I have wondered for a long time *not a debate*

[boomba]

Km we are not talking about smartness or the differences in formula its more about having access to human milk for human babies and why there are not more banks around and more education on the subject! Babies grow and learn at different rates thats why it is best not to compare

im with you audax....we will quite happily drink cows/goats milk from an animal that can probably lick its self be sprayed or dipped in who knows how many chemicals...yet the thought of hman breastmilk which is designed for human babies and is screened and pasturised etc is thought as gross? I wonder where along the line we decided our bodies couldnt work as well as they used to?

[meow]

When I had low supply while establishing BFing with my son I would have given my right arm to to supplement his feeds with donated milk rather than the small amount of formula he had for a couple of weeks. It killed me to give him that, and I'm still aware to this day that the development of digestive system was compromised as a result.

I'm more aware now of communities that assist donating EBM among each other and I'm prepared to yell out and seek this help as much as possible this time around, should complementary feeding become needed.

[Laranna]

I understand that all BM donated would be screened but what if they make mistakes or become slack and something is passed on our babies, i'm not saying that would happen but i atleast know formula is fine and that it doesn't stop a child from being smarter than those who are BF.

As an example we were out at dinner last night and there was another young couple with their 5 month old girl, they started chatting to us, they thought Miss K was a newborn as shes so little. Anyways the mother asked me questions, she asked if i BF or FF and i said FF to which she said fair enough. Then her little girl was being a bit cranky because she kept taking her dummy out and then the mother said in a bragging kind of tone that her bub had just learnt to take her dummy out and put it back in and thats when DP said that Miss K has been able to do that for a few weeks now.

I'm not saying my bub is the smartest in the world but she learnt something well before this other bub and the difference is mine is FF where the other is BF. I know BM has it benefits over FF but formula really is not that bad.

And im not taking a stab at anyone i know this is a friendly conversation so if my post comes across as snooty its not my intention

Donated breastmilk can be screened and is open to the possibility of contamination but so is formula. Formula is man made in a factory and therefore also has risks of being contaminated if someone makes an error.

Dedicated_mummy, I get what you're saying. I would use donor milk. In fact, I used my sisters milk when I was having supply troubles with DS.

[onthefly]

I think there are two main problems
1- supply. It can be hard to get a reasonable amount - you'd need to be producing a fair bit to commercialise it.
2 - ethical issues involvd with selling human tissues (or whatever)

On top of that of course is the fact that most people would rather drink something from an animal or tin than from another human.

[STARRYSKY]

KM- like Eluned said, formula being man made has many possible contaminations, there was recently formula pulled from shelves due to mould spores being present in tins, also PLASTIC\, yes, you read that right, MELAMINE in the actual formula!!! if you google it, you will probably find, many, many, many incidences of contamination in formula over the last 30 years.

[Trillian]

For me, it isn't about BM v ABM (I see that as a completely separate issue), it is about the very real risk of women being exploited for their milk. Just where do all of those who support the use of BM in place of ABM think all the milk required is going to come from? Do you have any idea of how many women it would take to fill the gap of formula? And how will these women be compensated for it, if at all? And they would have to be compensated in some form because how is it right that women wouldn't get anything for doing it yet the ones that are selling it make all the money kwim. It's a wonderful idea in theory, but it is a rather Utopian one that will never fly. Besides, how long do you think it will take Nestle and Wyeth etc to try to get in on it? Afterall, they are the ones who will lose billions of $$ if it ever happened and they will want a slice of the action considering how large the baby food market it. And if that happens, well we may as well be back where we started from. I fully support 100% the use of milk banks for ill and prem babies, but for the wider population of babies it just wouldn't work.

[HotI]

:yeahthat:

Great post

[delphmoon]

So you don't drink cows milk? It's someone else's breast milk, just the "someone else" eats grass and says moo.

hmmm, sorry but I found that abit aggressive. Breastmilk is a body fluid and the drinking of other peoples body fluid such as breastmilk, urine etc does not sit comfortably with some people.

I don't go out to my backyard, kneel beneath a cow and suck on it's teat...I do, however, drink cows milk that has been pasturized to remove as many microbials as possible. When they can find an appropriate way of removing contaminates out of breastmilk (which pasturizing is not suitable because it is suggested the heating of breastmilk removes the nutrients anyway) I will consider using donated BM for my DD.

Its easy to judge people, its harder to actually try to understand why people feel the way they do....

[Trillian]

Oh, I forgot to say too that my support also extends to women being able to access breastmilk from their 'village' or support network because I think it is wonderful that women have been able to rely on it to get them through rough patches of BFing etc.

And thanks Kate

[*LittleMissSummer*]

KM- like Eluned said, formula being man made has many possible contaminations, there was recently formula pulled from shelves due to mould spores being present in tins, also PLASTIC\, yes, you read that right, MELAMINE in the actual formula!!! if you google it, you will probably find, many, many, many incidences of contamination in formula over the last 30 years.

Thank you for that information. But i won't google it. I don't want to upset myself when there is nothing i can do to change the way i feed my baby.

[Persephone1]

hmmm, sorry but I found that abit aggressive. Breastmilk is a body fluid and the drinking of other peoples body fluid such as breastmilk, urine etc does not sit comfortably with some people.

Sorry, are you suggesting that Breastmilk and Urine are in the same category? Because I find THAT offensive. I don't even know where to begin to explain why.

[delphmoon]

They are body fluids which is what I was implying...why is that offensive?

[onthefly]

Breastmilk is live, like blood. It's not a waste product like urine or poo.

[Persephone1]

I never thought I'd think about them in the same thread.
Urine is waste material that the body is disposing of. BM is provided by the body to nurture a child. I wouldn't compare urine with cow's milk either, we don't consume urine. BM is made for consumption, urine is waste. I have a problem consuming waste.

ETA: I also wouldn't share my urine with someone or expect them to feed me or my child with urine. The mind boggles at the thought.

[Shanti]

When I had low supply while establishing BFing with my son I would have given my right arm to to supplement his feeds with donated milk rather than the small amount of formula he had for a couple of weeks. It killed me to give him that, and I'm still aware to this day that the development of digestive system was compromised as a result.

I'm more aware now of communities that assist donating EBM among each other and I'm prepared to yell out and seek this help as much as possible this time around, should complementary feeding become needed.

well said Meow. That's exactly how I feel too. My DD was supplemented with FF when BF'ing was difficult for us at one stage and I had hardly much milk and she was losing weight, and under advice by an LC, we had to take drastic measures to get fluids to her and I had no time to wait around for someone else's BM. Had it been available to me at the time, and screened, I would have given it to my DD in a heartbeat

You can't beat BM. Even if it is from someone else, it's still going to be better for your baby than Artificial Baby Milk could EVER be.

[delphmoon]

Some would argue urine is not a waste product- more 'left over nutrients. But sorry, I was more pointing out the use of body fluids such as Some cultures do ingest urine for to treat disease- It was off topic so didn't go into details at the time- didn't mean to offend

[Trillian]

Some would argue urine is not a waste product- more 'left over nutrients. But sorry, I was more pointing out the use of body fluids such as Some cultures do ingest urine for to treat disease- It was off topic so didn't go into details at the time- didn't mean to offend

I'd bet Bear Grylls would agree with you on that he's been known to drink his urine from time to time - properly filtered through his t-shirt too

[Beach Mama]

I agree with a PP that the demand would be far greater than the supply in order to be viable. How many of us have trouble enough expressing enough for a night out for our own babies let alone masses to donate. The donated milk for critically ill and prem babies is a wonderful thing though and obviously viable and doable.

I think that there will always be people who choose not to b'feed, and having this as an option for them even if it did work, probably wouldn't be something they would choose to do. Educated or not people make their own choices based on background, research etc. and I don't think having a bm bank would change that for some. Just like everything else in parenting, each to their own.

ETA:

properly filtered through his t-shirt too

or squeezed directly out of a dead camels gut.....puuuke!!!