[witch_power]

Breastfeeding versus Formula Feeding : Which Side Wins?

Honestly, neither side “wins”, because there is no absolute right or wrong. Both make excellent points about the pros and cons of each option. What it really comes down to is that when it comes to breastfeeding versus formula feeding, the only right decision is the one that works best for you and your child.

Read more: http://www.ourfamilyworld.com/2012/02/12/breastfeeding-versus-formula-feeding-the-pros-and-cons-of-e...

[witch_power]

Breastfeeding versus Formula Feeding : Which Side Wins?

Honestly, neither side “wins”, because there is no absolute right or wrong. Both make excellent points about the pros and cons of each option. What it really comes down to is that when it comes to breastfeeding versus formula feeding, the only right decision is the one that works best for you and your child.

Read more: http://www.ourfamilyworld.com/2012/02/12/breastfeeding-versus-formula-feeding-the-pros-and-cons-of-e...

[skycheattraffic]

The pros listed for breastfeeding sound more like they apply to EPing: they are all about the milk and not about the delivery. Nursing to sleep for example is a huge pro for me which was unattainable in our early EPing days despite all bottles being BM. I also find it a bit skewed because it doesn't really take on baby's side of the issue so much: more skin to skin contact and control over the speed and volume of milk consumption are big benefits to baby as well.

Just my two cents.

[teresagem]

I am actually finding the rest of the article even more interesting, and pasted it for ease of commenting on that.

Pros and Cons of Breastfeeding

Pros

• Breast milk contains everything your baby needs to grow and thrive in the most ideal composition.
• When comparing breastfeeding versus formula feeding, breastfeeding is definitely the less expensive option.
• For moms who have no one to take on night feeding, it can help them get more sleep, since there are no bottles to grab and warm up in the middle of the night. Well, true, but even for mothers who use bottles, someone has to lose sleep over the night feeds. So what might be an advantage for the mother could be a disadvantage for her partner. Does that get considered?
• The antibodies passed to your baby through breast milk may help decrease their chances of developing certain infections. Will rather than may. And often lessen the severity if the baby does get sick.

Cons

• If you take in too little of certain nutrients, the quality of your breast milk can be compromised, which means your baby will not be getting the best nutrition.
• It will have a slightly different composition, but not unhealthy. And certainly, even if your diet is not perfect, breastmilk is still way better than formula.
• On the other hand, taking in too much of certain substances (alcohol, caffeine, mercury in fish) can be dangerous to your baby.
• But do not exagerate these issues. Alcohol: A mother who takes in too much alcohol is likely to be impaired in mothering, regardless of how she feeds her baby. A mother who breastfeeds can still enjoy alcohol by timing when she has it or by pumping in advance. She does not have to live a life of abstinence from alcohol.
• Caffiene: Could make some babies restless if consumed in excess, but it is not going to be 'dangerous' as this claims. Mercury in fish: A problem for the top predator types of fish if you eat a lot of them. But it would be able to be avoided by choosing other types of fish, in moderation. 

I do not see any of these as deal-breaker cons of breastfeeding.

• Certain medications can pass into the breast milk and harm your baby.

The medications needed to be compared with the risk of formula and the chance of harm there. So there are some medications that are too risky. But on the other hand, for other medications that are safer than formula, I often see 'medicaitons' being bandied around as a reason not to breastfeed, when this is not necessarily the case - the particular medicaiton may well be safer than formula.

• Some women may find breastfeeding uncomfortable and even painful, either physically or psychologically, for many reasons.

Some women do - although physical pain from incorrect technique can and should be overcome. Psychological pain is a different one, and could arise from various things. I do applaud women who have such issues, and work to overcome them enough to be able to breastfeed. It can be helpful for some women to do this in fact.

Pros and Cons of Formula Feeding

Pros

• Formula contains all the necessary nutrients your baby needs to grow and thrive.

Does it? So this claim confidently assumes that the hundreds of things that are in breastmilk but not in formula are not actually needed. I wonder why they are there then? Sounds like a restatement of formula is 'just as good'.

• Moms can take necessary medications without worrying about they will harm their baby by passing it through to the milk supply.

In an ideal world, mothers would be accurately informed if it is indeed safe to breassstfeed with particular medications. It is too late to wean to formula, and then sadly find out you could have kept breastfeeding.

• Typically, when it comes to breast feeding versus formula feeding, the latter allows more flexibility, especially for working moms, as she won’t need to express milk for those times she can’t be there, or find a private place to nurse the baby (while all women should be free to nurse in public, not all women feel comfortable with it)..

It can be more flexible, that is true. But it is possible to pump and keep breastfeeding, or at least breastfeed when home and use formula while away. On the other hand, in and ideal world, we would stop treating babies as something that has inconvenienced our 'real' life, that must somehow be forced to fit in for flexibility. We need to start thinking about how to make 'real' life ore flexible to meet the needs of mothers and families. eg with paid leave, part-time work if the mother desires it, and so on. 

• Moms don’t have to worry about their diets as much. While everyone should of course try to maintain a healthy diet, those who formula feed have no worries about maintaining the quality of their breast milk.

Well, yes, everyone should try to maintain a healthy diet. I don't know that maintaining the quality of my breastmilk was ever a real worry for me. I just continued to eat normal food, but I know that I did get very hungry and develop a huge appetite, and quickly lost the huge amounts of weight I gained in pregnancy and more. I actually enjoyed being able to eat plenty and not have to worry about putting on weight or how I was going to lose all the baby weight. I always put on around 27 kilos which is about 50 pounds I think, which was not thought to be ideal, but I think my body needed to lay down good stores and I used it all up in a few months.

Cons

• Your baby doesn’t receive antibodies from formula, and therefore may not have that added protection against certain viruses. This is typically the number one point against formula in the breastfeeding versus formula feeding debate.

Viruses and bacteria. And this is a huge point, that pretty much trumps any pro formula point that could possibly be made. 

• Both formula and the all the supplies for bottle-feeding can get very expensive, especially if your baby will only drink out of a certain type of bottle (babies can be very picky).

Yes, I imagine.

• Midnight feedings require, at the least, stumbling out of bed to warm up a refrigerated bottle and at the worst, preparing the bottle from scratch, so it can cut in on your sleep time.

Another biggie - someone has to do this, whether it is the mother or her partner. I always suffered from insomnia, and waking up fully to do this would have probably made it extremely hard to go to sleep again.

• Some babies are allergic to certain types of formula, which may require switching brands or types. In some cases, this can significantly add to the overall expense.

When you read on some boards from mothers seeking advice about babies reacting badly to various formulas, then it makes me feel sad and sorry for the baby. While some babies seem to do OK, you can't tell whether your baby will or won't. By the time you have switched to formula, it is generally to late if you find out of bad reactions. Even if the reactions are not paticularly serious, there are often complaints such as costipation with cause unnecessary discomfort for the baby.

Breastfeeding versus Formula Feeding : Which Side Wins?

Honestly, neither side “wins”, because there is no absolute right or wrong. Both make excellent points about the pros and cons of each option.

Well, to me, some of the points were stronger and more valid than others. It is not something a simple list could ever be used for rating. You really have to go through the points properly, and evaluate carefully. eg does the health of the baby combined with some inconvenience from pumping outweight any flexibility a working mother may gain by chosing formula?

What it really comes down to is that when it comes to breastfeeding versus formula feeding, the only right decision is the one that works best for you and your child. If the child got their choice from a fully informed basis, I reckon I know what they would pick. Regardless of what the mother thinks might be best for herself.

Teresa

[charleen2008]

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witch_power wrote:

Breastfeeding versus Formula Feeding : Which Side Wins?

Honestly, neither side “wins”, because there is no absolute right or wrong. Both make excellent points about the pros and cons of each option. What it really comes down to is that when it comes to breastfeeding versus formula feeding, the only right decision is the one that works best for you and your child.

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I'm not sure I agree with this above statement as written. While I agree that in certain circumstances formula wins such as if the mom previously had a double mastectomy or the baby has Galactosemia, I do in most cases see BF'ing as the clear winner, especially health-wise. Just becuase there may be occasional exceptions to that rule does not mean that neither side wins.

The problem I have with many of these BF vs FF pro/con lists is that all seems to feel the need to make the list have a roughly equal number of pros and cons for both BF'ing and FF'ing.  That tends to lead to them coming up with pros and cons that are only partially true, that don't apply to a most moms, or that are not specific to formula but rather bottle feeding which could be done with pumped BM rather then formula. For example, you tend to see the fact that a father can help with feedings as a pro of FF'ing which ignores the fact that they could just as well feed EBM in the bottle too so it's not a pro of formula really just of bottle feeding which can be combined with BF'ing (at the breast). I don't agree with any approach to BF vs FF that assumes that both side must be treated as equally having their good and bad points in a Coke vs Pepsi sort of way.

Here are my main objections to certain points from the pro and con list in the above article:

Pros and Cons of Formula

-Cons-

* If you take in too little of certain nutrients, the quality of your breast milk can be compromised, which means your baby will not be getting the best nutrition.

Contrary to popular myth, a junk food diet does not appear to impact a mom's BM to such a degree that formula becomes better nutritionally in such circumstances. No study has ever backed up this claim made by many formula defenders and studies on the BM of third-world mothers with diets even worse then the typical Western junk food diet seem to contradict this claim. In cases of a BF mom with a severely poor diet, they found the mom's health typically suffered first before her BM reach the point of being nutritionally inferior to formula. While I would agree that a junk food diet in a BF'ing mom will lead to BM that is less healthy then if the mom was eating a good healthy diet, It would still be superior to formula, especially since it still contains anti-bodies that formula will never have.

* On the other hand, taking in too much of certain substances (alcohol, caffeine, mercury in fish) can be dangerous to your baby.

True but again, like the medication issue, it's being exaggerated here to make it a bigger con then it really is. With alcohol, the amount you would have to consume to harm your baby would also impair your own judgement and ability to properly care for your baby even if you where FF'ing so it's not really a good idea to imply that if you FF then it's OK for a you as a mom can get drunk. With regards to caffeine, it would take a lot to seriously harm your baby. In most case the reaction of your baby to caffeine is temporary extreme fussiness that passes once the caffeine passes from the baby's system. Now on the mercury issue, it's not that hard to avoid fish high in mercury.

* Certain medications can pass into the breast milk and harm your baby.

There are very few medications that are totally incompatible with BF'ing so for most mothers this is not an issue.

* Some women may find breastfeeding uncomfortable and even painful, either physically or psychologically, for many reasons.

While this can be true in certain situations, again I think it's exaggerates a problem that is generally often avoidable or fixable. Yes, there can be circumstances where physical or psychological issues exists that are not easily fixable that make BF'ing impossible or at least very difficult. In most cases though pain from BF'ing is a result bad technique such a bad latch or tongue-tie or dissipates on it's own in short time. It's no where near as common for it to be permanently painful as the con above implies.

Pros and Cons of Formula Feeding

-Pros-
* Formula contains all the necessary nutrients your baby needs to grow and thrive.

I guess that depends on how you define thrive. There are however something like 300 ingredients in BM not in formula that we do not know what their purpose is or just how important they are. The above pro also seems to imply that the lack anti-bodies (and certain other ingredients of BM) in formula the form the key reason formula is considered riskier health-wise doesn't really matter.
 
* Moms can take necessary medications without worrying about they will harm their baby by passing it through to the milk supply.

While this is true, like I said before, it's no where near a major concern for most moms.

* Typically, when it comes to breast feeding versus formula feeding, the latter allows more flexibility, especially for working moms, as she won’t need to express milk for those times she can’t be there, or find a private place to nurse the baby (while all women should be free to nurse in public, not all women feel comfortable with it).

True but this seems to assume that it has to be all or nothing when it's possible in many cases to combine both BF'ing and FF'ing, especially in later months when the mom's supply is more stable.  I also have issues with this one in cases where a working mom is fully accommodated at work to pump but simply choose not to for her own convenience since it really only about mom's convenience and not of any benefit to the baby. I'm sure some would argue a indirect benefit in the form of "happy mom = happy baby" but I don't I agree with that as general rule.

* Moms don’t have to worry about their diets as much. While everyone should of course try to maintain a healthy diet, those who formula feed have no worries about maintaining the quality of their breast milk.

This again exaggerates an issue that does not effect that many moms. First, moms in Western countries would really have to have very poor diet to produce BM that was a poorer quality to formula. No study supports the claims of FF defenders that a junk food diet while significantly impact the quality of BM so much that formula would become the better choice nutritional in mom with such a diet.

[true.blue.strine]

I think the *winner* is what works best for the family and baby.  

One person's pro can be another person's con.     For example, I noticed that one poster said that she suffers from insomnia and that FF would wake her up more than BF and this would cause her a problem.    And I'm sure she's right for her situation.

It was very different for me: my son took about an hour to BF and would then hurl the entire contents across himself, me and the sofa.   So, then I started to express the top from the milk to reduce the volume he was getting....which isn't fun at 2am with a screaming hungry baby.   Oh, and during this my boobs would spray milk all over the floor which also needed to be cleaned.    I couldn't feed in bed because  I was messing about with nipple shields and needed light to see what I was doing...and I didn't want milk projectiled across the bed.   By the time we were done, I'd be out of bed for and hour and a half or more and took another hour and a half to return to sleep.   

When I started to FF, the amount of time I was out of bed was dramaticaly reduced and therefore I was able to go back to sleep much more easily.

Horses for courses.