Did I mention breastfeeding? No. Then do you need to jump down my throat?

Ok today was a normal Wednesday morning...

I woke up fairly happy, which is a good thing seeing as to be honest I could have had a better start to 2011 and the last week has been especially difficult. I fed my daughter, got up, came downstairs with her & quickly logged onto Facebook to check how things were going on my business page and this is where things started going wrong...

I noticed a company of whom I am a 'fan' of on Facebook post an advert to a special type of bottle that heats the contents to room temperature in 60 seconds. This is great for Mum's who regulary express their milk or use pre-made formula in cartons but surely dangerous to Mum's using powdered formula as the World Health Organisation states formula should be made with water not cooler than 70 degrees please see here for full details. This advert contained no information of this. I could not let this pass (which I probably should have done) as I feel that Mum's are given enough incorrect advice without large companies deliberately (yes deliberately! This is no error, I can assure you, call me a sceptic but this is the tip of a huge iceburg where infant feeding companies are concerned) misleading them. So me, being me & not being able to let things be posted this comment:

But surely DANGEROUS for formula feeding when the water should be at least 70 degrees before adding powder...doesnt seem to mention that on their site though....

Underneath the advert. I was the first to post & this was aimed at the company advertising the product.

The next barrage of comments were awful, very defensive Mum's told me water does not have to be 70 degrees & others practically bragged about making up their feed incorrectly with sarcastic responses such as this:

"I'm going to shock u all then ... I made all my day feed in the morning. I would just put boiling water in all the bottles, cool them down, then put them in the fridge. When Little one wanted a feed I would heat the bottle up to room temp, and yes using a microwave then add the formula. I never had a problem and would have loved to have had XXXXX bottles."

There were a few people fighting my corner & also posting relevant links to the NHS website where it states clearly some of the bacteria found in formula but the Mum's carried on being defensive.

I must state not at any point did I mention that I am a breastfeeding mother and none of my comments mentioned breastfeeding (apart from mentioning the WHO code on marketing breastmilk substitutes) yet all the Mum's seemed to think I was attacking their feeding choice. I had to later point out that I had not mentioned breastfeeding yet no one responded to that but kept saying things like 'it's ok for you if you can breastfeed'. I was so tactful in my argument & it was actually aimed at the company advertising the bottles (who I also emailed and got nowhere with) yet why did so many Mum's jump down my throat about it?

Another thing that really upset me was the amount of people on the thread who knowingly feed their babies infant formula made up incorrectly. A fellow breastfeeder mum who agreed with the points I was making did reference to the fact that you would not usually feed your baby runny eggs, unpasturised cheese or honey due to the risks of poisoning so why put your baby at risk by making feeds incorrectly, again no one replied to that, just carried on with their defensive remarks about breastfeeders being all high and mighty etc etc.

I am not a 'fan' of formula but I do understand that it has its place. These bottles are going to be very tempting for a bottle feeding Mum in the middle of the night. Breastfeeding Mum's have it there on tap and pre-made cartons can be stored at room temparature so surely these bottle are going to be mainly bought by Mum's who want a quick fix at silly-o-clock in the morning. I think thats very wrong and very dangerous.

I stayed calm and did not ''attack'' anyone today (although I very nearly did!!) but is it so hard to make sure you make up babies feed correctly? I do not generally have car accidents yet that does not stop me from strapping my daughter into the car, why is it so different? Surely there is a risk in preparing the feed incorrectly & as a Mum, our jobs are to do as much as we can to eliminate risks to our babies.

The trouble is this is not a one-time thing, this happens ALOT on Facebook. A breastfeeding Mum mentions something about the WHO code or similar on a page also vacated by Mum's who bottle feed and all of a sudden it is battle of the breast vs bottles. A lot of the time it is just someone like me, trying to point out the corrupt marketing to the larger companies and before you know it everyone's hackles are up and bra wars has descended along with insults such as 'breastfeeding nazi's' and other unhelpful things.

Would the world not be a lovely place if people thanked each other for bringing this information to people's attention? I can only hope...