2 ms·

Breastfeeding is overhyped. Both my sibling and I, along with my wife and her siblings were formula fed. My kids were 100% formula-fed as well, because my wife

Breastfeeding is overhyped. Both my sibling and I, along with my wife and her siblings were formula fed. My kids were 100% formula-fed as well, because my wife decided she didn't want to waste her time pumping. Both generations are perfectly normal and healthy. We all caught COVID with only minimal symptoms. Not having to breastfeed took an enormous amount of stress off my wife, and allowed us to split the work of raising our kids more efficiently In Canada, I've heard that breastfeeding has been taken to a religious morality war, where some parents had to sneak in formula into the hospital because the mother couldn't either breastfeed properly or weren't producing enough, or simply didn't want to. There are some advantages to breastfeeding and some disadvantages. I think the narrative of companies in the 3rd world trying to hook low-income families on formula should be considered a crime. But there's nothing inherently wrong with formula and it raises perfectly healthy children.

dilap 4y ago
Without a doubt, a baby can be formula-fed and thrive. It also seems certain that there are advantages to being breast-fed. Exactly how strong these are is hard to stay -- as far as I know, all the research is observational, and so it becomes hard to tease out what is the effect of breast-feeding and what is just coming along for the ride (correlated w/ the type of person that prioritizes breast-feeding). It's still a worthy goal to have a society that makes it easy for women who want to breast-feed to do so. (And I hear you on the moralizing, which is obnoxious. Let the parents decide what is best for their baby and life situation; it is not anyone else's business.)
- Auracle 4y ago
  There absolutely are RCTs out there for breast milk vs formula- here’s one example: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2939272/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2939272/
  - dilap 4y ago
    Very interesting; thx!
mcguire 4y ago
I have friends in North Carolina who had a daughter a couple of years ago. While they were in the hospital, a woman came by their room wearing scrubs and with the usual lanyard of cards around her neck. She told them that she was a lactation consultant and impressed on them that it was vitally important that the mother breastfeed. Unfortunately, they had a hard time getting their daughter to cooperate. At their first post-natal checkup with their doctor, their daughter had not gained any weight since leaving the hospital. He told them to just feed her formula and don't worry about it. Apparently, the "lactation consultant" was not affiliated with the hospital in any way and this sort of thing was very common.
- c22 4y ago
  I find it hard to swallow the idea that rogue agents pretending to be 'lactation consultants' are infiltrating U.S. hospitals (with no affiliation in any way) and tricking new mothers into underfeeding their babies.
- throwaway27727 4y ago
  I'm sure others with more experience could chime in, but when my wife gave birth there absolutely was a lactation consultant who did much the same as yours, but was affiliated with the hospital and could be asked to come to the postpartum room or NICU and provide assistance.
hirvi74 4y ago
> We all caught COVID with only minimal symptoms. I find this to be a bizarre metric to use.

dilap 4y ago

Without a doubt, a baby can be formula-fed and thrive. It also seems certain that there are advantages to being breast-fed. Exactly how strong these are is hard to stay -- as far as I know, all the research is observational, and so it becomes hard to tease out what is the effect of breast-feeding and what is just coming along for the ride (correlated w/ the type of person that prioritizes breast-feeding). It's still a worthy goal to have a society that makes it easy for women who want to breast-feed to do so. (And I hear you on the moralizing, which is obnoxious. Let the parents decide what is best for their baby and life situation; it is not anyone else's business.)

Auracle 4y ago
There absolutely are RCTs out there for breast milk vs formula- here’s one example: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2939272/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2939272/
- dilap 4y ago
  Very interesting; thx!

mcguire 4y ago

I have friends in North Carolina who had a daughter a couple of years ago. While they were in the hospital, a woman came by their room wearing scrubs and with the usual lanyard of cards around her neck. She told them that she was a lactation consultant and impressed on them that it was vitally important that the mother breastfeed. Unfortunately, they had a hard time getting their daughter to cooperate. At their first post-natal checkup with their doctor, their daughter had not gained any weight since leaving the hospital. He told them to just feed her formula and don't worry about it. Apparently, the "lactation consultant" was not affiliated with the hospital in any way and this sort of thing was very common.

c22 4y ago
I find it hard to swallow the idea that rogue agents pretending to be 'lactation consultants' are infiltrating U.S. hospitals (with no affiliation in any way) and tricking new mothers into underfeeding their babies.
throwaway27727 4y ago
I'm sure others with more experience could chime in, but when my wife gave birth there absolutely was a lactation consultant who did much the same as yours, but was affiliated with the hospital and could be asked to come to the postpartum room or NICU and provide assistance.

hirvi74 4y ago

> We all caught COVID with only minimal symptoms. I find this to be a bizarre metric to use.