I still remember when my cute married cousin had her first baby. We had all finished dinner, and she whipped out a boob and stuck her kid on it. I was 15 or so at the time and had never seen anything like that. She did put a towel over her boob, but it was an amazing thing to me.

I certainly understand lots of children are not getting the right nutrition from cow milk. It is perfect for a cow, but just OK for humans. One of my former coworkers was very flat chested, and even when she had just given birth, she just could not produce more than a tiny amount of milk. Her doctor said it was vital to get what she could into the kid for the gut bacteria a baby needs to digest food. That and natural antibiotics that formula does not have.

It is an alien world to me. I appreciate the education on a subject that I know is vital to all the parents with babies.

Men in a Porsche forum discussing boobs...

the young mom sitting next to me at the airport termnimal fed her baby right there..i adverted my eyes to preserve her privacy, and once she covered it all up she got downright chatty. i was watching downloaded HARRY BOSCH episodes and she was asking questions. her hubby sat down and he wanted me watch over my shoulder.

it was very cool how natural it all is. i think it is all amazing.

Must have functioning boobs, or formula. Nothing wrong with that.

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One of my employees had a kid not all that long ago. She pumps a few times a day at work.

She's been donating what she doesn't need.

Honest question, why are you asking this question?

that is a straight up ANGEL!!

I was honestly curious. I have no sisters. My wife and I have no kids and no experience with babies. Humans have survived for thousands of years without formula, but baby mortality was very high.

Breast milk is superior to formula in every way, save for convenience. It is almost entirely about convenience.


Why do you suppose that is?

Mom here:

I chose to breast feed our son until he was a year old. It is not easy. For the first year I could not do anything by myself. Go get a hair cut? nope. Go for a quick trip to grocery store? nope. Our son ate every 2 hours and when in a growth spurt more frequently. I'm not sure how you work and do that even with the great pumps out there. I have great respect for those who can accomplish working and nursing.

They say breast fed babies have on average 8 points higher IQ and less likely to get sick (immunity from the mom). Our son's first illness came just 2 weeks after weening. In the end, is it really the breast milk that changes IQ or the parental involvement? I am not an expert, by any means.

That said, I know a lot of women who never wanted to breast feed for what ever reason so they use formula. There is absolutely no reason we, as a developed nation, should have that problem of a shortage.

found an issue, educators loved the Breast is Best article. We got tons of hatemail, actual letters, for the circumcision article.

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Ms. Rocket tried to breast-feed our first one, but it didn’t work. Second one hit the bottle right off the bat.

After 28 and 26 years, everything must be OK, as we don’t have any ax murderers in the family.

In South Africa it's popular practice to have one of the local black women to breast feed the white babies occasionally. Introducing natural antibodies for the child's survival in Africa.

I think I can qualify here as 'informed', having 6 grandkids under the age of 5.
I feel that the people who are 'anti-formula' are 1) ignorant of the advantages and 2) have never been faced with not having an alternative to breast feeding.
My twin grandsons have been a lot of work for our daughter-in-law, who has breast fed them through their first year and is now just starting to give them milk. Their older sister was breast fed as well and is smarter than her age belies.
Our oldest granddaughter was a premmie and got formula as well as breast feeding if I recall. You could hold her in one hand when she was born. Now she's just a handful at times.
I just hope our soon to be born (due date mid-July) grandson will be able to enjoy his mother's milk like his sisters have. He will miss out on being born in Japan though as they got sick and couldn't fly back to Japan as planned. The next few weeks are going to be interesting to say the least in our household.

I fed my daughter formula, her mother refused to breast feed and within a month or so started taking diet pills. My daughter is much like me no allergies and will eat just about anything. Any old formula would do.

I don't get all the specialty formulas, when did all these allergies develop? I don't remember a single kid in school having a peanut allergy.

Who is anti-formula Mr Douglas?

If a child will only take a bottle, pumping breast milk is superior in every way to formula, save for convenience.

See your own quote for who is against it.

Sorry, Shaun's quote about who is against it didn't transfer.

I'm all for getting anything that can help a kid into a kid, be it formula, breast milk or pumped breast milk from a bottle. I'm pretty sure all of my grandkids have had all the options applied to them.

My older brother (by 9 months) started out breast fed but switched to formula as there was some sort of deficiency in my mother's milk...and he was suffering weight loss and other issues. I was strictly bottle (formula) fed as was my younger brother. Mom and older brother seemed to bond better than later kids. All had similar IQs and have all done pretty well in life/education.

When our first child (son) was born (in the 70s) the hospital told us that it and much better to use formula...and we did. It was a "hard sell" by the medical folks. It had exactly what a child needed (vitamins, iron, etc.). Formula was very expensive, and wife stayed at home so it would have been beneficial for us to breast feed...but we wanted what was best for our son (per the experts). We also used cloth diapers exclusively. We washed them and hung them on the line just as our parents had. The hospital also told us to not circumcise. By the time we had our daughter (in the 80s), breast feeding was in vogue (also a pretty "hard sell"), and we were told it was best...so we did that. Also, circumcision was in vogue and disposable diapers. We already had dozens of cloth diapers and used both types (mostly cloth) due to cost of disposables (used those when travelling and at night). It was pretty easy to get diaper rash with the disposables as they held moisture better and one just did not change them often enough. Breast-fed daughter seems to have bonded more with my wife than formula-fed son...and wife enjoyed breast feeding (in retrospect). It sure saved a lot of trouble and money for us too. Wife worked and it was quite a challenge after she went back to work to pump/save milk. Breast fed daughter and formula-fed son had similar IQs, but daughter has done significantly better financially/education wise...largely due to motivation.

My daughter (the doctor) has two children and breast fed the first and is doing the same with the second. That is the current recommended "best practice" when feasible. Her work situation gave her a lot of time off when each was born, and she produces an enormous amount of milk. She can also pump at work. There are some pretty fancy pump set-ups and preservation systems now. She pumps and freezes it. They even use a fancy Yeti cooler when they travel that will stay cold for days. She can supplement breast feeding with that when she is not available. The first child resisted a bottle a lot, but the second is pretty happy to get the bottle (of mom milk) whenever she is not around. So far, both kids have been incredibly healthy. Not even a cold. They also exclusively use disposables for both kids. The cost is not an issue as their income is much higher than ours was. The new disposables are much better than in our day. The adhesive for the taps holds much better, they have better absorbent material so that there is less of it (they are not so thick and bulky). They also and wick the moisture away from the kid better and are less likely to leak but still don't breathe as the 100% cotton ones and still are more likely to cause a rash. Especially since they hold liquid and odor better. It is helpful that they have a color change indicator that urine changes the color of when they are wet...as it is hard to tell unless really wet. There was no question with cloth diapers. Of course, you still have to remember check it often because they are covered by clothing.

What a great history of the switch in medical advice! Thanks for that.