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Breastfeeding myths that people BELIEVE


blondeviolin
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I have a friend whose baby is not gaining weight quickly. He is meeting milestones, plenty of wet/dirty diapers, and he is a happy little fellow. Her pedi told her that he is not gaining enough weight and she must not have enough fat in her breast milk. She is now convinced she must start him on formula.

 

My MIL strongly believes that her four boys were "allergic" to her breast milk. :confused:

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Sounds like ignorance of statistics to me. I'm so tired of "healthy, happy baby, meeting developmental milestones - wait, what's that? In the fifth percentile? NOOOOOOOOOOO! GIVE HIM BUTTER!"

 

Somebody has to be in the fifth percentile. That's kinda how they work. You'd think doctors would know this. They often do not.

 

 

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So, odd, but I really did have a specialist send my milk away for testing. His request, not mine. She was failure to thrive and some other issues.

 

Truly input equals output. I'd he has nice, wet, frequent diapers AND he's alert and content, he's good.

I'd get another opinion from a different pediatrician.

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My grandmother swore until the day she died that her milk gave her first two babies seizures. (She stopped trying to nurse after that.)Then she said the doctor sent a sample of her milk to a lab, and it came back "not fit for man nor beast".

 

Bizarre.

Weird. When I read about things like that, it makes me wonder about food allergies that the baby has. But as the babies got older, that should become apparent.

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honestly, the most ubiquitous myth is that breastfeeding is essentially equivalent, or only marginally preferred, to bottle feeding formula.

(The next most common myth is that just by giving people facts, you can influence their behaviour.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2010/10/19/when-in-doubt-shout-why-shaking-someones-beliefs-turns-them-into-stronger-advocates/

Years of advocacy in the breastfeeding world have really opened my eyes to this one.)

 

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My MIL says she couldn't breastfeed because her breasts aren't big enough (she is pretty darn average looking to me). It is funny because her husband is a large animal vet. He knows more about lactation than anyone I have ever met.

 

I had someone once tell me she didn't want to breastfeed because she didn't like drinking milk. She honestly thought she had to drink milk to make the milk..or maybe it went into her breasts? I couldn't quite figure it out. Turns out it is not an uncommon myth. 

 

It makes me think that people REALLY don't know what milk is.

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I was told to alternate sides when nursing my youngest because she was considered failure to thrive and the pediatrician thought that she wasn't getting enough of the "hind milk". Turns out she has gluten intolerance and barley cereal was one of the early solids I introduced to her. So I had to be lopsided for no good reason...

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Sounds like ignorance of statistics to me. I'm so tired of "healthy, happy baby, meeting developmental milestones - wait, what's that? In the fifth percentile? NOOOOOOOOOOO! GIVE HIM BUTTER!"

 

Somebody has to be in the fifth percentile. That's kinda how they work. You'd think doctors would know this. They often do not.

Yep. My youngest has been 5th percentile since birth. The doctor has refrained from advising that I stop nursing (never gonna happen), but she really wants him on butter and ice cream. Ice cream.

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DD cried all the time.  And she was pretty thin, though not severely so.  My pediatrician had me switch her to formula at 6 weeks because she insisted it must be a problem with the breast milk.  I had no support for breastfeeding.  My mother was told to formula feed if she cared about her children.  She had never breast fed.  MIL hadn't either.  

 

So I followed the ped's advice.  Only DD cried with formula, too.  So ped switched the formula.  And then again. And then again.  And again.  The stuff just got more and more awful.  And it never helped.   Well she did start to gain weight, but since DH and I were very thin children and even very thin adults in our early years, I am not convince that was an indication that the formula was a healthier option.  And it definitely didn't help her stop crying.   Ped was wrong but wouldn't admit it.  

 

I know that breastfeeding really can be a problem for some, and I understand.  I disagree with being militant about breastfeeding.  I can see the damage that type of mentality has caused with others.  But I really regret that my doctor and my daughter's pediatrician did not know more about breastfeeding and were not more supportive of my desire to breast feed.  

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My grandmother swore until the day she died that her milk gave her first two babies seizures. (She stopped trying to nurse after that.)Then she said the doctor sent a sample of her milk to a lab, and it came back "not fit for man nor beast".

 

Bizarre.

Makes me wonder if she had an overactive letdown, maybe they were gagging.

 

 

"Not fit for man or beast". That is just...I have no idea what to say to that. So bizarre.

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I count myself so blessed that I feel like I've had good information and that my breastfeeding experiences have gone so smoothly. Thank heavens for Kellymom!

Yep. I'm so thankful that I was breastfeeding in the internet age and that I had all the accurate information at my fingertips.

Especially thankful for Kellymom.

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It goes both ways. I did not breastfeed for various reasons. I remember one of my midwives was quite irate about my decision. And in the hospital they had a poster in my room that essentially claimed not breastfeeding was the same as inflicting brain damage on one's child.

Yeah in NZ it is practically illegal to have formula in the hospital. But then they kick most people home in 24 hours or so and they have no support so by my 6 week group assessment half the babies were bottle fed. And then everyone disapproves and makes them feel like bad mums. I managed but if ds5 at been like ds7 he would have been on a bottle, I couldn't have done that with a toddler.

 

People generally believe some very odd things particularly when it comes to matters to do with all parts of the reproduction process.

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I had someone once tell me she didn't want to breastfeed because she didn't like drinking milk. She honestly thought she had to drink milk to make the milk..or maybe it went into her breasts? I couldn't quite figure it out. Turns out it is not an uncommon myth.

 

It makes me think that people REALLY don't know what milk is.

Hmm I've never heard of a mama cow drinking milk so she can make milk. Wonder how they do that. Lol

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My MIL strongly believes that her four boys were "allergic" to her breast milk. :confused:

There are babies who are allergic to breast milk. That is due to food allergies of the baby. A friend had to go on restricted diet while breastfeeding her firstborn or her baby would break out in hives. Her second-born luckily did not have food allergies.

 

The myth I heard was that breastfeeding was a guarantee of not getting breast cancer. There is unfortunately no guarantees in life.

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Some babies are just small! Each of my kids has been on the higher end of birth weights and settled into the lower end of the growth curve until solids. All were healthy, happy, growing, and developing. Nursed pretty much on demand, with plenty of cluster feeding. But they're skinny! It's not a freaking crime to have a skinny baby if they are otherwise happy and healthy. Small doesn't equal failure to thrive automatically.

 

Oh, and every time people say this online and they're really worried because the doctor said, once you talk them down you inevitably find out that mom's small, dad's small, or they're BOTH small. Genetics? What is that and how does it work? Must be lack of ice cream. Stuff that child, stuff him like a turkey!

 

Common sense flies out the window when you put a chart in people's hands. I don't get it.

 

To drag myself closer to the topic, OP, does your friend know about the difference in growth charts between FF'd and BF'd babies?

 

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Yep. My youngest has been 5th percentile since birth. The doctor has refrained from advising that I stop nursing (never gonna happen), but she really wants him on butter and ice cream. Ice cream.

 

My ex SIL was mixing chocolate into her eldest's food as a bub to try and make him eat more. Neither her nor her partner could reach six foot without standing on something, so why the surprise that their kids are small too? Hey Doctor! It couldn't be *genetic* could it? 

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My MIL says she couldn't breastfeed because her breasts aren't big enough (she is pretty darn average looking to me). It is funny because her husband is a large animal vet. He knows more about lactation than anyone I have ever met.

 

 

My SIL's mother told her that she wouldn't be able to breastfeed because they both have small breasts and she hadn't been able to.  Luckily my SIL knew it was rubbish.

 

L

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My 14 year old was a tiny baby.  She looks fat in her pictures, but that's because she was really, really short.  She was 16 1/2 pounds at 15 months, but she was also only 3rd percentile in length at the time.  Her doctor was utterly unconcerned.  He said he had just seen a baby who was 97th percentile before her and so there we had an average between the two.

 

My grandmother always swore that she couldn't nurse because her milk was too blue and it was skim.  She actually never latched either of her children on or attempted to nurse in any way.  Apparently, at least the way she told it, back in the early 40s the doctors just looked at your milk to determine if a baby could be healthy with it and the determination for her milk was a no so they gave her something to dry up the milk and told her to use Carnation canned milk (from contented cows!) and karo syrup to feed her babies.  My dad didn't do well with the Carnation milk so by 3 weeks old they were taking the regular food everyone was having for dinner and pureeing it, watering it down so it was drinkable, and feeding him that.  She always told me I was so lucky I didn't make skim milk and could nurse my babies.

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I thought this thread was gong to be about breastfeeding "myths," you know. Like, say, Romulus and Remus being suckled by a she-wolf. Instead it's a thread about breastfeeding "falsehoods."

 

Conflating these terms on a forum (theoretically) affiliated to Classic culture? The horror. The horror :D

 

Bill

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Some people think that Breastfeeding is a good birth control, but that's not what you were asking for.

 

Also the myth about losing weight...HA! I held onto every ounce until I weaned my babies.

 

I actually did have a baby that was allergic to my milk. Milk protein allergy. She had a colonoscopy at 6 months that showed her blisters in her colon, despite my strict dietary regimen. I mean, mommy's gotta eat SOMETHING? right?

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5 years ago my sil and I had babies within a few weeks of each other (her second, my third). Her doctor told her she wouldn't be able to breastfeed exclusively because her baby was so big at birth- 10 lbs 9 oz. ???!? Thankfully she questioned the advice, I told her she successfully breastfed her first child, and if her body could grow a large baby why couldn't it feed a large baby? She breastfed exclusively without any problem, her boy was about 25 lbs at 6 months when he started on solids. ;) Her same doctor also told her that once she started back on birth control pills she'd have to stop breastfeeding, how can a doctor not know ANYthing about breastfeeding?! Makes me so mad.

 

I went to the hospital breastfeeding clinic support group after I had my first. It was nice to meet up with other breastfeeding moms, we would weigh our babies and chat. The lactation consultant was so hyper focused on weight, my son was skinny, he wasn't gaining very well but he was wetting and pooping well and he was happy and active. She stressed me out so much about his weight, she got a paediatrician involved and they strong armed me into giving him formula- which he hated and refused to drink. They scared me to death when they tested my 6 month old for a fatal disease (CF) simply because he was thin!! I went to my family dr and begged for a prescription for domperidone to increase milk production, why nobody suggested this as a first resort I don't know. My son had been teething bad and finally got about 6-8 teeth in less than a month, as soon as they were through he started gaining weight like crazy and was big for his age by a year! I stopped going to the lactation group after that, the LC kept a fridge full of ready to feed formula under the table they weighed the babies on. I actually saw her pull one out of the fridge and pop into a babies mouth without his mothers permission, just gave her an apologetic look and said, sorry he didn't meet his weight requirements. She was an uneducated bully, I swear the formula company hired her to sabotage our breastfeeding efforts. This was in a Canadian hospital 12 years ago. I successfully exclusively breastfed my son, despite the BF clinic and the ped, until he self weaned at nearly 2 years old when I was 7 months pregnant with his little sister, who I breastfed til 2.75 yrs and my youngest breastfed until 2.75 as well.

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When dd was a baby dh's aunt told me how she used to mix PET milk and Karo syrup to give his cousin. Ack!

My dh was raised on this mixture. Then his mother talked about how constipated he used to get!

 

My aunt had the same breast milk allergy as my dd.

 

My grandma raised her on goats milk. I guess it was better than Pet milk and Karo.

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I get funny looks from pediatricians who are used to breastfed babies being not as chubby as formula fed babies. My breast milk is apparently pure cream, my babies gain about a pound a week from two weeks to three months; I've had more than one pass the twenty pound mark before they hit four months. So much for my babywearing ambitions...

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Cousin's doctor told her that the reason her dd was chubby was her breast milk and if she'd switch her entirely to formula, she'd be a more healthy weight and that breastfeed babies were more likely to turn out obese down the road.

 

Her doctor. A medical professional. For reals. I was just flummoxed. But you can never argue with a doctor. Cousin weaned early.

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Much believed myth: pumping accurately reflects supply.

I am the world's worst pumper. Yet I managed to grow a person for about 8/9 months exclusively on bm and mostly to 10/11 months.

 

I did wind up with a baby who was "allergic to my breastmilk".  More accurately, he was allergic to the milk proteins I was eating and drinking.  But few people investigate that far.

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Much believed myth: pumping accurately reflects supply.

I am the world's worst pumper. Yet I managed to grow a person for about 8/9 months exclusively on bm and mostly to 10/11 months.

 

I've learned more about lactation from raising a milk cow than I ever learned from medical literature. Really, really, informative!

 

Some cows let down well for a machine. Some cows need to be hand milked. Some cows won't let down for either, but only let down for a calf.

 

Some cows with big udders don't make as much milk as those with smaller udders. However, both usually (without other limiting factors) can raise healthy calves. Also, genetics is a primary factor in growth!

 

Why don't doctors get this?

 

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I think these myths are a little harder to kill when medical professionals are perpetuating them.

 

The myth I come across most frequently is my inability (as a breastfeeding mom) to enjoy an occasional beer, have a cup of coffee in the morning, or take necessary medication while I am breastfeeding. Meds that my providers know about and that are often used by breastfeeding women.

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Cousin's doctor told her that the reason her dd was chubby was her breast milk and if she'd switch her entirely to formula, she'd be a more healthy weight and that breastfeed babies were more likely to turn out obese down the road.

 

Her doctor. A medical professional. For reals. I was just flummoxed. But you can never argue with a doctor. Cousin weaned early.

Doctors can be incredibly ignorant.

 

my preposterously chubby babies have grown into lean and athletic kids, you would never guess what adorably squishable rolls they used to have ;)

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 Also, genetics is a primary factor in growth!

 

Why don't doctors get this?

 

 

I had the opposite experience (not about breastfeeding).  Hobbes was falling off his growth line, so we were referred to a paediatrician.  The doctor calculated the maximum height for our sons and said that they could not grow to more than 5'10".  I mentioned that my brother was 6'2" and that Calvin was still growing at 5'10".  He looked at me as if I was lying about Calvin's height!

 

L

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Interesting. How does that work?

 

Milk fever happens when a high-producing dairy cow is making so much milk that the calcium levels in her blood drop to dangerous levels. I had one do this to me last winter. They just lay down, and they can die if you don't get enough calcium in them quick.

 

Some farmers leave a tub of milk for the cow to drink in the early days of lactating to prevent this.

 

It's not unheard of for this to happen to people. But most people aren't making SUCH a high volume of milk as compared to their body size. It's the smaller milk cows that are higher producing that tend to have this issue. like Jerseys.

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I thought this thread was gong to be about breastfeeding "myths," you know. Like, say, Romulus and Remus being suckled by a she-wolf. Instead it's a thread about breatfeeding "falsehoods."

 

Conflating these terms on a forum (theoretically) affiliated to Classic culture? The horror. The horror :D

 

Bill

 

I feel this way about the word 'disinterested' but usage is moving on and I just have to accept that.

 

L

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I had the opposite experience (not about breastfeeding).  Hobbes was falling off his growth line, so we were referred to a paediatrician.  The doctor calculated the maximum height for our sons and said that they could not grow to more than 5'10".  I mentioned that my brother was 6'2" and that Calvin was still growing at 5'10".  He looked at me as if I was lying about Calvin's height!

 

L

 

Genetics has to figure in the grandparents as well as the parents. In other words, uncles, aunts, and other relatives can give doctors an idea about a kids' genetic potential.

 

And there are no 100% guarantees. There are always outliers.

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It's very sad that so many Drs gave or continue to give such bad information. :(

 

When dd was a baby dh's aunt told me how she used to mix PET milk and Karo syrup to give his cousin. Ack!

 

I think that is basically what baby formula is. I mean, now they use engineered whey powder and they add vitamins etc, but is at it's heart it is dried or liquid dairy protein, vegetable oil and a sweetener. 

 

I had an old cookbook that had a recipe for 'emergency baby milk' and that is what it was.

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I had a lactation consultant tell me any woman could breastfeed and if my child was failure to thrive it was because I was too lazy. I just about had a breakdown those first few months. My newborn had dropped below 5lb. The doctors were threatening to take him away from me. I never left the sofa while my husband was at work, even to urinate. Nurse for an hour. Bottle feed for 15-30 minutes. Hospital grade pump for 45 minutes. Back to nursing. Back to bfing. Back to pumping. He didn't really nap either, that kid. I cried all the time. It was a mess. 

 

I have 4 children. I've always tried to bf alone with each one. Not everyone produces enough milk. Really. I think even after 10mo of nursing #3, for 40m before every bottle I still only had 1/4oz per side. And that was a huge amount for me! 

 

Not everyone is the same.

 

 

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Milk fever happens when a high-producing dairy cow is making so much milk that the calcium levels in her blood drop to dangerous levels. I had one do this to me last winter. They just lay down, and they can die if you don't get enough calcium in them quick.

 

Some farmers leave a tub of milk for the cow to drink in the early days of lactating to prevent this.

 

It's not unheard of for this to happen to people. But most people aren't making SUCH a high volume of milk as compared to their body size. It's the smaller milk cows that are higher producing that tend to have this issue. like Jerseys.

 

This is fascinating!

 

 

 

My dad told me once I must make Jersey milk because my babies put on fat so quickly. He comes from a farming background :D

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This is fascinating!

 

 

 

My dad told me once I must make Jersey milk because my babies put on fat so quickly. He comes from a farming background :D

 

Jerseys have the highest percentage of cream of all the dairy breeds.

 

I've had milkings where it was HALF cream.

 

And the cream is a rich yellow color.

 

Yum!

 

I miss my cows.

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