Yes, I understand that not everyone can or should breastfeed, I am not referring to you...So, calm down and back off. What I am talking about is those that want to nurse and run into ANY bump in the road, it doesn't matter the nature, cause or reason. Why must they have to endure doctors, nurses, LC's, friends and family members that promote formula at the absolute tiniest sign of a pause/bump in the road to success in nursing? I swear, baby loses a half of a pound, EVERYONE starts screaming for the formula. Baby doesn't latch on immediately, nurse starts telling her that she needs to try a bottle of formula so baby doesn't starve. Uh, excuse me, baby won't starve in the time it would take the nurse to help the baby latch properly.
I don't understand why a doctor or nurse or whoever wouldn't first look for a cause of the issue and try their best to fix it. Maybe baby has a lip or tongue tie, maybe there is a food sensitivity and mom needs to try to cut out something... but no, no one ever suggest researching possible reasons for it or ways to help. They automatically decide that BM is definitely the sole cause for ANY problems big or small and the ONLY answer seems to be immediate stuffing of formula down baby's throat.
Yes, I also realize formula isn't the devil, I am not saying it is...calm down, yet again. My point is, the mom's DON'T want to use formula, they WANT to nurse. So, help them nurse, don't push formula. It isn't a miracle cure-all.
I get SICK of seeing women say, "My baby had reflux and the doctor said to switch to formula." Really!?!?!?!?!? As if formula was gonna fix that crap. Who are they kidding? Babies with reflux don't get a fix from formula. Seriously.
There are truly only a very small amount of things that would make SWITCHING to formula feeding from breastfeeding better. One is if your kid has Phenylketonuria(PKU) and it is RARE.
So, how do we shift this paradigm of "Formula is the cure for all breastfeeding problems" to "Let's find the cause of the problem and try to fix it"?
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Stop letting formula companies drop off cases and cases of free formula to doctors. If these companies are going to treat formula the way most drug companies treat drugs, then it should require a prescription. And also, require all doctors who deal with breastfeeding women, including pediatricians and ob/gyns to study breastfeeding. Currently no one, except perhaps lactation consultants, if you can find one, studies it so no one understands it or can offer help.
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