(Untitled)

[chaosraine]

Why is it that even in the pregnancy grad community, sometimes I feel like a royal outcast for not bfing? This chicky posted that she was so proud that she had been bfing for like 9 months, and gave very little baby food (which, my ped. said that at 6 months, even bf babies need to start taking in baby food), and posted a few pics of her and her

Comments

[lavendersblue]

I saw that post too :/

tbh over here what i've read insinuates that if food isn't introduced at 6 months then it can hinder speech development and that a babies iron store is depleted by 6 months and they need 'solid's to help them regain it. Saying that...i refused to take food for my first year of life and had to go in hospital because of it .eep.

[kibbles]

Yes, speech development means you need to try baby food. It's nutritionally not very important, but speechwise it is, for the muscle coordination. It also is a learning experience, with textures and tastes, and often a baby with very delayed solids will be a very VERY fussy eater.

The iron though I don't know how much that matters...does breastmilk have iron? I dont remember. I know formula does.

[lavendersblue]

I -think- that i've read that the only iron a breasted baby has is form the natural sttore that they're born with...formula fed baby's have it added to their milk and indeed to follow on milk. Something horrific like 1 in 3 2 year olds are actually anemic.

[zoe_bat]

The moms need to keep taking their prenatals and the anemic ones the iron supliments. Do they do it? ha! they taste horrid and complance is low. Theoretically the babies should be fine, it's what the mommies aren't doing is the issue.

Like bragging on LJ and not taking their iron suppliments. (after 2 years I have seen it more than once)

[anonymous]

In agreement

[y_not_teach]

This is a very sensitive issue for me. I couldn't continue BF'ing my daughter for a number of health reasons. So when I posted a formula ? in a certain community, everyone was like "WTF? I thought you were b/f" like I was some kind of outcast or something. I don't feel the need to explain myself every 5 min so I just removed myself from the group and moved on.....

Re: In agreement

[kibbles]

I know that after my son's whole experience, a lot of things made me feel like a failure, like my body betrayed me. I had a section, I had my son in NICU, I couldn't breastfeed. And I didn't need some clueless dolts tell me I wasn't trying hard enough, I wasn't good enough.

I'll never forget waiting in the lobby for my parents to bring the car round, me still wearing my hospital bracelet so I could go back to visit my son, and another family coming round, waiting for a car, so they could bring their baby home.

And I'll also never forget the shame I felt when I couldn't even get an ounce pumped, some days, to bring to my son in NICU. All I thought was why was my body failing me? That if I was just BETTER I would have had my son home and nursing happily, and we would have had a nice delivery in the birthing center.

Re: In agreement

[teddycat]

It just sucks when you are made to feel like a failure because of things other people say. After 2 months of BFing, I had to switch to formula because my son was not gaining weight and it was becoming a health issue.

The moment I made that decision, I simultaneously decided I wasn't going to give any of the sweater cows the satisfaction of letting their barbed insults affect me. Words are, after all, just words. But God forbid anyone criticize them for their choices! Apparently, the door only swings one way in their world.

How on earth can anyone think "I'm a failure" when they have a baby who smiles at them, laughs when they make a silly face and lights up like a beacon when they enter the room?

Bottom line (in my world at anyrate) "I breastfed. Now I'm not. Deal with it."

[zoe_bat]

the thing I have really picked up on about the militant breastfeeders who have their self-identity wrapped up in it? Are in a place and demographic and family where they are freaks, and are getting hassled for it. They are thrilled they get support and attention on LJ. Instead of the usual isolation and thankless grind of being a stay at home mom they have SUPER BOOBS!!! And are celebrated heros!!!

And can take it a bit toooo ffaaaarrrr.

Check my journal.... there was just a study out about the demographics of breastfeeding.

[maylea_moon]

because the mods are boob nazis

[rawness]

I'm shocked to see this posted here honestly. I see pictures of babies with bottles posted on LJ all the time and 99% of the time everyone stays quiet (or you get a snark or two, but rarely more than that). You don't see comments like "keep it in bottlefeeding" *EVER*. Also please keep in mind that not everyone who breastfeeds or posts breastfeeding pictures is a boob_nazi...and that MANY breastfeeders (myself included) are not even MEMBERS. So asking people to take it to (or keep it in?) a community they aren't a part of is well...ridiculous I'd say

[sumwonelss]

I think you are totally wrong.

Boob nazis FLAUNT their feeding pics. The sole reason of the pic is to show the boobie.

I've not seen ONE SINGLE bottle pic since I've been on LJ and only a handful of paci pics, and those just happened to be "Heres my cute kid........and he happens to have a paci".

Not "LOOK AT MY TEN THOUSAND PICS OF ME FEEDING MY KID!!!!!!!!"

They make feckin' ICONS out of them REGULARLY for fecks sake.

And the OPs point I think is not "Hey, I don't want to see you feed your baby " but more "I'm sick of it being rubbed in my face that you create boob juice" and that THAT thing doesn't make her the MAGICAL MAMA that MANY of the most vocal boob nazis claim it does. It's a legitimate complaint. They make frickin' icons that say its a frickin' superpower for gods sake.

Maybe if the NORMAL breastfeeding moms would get some fucking balls and STAND UP to the militant boobers and tell THEM to shut up, some equilibrium could be reached.

[rawness]

"I've not seen ONE SINGLE bottle pic since I've been on LJ and only a handful of paci pics"

Check out the rating communities and the individual birth month communities. They're full of them -- though most are locked posts.

I still find it odd that if she didn't want to see it she clicked on a link that was *obviously* breastfeeding pictures.

As for an equilibrium? It gets too extreme. Of course there's a middle ground, it's mainly the fringes that are too extreme. On one end you have the ACTUAL rabid OTT boob nazis and on the other end you have the ACTUAL lazy formula feeders and all that *most* breast OR bottle feeders can see are the extremes. A lot of bottlefeeders equate all breastfeeders with boob nazis and a lot of breastfeeders equate all bottlefeeders with lazy.

But of course it's not like that. You have the nice breastfeeders and even the nice "boob nazis" as well as the nice bottlefeeders and the nice "bottle nazis" (YES they exist too). But will people ever see that? No.

[kibbles]

Oh thinking of nice breast/bottlefeeders, you ever see a conversation where the (usually breastfeeding) mother tries to discern what is in the bottle to see if it is acceptable? Is it pumped milk? Liquid formula, powdered formula, cows milk?

The one time I got horrified when I saw a mom with a bottle was when she poured pepsi in it. THAT was the one time I really noticed what was in it, and thought 'what is that insane person DOING'? Other than that, never analyzed bottle contents.

Why are people so obsessed with how other people raise their kids?

(And I cringe horribly at stereotypical bottlefeeding parents.)