibodies. If the milk is from a bank or the mother exclusively pumps, that feedback loop does not exist. The bonding/nurturing that is sometimes hypothesized to help the child is also missing with bottled milk, no matter the source.

mirceal 8y ago
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/breastfeeding/conditioninfo/benefits http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/breastfeeding/conditi... Yeah. Right! Fuck all these “scientists” and “doctors”. And let’s also forget millions of years of evolution and the refining of breast milk, through natural selection to be just what a baby needs. That’s fake news.
- dpark 8y ago
  Where on that page do you see any claims that milk from a bank provides any health benefits over formula? You are presenting an idealogical belief here, not one based on science.
  - mirceal 8y ago
    Hmm. It’s breast fed children vs formula fed.
    - dpark 8y ago
      The problem is treating “breast feeding benefits” and “breast milk benefits” as if they are interchangeable. They are not. There are lots of things that happen with breast feeding that don’t happen with breast milk from a bottle, especially when the milk is from a bank. This is akin to the flawed logic that lets people tell themselves that juice counts as fruit or that simply owning books will make their children smarter. Breast milk banks seem to exist primarily to allow wealthy parents to buy off their anxiety about not being able (or choosing not) to breast feed.
- sctb 8y ago
  Could you please try to keep things civil and thoughtful? A pause before replying often helps. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
usaar333 8y ago
> There is some evidence that breast fed children have some minor immune benefits. I don't think it is fair to characterize the immune benefits are merely minor. Eczema rates halve (6.3% to 3.3%) while gastrointestinal tract infections are cut by a third (13.2% to 9.1%). See https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/193490 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/193490
- dpark 8y ago
  Pretty interesting. That looks like a good study. Thanks

endorphone 8y ago

The formula lobby has done a pretty good job portraying a simple scientific reality (the overwhelming benefit of breast milk is not even debatable any more, and contrary to a response you received is not "minor") as an attack on the very small minority of women who can't breastfeed. It's a convenient misdirection. We're already seeing the same thing with the whole plastic straw thing: The overwhelming majority of people have no need or benefit to using disposable plastic straws, so to abate the conversation the narrative was quickly misdirected to the very small minority of disabled who truly need them (and who could easily and obviously be accommodated).