Posted on 05/13/2022 9:25:39 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Bette Midler urged moms to simply “TRY BREASTFEEDING” amid the crippling breast formula shortage — and was widely slammed for the “obtuse” and ignorant comment Friday.
The 76-year-old “Beaches” star was responding to a tweet from MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle Thursday night that declared the “baby formula shortage reveals an amazing secret oligopoly” of three companies owning “90%” of the market.
The Divine Ms. M shot back, “TRY BREASTFEEEDING! It’s free and available on demand,” prompting a firestorm of criticism from parents.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
You are absolutely correct. Today, mothers milk is fed to preemies as their first food because it’s so easily tolerated and digestible.
Goat’s milk comes in very close.
When my kids were weaned off breast milk, we went to goat milk.
Goat milk is closest in composition to human milk of all the animals, and it is far more digestible than cow milk.
Such a beautiful voice. Such an ugly soul.
Would you be happy settling for the poorer health and nutrition that many babies suffered a hundred or 2 hundred years ago - or would you want the best that modern developments can provide for your child?
Kids died back then from poor nutrition and needs that weren’t met by breast-feeding.
You may as well say, ‘you don’t need an antibiotic for that serious infection - your ancestors managed fine on their immune systems.’
I don’t disagree with you that breast milk is the best. What about cases where women simply can’t, or children have special needs?
I had a friend who wanted very much to breast feed her first child. She just couldn’t.
My mother had me and my brothers right before and after WW2. So far as I know she breastfed us for a while at least until we started solid food. Incidentally, nice thing about exclusive breast feeding, the poop does not stink very much. Big change in smell with other food. My mom, born 1907 in NJ near the Hudson River said she used to see poor immigrant women sitting on their porches chewing food, and then feeding that to their babies. My father born 1909 was given raw milk from a typhoid infected cow. He was one of 6 children of over 60 babies who did NOT die. My grandma held his butt cheeks together so he did not poop out his guts. She got sick too and lost weight down to the 70 pounds area. We have no idea how bad it can get living in comfortable suburbs.
My first boy was born 9 pounds and was hungry all the time. I was nursing him 10 times a day and got very sore. Another mother said, nurse 10 minutes on each side, then give him a pacifier. That really helped. When he was one month he weighed 14 lbs., the weight of the average 6 month old. By then he was down to 6 feedings, and soon thereafter 4 a day. He grew to 6’1” and spent the past 20 years in Special Forces. My other son spent his first week in an incubator, was a month early, weighed 7 lbs. I pumped until I got him home and he nursed until 2 1/2. When he was around 2 he would object to being put in his pajamas. I would lie there with breast exposed and he would glare at me and kick at me. Eventually he would take the breast and after a while he would relax and soon be patting me with one hand, We talked about this recently. He said that experience taught him forgivenesss. He actually remembers lying there angry, but wanting the milk. To get it he had to forgive me for forcing him into pajamas. He is a really laid back guy.
Okay, I breastfed both of my girls, but I was a stay at home Mom and was able to do that. Breastfeeding requires that you breastfeed fairly regularly, otherwise, the milk dries up. If you never started breastfeeding and immediately went to formula, I'm thinking that it might be difficult to start breastfeeding now.
If I am wrong, please correct me. Also, as an aside, the breast pump to save for later never worked for me as I just couldn't get the milk to come out with the pump -- and, I had a lot of milk.
“Some hated these oil cans!”
What does the opinion of the Sec. of Transportation have to do with breast feeding versus bottle feeding?
I don’t know how you weren’t ashamed to post that.
It might be a tad crass, but where's the lie in the comparison? Remember the original argument (by Bette Midler, not me) was that a mother has something on her body that can provide nourishment for babies. She is solely looking at a body part and saying "you're equipped, you figure it out."
I'm sure, that as a reasonable person, you understand that women can't lactate on command, some mothers have a work-life situation that doesn't allow for breastfeeding or regular pumping, and even if circumstances demanded it, they can't magically switch to breastfeeding if they've been exclusively bottle feeding for three months.
The formula supply issue isn’t something that mothers created, they are victims of supply issues thst they couldn't predict when they are thinking about feeding their children. Just pointing to a woman's chest and saying "well, why aren't you using those things?" when stuck in a dire situation beyond her control is at least equally as crass.
If you’ve been reading my posts, those questions are already answered.
What I object to is the drumbeat of negativism where the exceptions are put forth at the rule and women are given the message that it’s not evn worth trying.
And your posts do that. You are constantly harping on the few exceptions as if that’s common and apparently not even reading the comments back to you.
Nobody is proposing eliminating or banning formula, which you seem to think is what’s going on.
No, I have a very few people here whom I read routinely. I see your posts now and then, but I don’t specifically follow you.
And I didn’t suggest that anyone was proposing banning or eliminating formula. I’m not sure where you got that.
I just don’t like the glib response of so many people here who belittle what mothers are going through right now by saying, ‘let them breast feed’. There are women who have relied on formula from the beginning, and now they can’t get it. As others have said, it’s not something a woman can just turn on like a faucet when an emergency like this arises.
There is no good reason why families should be going through this shortage. It’s due to bureaucratic stupidity and the laziness, irresponsibility and general failure of this administration. It is NOT women’s fault, and telling women to ‘just breastfeed’ is no solution; it’s also a very stupid response to a crisis.
This shortage is a real and serious problem. Groups of lactating mothers are sending all the extra to others who can’t find formula. Almost like an underground network.
Masculinity is also disappearing.
That’s true.
I am sure there are a few who have issues. Very few.
The rest? IMO, lazy and wimpy.
Which is odd because any thinking woman knows this is the far easiest route to take. Baby crying in the middle of the night? Roll over, feed. Go back to sleep.
No bottles to clean, pack, etc.
The first time? Certainly not "easy" at first. In fact, very painful. But, if you want to do, you can do it.
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