View Full Version : Does formula advertising affect people's decisions?
Do you think it has an impact on choosing not to breastfeed?
MommyBug77
02-04-2007, 11:30 AM
It never did for me, I can't speak for others though. My mom is VERY pro breast feeding. My husband is all for it too so that helped. I find it easier in most cases to breast feed over formula. I also pump so others can feed her & for when we have to go out.
YourMom
02-04-2007, 11:32 AM
Not necessarily in individual cases, but I think it reinforces a cultural idea that formula is "just as good" or even better than breastmilk, which makes it a lot more appealing than it might be otherwise.
I figure there has to be a reason that it's banned in other countries.
Desirae
02-04-2007, 12:32 PM
I agree with YourMom:giggle
no, I don't, I also disagree that it convinces people it's as good as breastmilk, it can often show people an convincing argument that it is convenient and gives a mother an independance she's deprived of if exclusively breastfeeding but as a mother who formula fed her older 3 children i can safely say i was fully aware formula could not be on a par with breastmilk nutritionally, i accepted it was a good second with my reluctance to breastfeed but i never once believed it to be on a par with it.
My main deciding point to be a formula feeder with my first child was a distinct lack of positive image of breastfeeding around me- i came from a family where the only mother who breastfed was the opinionated mother who was seen as weird and i had no desire to be like her. My mother had bottle fed my sister and I, and at age 17 and pregnant people are reluctant to try and encourage you into any area of motherhood which might be slightly more demanding so when i said i intended to FF little else was done to persuade me.
Better networking with those who have had positive experiences as breastfeeders eventually made me chose to try, not the banning of formula advertising which has taken place in parts of the media since i had my last child.
Danielle
02-04-2007, 01:39 PM
It never did for me, I can't speak for others though. My mom is VERY pro breast feeding. My husband is all for it too so that helped. I find it easier in most cases to breast feed over formula.
Same here. My mom was a LLLer before it was cool :D.
I agree with YourMom too (:giggle).
YourMom
02-04-2007, 02:50 PM
Beka - I have honestly heard people say that formula is better than breastmilk because (a) it can be measured and (b) you can be sure that it has all of the right nutrients in it.
Formula advertising in the US is far more prevalent than it is over there, I'm told. The hospital sends home a bag with every new mom. The formula-feeding bag contains formula and coupons. The breastfeeding bad contains... formula and coupons!
quickmom
02-04-2007, 02:56 PM
TV commercials didn't cause me to formula feed all of my boys. I decided to for various reasons. We know breast milk is best but there are reasons why we chose or couldn't not to breastfeed.
Erika
02-04-2007, 03:03 PM
Not necessarily in individual cases, but I think it reinforces a cultural idea that formula is "just as good" or even better than breastmilk, which makes it a lot more appealing than it might be otherwise.
I figure there has to be a reason that it's banned in other countries.
Yeah, that.
Also, it makes ff look very easy and enticing when you are having a bad day or week from breastfeeding. What we do need, is more support for breastfeeding mothers beyond the hospital and to foster a culture that sees breastfeeding as normal and the thing to at least try to do when you have a child.
YourMom
02-04-2007, 06:15 PM
And an interesting study from last year:
http://www.internationalbreastfeedingjournal.com/content/1/1/10
Mass media content likely influences the decision of women to breastfeed their newborn children. Relatively few studies have empirically assessed such a hypothesis to date, however. Most work has tended to focus either on specific interventions or on broad general commentary about the role of media. In this study, we examined infant feeding advertisements in 87 issues of Parents' Magazine, a popular parenting magazine, from the years 1971 through 1999. We then used content analysis results to predict subsequent changes in levels of breastfeeding among U.S. women. When the frequency of hand feeding advertisements increased, the percentage change in breastfeeding rates reported the next year generally tended to decrease. These results underscore the need to acknowledge the potential role of popular media content in understanding breastfeeding patterns and public health trends.
Christi
02-04-2007, 06:43 PM
As both a breastfeeding and formula feeding mom, I don't feel like media contributed any to my decisions. I DO think that I was not encouraged to bf my older son when I said that I couldn't due to the meds I was on. No one offered any information to the contrary. I discovered that it was safe on my own almost a year later, and wept thinking that I had been deprived of bfing him.
I supplemented my younger son with formula simply because I didn't have the time to pump like I would have liked to.
Kristen
02-04-2007, 07:03 PM
Not in my case, but it must be effective, or the formula companies wouldn't do it!
It didn't for me. I think if people are educated they will make the right decision for them. But not all are educated on both sides. I'm sure there are some who are affected by formula advertising but so are most people by any advertising.
Lisa
Maleah
02-04-2007, 07:55 PM
I don't see advertisement has having as big of an impact than the lack of information and support. With all 5 of my children I tried very hard to BF but couldn't do it. Any time I looked for answers I got the stock supply vs. demand speech.
I felt like whenever it was difficult and I was reaching out to advocates and professionals I wasn't getting the support and help that I needed. The first couple of times I felt like everyone knew it was this simple thing and I just wasn't getting it for some reason. I felt like a failure so I just gave up. I found there are a lot of women who felt the same way. They didn't have any experience with BF'ing beforehand and didn't have anyone they felt comfortable asking so they just chose formula.
Not in my case, but it must be effective, or the formula companies wouldn't do it!
Exactly!!!
I also think that no matter whether or not you consciously notice advertising or not, on a subconscious level we all absorb everything that's around us, and formula advertising helps us fit formula into our scheme of reference of things that are acceptable.
Let's imagine for a minute that up until right now this minute formula didn't exist, and it appeared today. I think we would all find the idea of it more than a little alien. The fact that we don't, and the fact that so many aspects of how we perceive babies is tied in with the idea of bottles and formula...after all, go to your nearest card store, and look at how many new baby cards and giftwraps display pictures of bottles. It's because of this that formula advertising will continue to remind us to see it as normal...we might be able to talk about how we know breastmilk is superior etc, but ultimately, culturally breastfeeding is seen as normal and the breastfeeding versus formula feeding statistics will bear that out.
Okay, so I'm rambling now, but I guess you get the idea.
Kristi
02-04-2007, 09:41 PM
I both BF and FF Dylan. Caleb was exclusively BF and Isabella is FF. All choosen for different reasons that fit our lifestyle best at the time. I do not think advertising had anything to do with it
For me personally- I don't feel like ads in print or TV made a difference. It was the samples they mail you, and send home, and how quick the health care people were to yell "SUPPLEMENT" over the tiniest things.
I do think it probably makes a difference in terms of what filters down into our subconscious. If you see the 'norm' as formula feeding whether it be on tv programs or through advertising, then is it just that more socially acceptable and desirable. I don't think it is a matter of seeing an advertisement and then jumping up and saying, "Ah ha! I am going to formula feed." It is a culture that has built up over time to create the environment where formula is just as good as breast milk no matter how many tiny print disclaimers then run.
Tracy
02-04-2007, 10:00 PM
I don't feel that advertising affected my decision one way or another. Both of my girls were breastfed in the beginning and then switched to formula. It was worked for us.
MrsSuzNZ
02-04-2007, 10:06 PM
It didn't for me. I chose to formula feed from 6 months on. I found it hard to keep up, it was my choice. I didn't actually see a lot of advertising about it anyway.
Jurgita
02-04-2007, 11:29 PM
I don't feel that advertising affected my decision one way or another. Both of my girls were breastfed in the beginning and then switched to formula. It was worked for us.
Same here! Just change both girls to one boy LOL
Jejune
02-04-2007, 11:37 PM
I do think it probably makes a difference in terms of what filters down into our subconscious. If you see the 'norm' as formula feeding whether it be on tv programs or through advertising, then is it just that more socially acceptable and desirable. I don't think it is a matter of seeing an advertisement and then jumping up and saying, "Ah ha! I am going to formula feed." It is a culture that has built up over time to create the environment where formula is just as good as breast milk no matter how many tiny print disclaimers then run.
I agree, and I think almost all of us vastly underestimate the effect advertising actually has on us. Because we've all grown up with sophisticated marketing aimed at us, we tend to think we're too savvy to give in to it, but advertising is a field that grows each year in percentages one would hardly believe, and it grows because it is so effective. We're the first generation who has been the constant recipient of marketing from childhood on, so I don't think we're actually in a good position to say whether it's affecting us.
Anyway, I think the best way to measure the success of formula advertising is to ask people to draw a baby being fed and see what percentage draw a bottle and what percentage draw a breast. Not that that will happen, but I think it would be a better gauge than just numbers of women breastfeeding and bottle feeding.
Formula advertising in the US is far more prevalent than it is over there, I'm told. The hospital sends home a bag with every new mom. The formula-feeding bag contains formula and coupons. The breastfeeding bad contains... formula and coupons!
that could well be why i see it as i do, i live in a country where even your health visitor (similar to a public health nurse?) is not allowed to promote or advise on a brand of formula, if you ask any medical questions about how to ff they have to answer but they also legally have to inform you bf is a better choice. It is illegal for formula companies to give free samples, coupons etc and even their mail shots (which they can not send unless you ask for them) have to state bfing is superior as does their advertising in mother and baby literature. It is also illegal for formula to be sold at a discounted price or in promotional sales- including putting big stickers on to promote it's value for money- all of this is banned in the UK.
actually reading that back i guess it shows that at some point the uk goverment has realised how negatively formula advertising does effect bfing rates and have acted on that. in spite of this though britain still has one of the lowest bfing rates in the world and certainly the lowest in Europe.
I do also believe what we see as children massively dictates what we see as normal in our parenting years- as i said i was surrounded by ffers as a child and went on to ff my 3 eldest children until i'd spent enough time in an online community where bfing seemed the normal and i re-learnt it and had the confidence to try. Dylan is 2.5 and has only ever seen Loki fed- if she recieves a doll with a bottle she throws the bottle out (or gives it to Jude shaking her head muttering "No mommy milk" at him) and attempts to nurse her dolly so i guess she only sees bfing as normal- i guess in 25 years or so we'll see if it effects her feeding choices.
Erika
02-05-2007, 03:21 AM
Anyway, I think the best way to measure the success of formula advertising is to ask people to draw a baby being fed and see what percentage draw a bottle and what percentage draw a breast. Not that that will happen, but I think it would be a better gauge than just numbers of women breastfeeding and bottle feeding.
This I agree with. It isn't so much what individual responses to ff advertising but how it has shaped the cultural norm. You might say you breastfed, even for a little while, but you probably would have drawn a baby being fed by a bottle (at least prior to having your children). I am very pro breastfeeding and I probably would have drawn the bottle! I'm hoping that that will start to change and that Sasha will always think bf is the norm.
the cultural norm thing definately does play a significant part- since having Loki i have lost count of the number of people who have appeared visably shocked when they have asked which formula he is on (because he is growing so quickly!) and i have replied i am feeding him- one response the other day was "but how old is he?" when i replied he was six weeks it met with "and you're STILL feeding him?" as there is so much energy put into encouraging people to try bfing and the importance of it for the first few weeks of life here in England to many that is getting interpretted as just do it for 2 or 3 weeks then switch to formula- implying formula is the norm i guess.
What we need to ask though is the question- is it media advertising that makes us see formula feeding as the norm or fear of peoples responses to us doing something which isn't the "norm" that leads people away from bfing, i am not certain i could have stood up to the opinionated views i have had over my decision to feed Loki myself at other points in my life when i was less assertive
Erika
02-05-2007, 03:59 AM
That is a very good point, Beka. But couldn't ff advertising initially have been the reason for this cultural shift away from bf towards ff and making that the norm? If there hadn't been such huge advertising of it, would we have the levels of formula feeding that we do now?
I have had the same reactions to my bf Sasha. I remember I had a friend asking me what type of formula I would put her on afterwards. I said none, I am breastfeeding. He kept saying "no, I mean afterwards". He couldn't understand that I intended to keep feeding her as long as she wanted to. My mother was the same initially. She kept asking me how long I intended to feed her myself. Now, however, she is fairly pro-breastfeeding. She was holding Sasha the other day and talking about how soft her skin was and how healthy she was and how it was down to my milk LOL
But you are right, you do have to be pretty assertive in your belief that breastfeeding is best or else the constant asking when you are going to switch to formula or how much easier it would be if you did that, would just get to you.
Not in my case, but it must be effective, or the formula companies wouldn't do it!
:yup My initial reaction tends to be "Of course not! Who makes decisions based on commercials?" but obviously advertising is highly effective and does affect the choices people make, otherwise companies wouldn't put billions of dollars into doing it.
I do think that formula ads are probably far, far more likely to persuade someone to choose one formula over another, rather than persuading them to choose formula over breastfeeding, but I wouldn't discount the power the images in advertising have to shape how people think about a lot of things.
giffy
02-05-2007, 05:07 AM
But you are right, you do have to be pretty assertive in your belief that breastfeeding is best or else the constant asking when you are going to switch to formula or how much easier it would be if you did that, would just get to you.
It's funny, you know, but I have never had this conversation with anyone. I breastfed all of my children for at least a year, though with the boys I did a half-half and they had formula during the day. My MIL once asked when my eldest son would "get into a routine" and several others have asked if I am still feeding the baby myself. None have ever expressed disapproval in any form when I tell them that I am.
However, I did have an interesting discussion with a woman at Toy Library this past weekend. Her daughter is almost 2, and we were discussing breastfeeding. She asked me when I planned to wean my 13 mo daughter, and when I said I would do so when it stopped working for either one of us, she visibly relaxed and "confessed" that she was still breastfeeding her daughter and said it was nice to meet someone who didn't find that odd.
/hijack.
YourMom
02-05-2007, 07:32 AM
The formula-feeding bag contains formula and coupons. The breastfeeding bad contains... formula and coupons!
crap, the formula advertising got to me :banghead
Brooke
02-05-2007, 07:53 AM
For me personally- I don't feel like ads in print or TV made a difference. It was the samples they mail you, and send home, and how quick the health care people were to yell "SUPPLEMENT" over the tiniest things.
I have to completely agree with this one. I'm not so sure it was the direct advertising. Though I know that it was in my subconscious. It was the EASE that formula gave when I was struggling with bf'ing. It was the fact that I could run to the store and satiate my baby.
Later on, while I was struggling with bf'ing, we realized that I am one of the few women in the world whose breasts are shaped in a way that bf'ing in nearly impossible due to poor development of mammary glands.
But it was the thought of how easy it would be to just stop crying, stop struggling, grab the can of free formula in my cabinet and make him happy.
Sure, advertising plays a part of that into our subconscious as a society. Just the little images of reading a children's book and seeing the baby bottle-fed instead of breast-feed. Those are the things that help our society view bottle-feeding as a norm.
Now, I'm a bottle-feeder. I tried with Xander and gave up. WIth Kyle, I did everything possible in my power, aside from having my breasts redone - which I don't kno wif it would help, to keep him breastfed. But, I am a HUGE advocate for breastfeeding.
And quite frankly, I feel that if you don't even try to breastfeed, at least give it a good try and time period for trial, that you're flat-out depriving your children of something that they need. Even just bf'ing when they are first-born to give them colostrum is better than nothing. That stuff is "liquid gold" as they say it.
Yes, I do belive that there are times when a mom is unable to do that emotionally. Someone who was sexually abused or emotionally abused to the point where anyone/anything touching their breasts brings up a whole new slew of issues. I will make execptions to my thoughts, but they are very few.
You need to at least try it. Now, if formula wasn't available, what woud a mom who has only bottle-fed do? How would their baby live? They'd have to be breast-fed.
Which all leads my rambling back to the beginnig: If it wasn't so easy to just buy some and our society wasn't so ingrained into our subconscious that it's "ok", then we wouldn't be doing it as much. And yeah, i know I put myself in that category. But in the my heart, I know I TRIED. Not only did I try, but I tried HARD. And that to me is the most important thing.
Desirae
02-05-2007, 08:08 AM
:hugs Brooke. ITA with you. I know lots of moms who REALLY REALLY try and in the end choose FF but they TRIED. I can honestly say that I was angry with an aunt of mine who didn't give it a chance with her son. I was so sad for this baby who didn't get even a little breastmilk. IMO, she copped out. I hope that doens't offend anyone but that's how I feel.
I tried bf. After 5 days of constant screaming, we realized my son was not getting anything. I went to a lactation specialist and I was told that I did not produce any milk. I was devastated. I had no choice but to ff my son. It was very painful for me. The nurses made me feel like crap, the lactation consultant made me feel like crap and my own mother made me feel like crap. I was out shopping when Charlie was a newborn and I was feeding him a bottle. A woman stopped and said "Are you feeding that baby formula?" I could hear the 'tsk,tsk" in her voice.
So, to answer the original question, and get back on topic, advertising did not influence my choice. My body did that. Did advertising influence which formula I chose? I have no idea. ;)
Jejune
02-06-2007, 02:40 PM
You know, when I think about how many women are made to feel bad about their choices on either side of the spectrum, it does lead me back to wondering WHY it's become such an issue. Because, honestly, I think being informed is very important, but I also think that it's no one's business what I choose. You can't look at a woman and know her reasons.
I admit to being judgmental at times, though. A woman in my apartment complex was once talking loudly about how expensive formula was, and then went on to say that that's why she was watering her son's formula down. I thought, "Surely there's some small luxury you can cut out before you begin starving your son," and then my mind went to the time of day and the fact that she was at home, and I wondered why she hadn't breastfed if she couldn't afford formula.
It didn't for me. I remember getting the free diaper bag with formula inside when I had my daughter. I took the stuff out and used the bag. But I already had my mind set on breastfeeding. I can see how it could possibly effect someones decision.
I admit to being judgmental at times, though. A woman in my apartment complex was once talking loudly about how expensive formula was, and then went on to say that that's why she was watering her son's formula down. I thought, "Surely there's some small luxury you can cut out before you begin starving your son," and then my mind went to the time of day and the fact that she was at home, and I wondered why she hadn't breastfed if she couldn't afford formula.
In general I really don't care whether people BF or FF--I BFed Thomas for two years, and plan to do it again, but I didn't love it, and can totally understand why someone would choose not to--but that would really upset me. Given that there's the option of breastfeeding if you can't afford formula, or WIC, or donations from a food bank, or any other number of options, that's just totally unacceptable. I think that there is more than one good choice when it comes to how to feed your child, but obviously not all choices are good, and watering down formula is a really bad one.
But the issue of breastfeeding among low-income women is a really important one, and one that really saddens me. But that has much less, as far as I can tell, to do with formula advertising than with poor people getting inadequate prenatal and postnatal care and not being given the support to BF that people with better health care are given.
teawhisk
02-06-2007, 11:29 PM
We're the first generation who has been the constant recipient of marketing from childhood on, so I don't think we're actually in a good position to say whether it's affecting us.
I'm reading Vance Packard's book The Hidden Persuaders, written in 1957, that details how the admen manipulate the American public. (This was back when it was general knowledge that Big Business funded research into psychology, and psychology professors farmed themselves out as marketing consultants. Nowdays that link seems less well known.)
If you were born in the '70's you're approximately the third generation that has been bombarded by cradle-to-grave media manipulation. I strongly recommend Packards' books to anybody interested in media, advertising, or psychology.
The first thing that the admen learned is that the person least likely to correctly predict what the consumer will buy and why he will buy it is the consumer himself. This is a sobering insight. We tell ourselves that we make rational choices based on knowledge and planning, but we don't.
Obviously formula advertising works or it wouldn't be done. Advertisers have learned that you will balk at buying any given product, but you *will* buy a feeling. When warmth, comfort, and motherly love are strongly associated with formula, women will buy formula. And that's what all the ads portray: a young vibrant happy mother formula-feeding her round pink smiling baby, and all in soft-focus with animated hearts floating around.
I like to think I'm above such manipulation, but since I don't think I'm substantially smarter or more insightful than other women, I'm afraid that these ads must have effected my thinking.
For the record, I breastfed mine for the first 10 months, but most mothers in this area don't.
Jejune
02-07-2007, 09:19 AM
The library doesn't have that book, but I'm going to keep a weather eye out for it. I hadn't thought of it before, but I suppose you're right. My mother (born in the early 50's) has fond childhood memories of television and commercials.
This,though: The first thing that the admen learned is that the person least likely to correctly predict what the consumer will buy and why he will buy it is the consumer himself. This is a sobering insight. We tell ourselves that we make rational choices based on knowledge and planning, but we don't. is exactly what I was aiming at, without being entirely accurate.
I think we're supposed to be all ad-savvy now, and that's why so many ads have become self referential or over-the-top obvious. But they must work. It's a HUGE industry, and the marketing industry aimed at children is the fastest growing segment of the ad world. You can't pay enough for the creation of nostalgia.
Since I don't have a television, I have a question. Do formula ads ever come on during children's programming, or are they mainly shown on daytime TV?
teawhisk
02-07-2007, 12:50 PM
I don't watch (much) TV anymore, but when I nursed I would watch it on closed caption. I think, but I am not sure, that the majority of formula ads are aired during soap operas.
Brooke
02-07-2007, 01:25 PM
I'm reading Vance Packard's book The Hidden Persuaders, written in 1957, that details how the admen manipulate the American public. (This was back when it was general knowledge that Big Business funded research into psychology, and psychology professors farmed themselves out as marketing consultants. Nowdays that link seems less well known.)
If you were born in the '70's you're approximately the third generation that has been bombarded by cradle-to-grave media manipulation. I strongly recommend Packards' books to anybody interested in media, advertising, or psychology.
The first thing that the admen learned is that the person least likely to correctly predict what the consumer will buy and why he will buy it is the consumer himself. This is a sobering insight. We tell ourselves that we make rational choices based on knowledge and planning, but we don't.
Obviously formula advertising works or it wouldn't be done. Advertisers have learned that you will balk at buying any given product, but you *will* buy a feeling. When warmth, comfort, and motherly love are strongly associated with formula, women will buy formula. And that's what all the ads portray: a young vibrant happy mother formula-feeding her round pink smiling baby, and all in soft-focus with animated hearts floating around.
I like to think I'm above such manipulation, but since I don't think I'm substantially smarter or more insightful than other women, I'm afraid that these ads must have effected my thinking.
For the record, I breastfed mine for the first 10 months, but most mothers in this area don't.
I think I love you. Is that awful to say? You totally just struck an "I dig it" chord in my heart. LOL I was a creative ad major in college (though I didn't graduate) and even hearing that somebody else would read a book like that makes me goosebumpy. Not in a perverted way, I swear. Off to find that book now. Thanks for the recommendation.
Danielle
02-07-2007, 01:47 PM
ROFL Brooke.
gr8mommy
02-07-2007, 06:48 PM
I don't think it makes much difference. I believe the decision whether or not to breastfeed is ingrained in a woman way before she ever conceives. I think it has way more to do with one's body image, culture, and personal 'squick' than with any formula commercials.
I DO think the commercials are effective in swaying someone from one brand to another, which is why they keep advertising.
teawhisk
02-07-2007, 07:00 PM
Awww Brooke. Ya made me warm and fuzzy. I love books about media and advertising (ok, I'm not wild about the textbooks). I'm such a geek.
Vance Packard was a reporter and published several books about the consumer culture. My parents had them all. I read them as a teenager while stuck at home without a TV. I managed to filch two or three of them from my father's house awhile ago. It's interesting to see that 50 years later, his fear has largely come true: Americans are lock-step conformists, yet we buy into the myth of ourselves as non-conforming free-thinkers who question authority and express our individuality in everything we do. Notice the amount of ads geared at telling us how creative and unique we are.
Ads extoll the virtue of rebellion by showing children and youths defying and/or educating authority figures who are invariably incompetent. The ad men have carefully sold us a self-image of radical individuality, and the irony is that we have become increasingly more alike while thinking that we're different and special and totally unlike the rest of the herd.
Oh, and by the way, my notions about housewives in the 50's were myths. In the early part of the century advertisers sold women products by promising that it would bring them True Love. By the late 40's, early 50's, advertisers discovered that promising a woman that she could get her man was no longer motivating her to buy the product. Deep-probing marketing analysis discovered that women wanted to be viewed as equal partners with men at home and in the work place. Advertisers switched tactics and started promising women that men would respect them if they used the product. This surprised me because that's NOT the image one gets nowdays of women in the 50's.
Jejune
02-07-2007, 07:08 PM
It seems like 1950's bohemia, counter culture and subversiveness all gets squished down the way Victorian weirdness did. It also sounds like advertising may be somewhat ahead of large sweeping social trends, which is spooky. I'm thinking James Thurber also saw some of this coming. He had some quote or other that was, approximately, "I wish you'd stop being a non-conformist just like everyone else!"
Anyway, I'd never heard ANY of that bit about how marketing to women was shaped. I'm really curious now. Since my library has failed me, I will have to check elsewhere.
YourMom
02-07-2007, 07:47 PM
http://product.half.ebay.com/The-Hidden-Persuaders_W0QQtgZinfoQQprZ1349233
Half has a copy for $5.73, and another for $9.99 for those of you looking out for it.
Jejune
02-07-2007, 08:02 PM
YourMom, you rock.
Amber
02-09-2007, 12:12 PM
Maybe not directly, but yes, I do think it affects people's decisions. When I was pregnant with Caleb, I had no idea that people still breastfed. It's kind of embarassing to admit, but since nobody around me breastfed, and all I saw on TV was formula & bottles, I just assumed it had become obsolete. I was reading a book when I was pregnant, and it mentioned choosing whether to breast or bottlefeed. I decided to give breastfeeding a shot, but it was a really half-hearted attempt. I had just turned 20, people gave me weird looks when they found out I breastfed, and those free formula samples were just sitting in the cupboard waiting for me to fail.
So, while I didn't see a formula ad and say "Wow! That's the choice for me!", the prevalence of formula in our society definitely did influence me. It wasn't until right before I got pregnant with Tristan that I really decided I WANTED to breastfeed (rather than the "I'll try it" mentality I had with the other two).
ColleenC
02-09-2007, 05:03 PM
I don't know about other people but the media had NO effect on my NOT breastfeeding my kids. I breastfed for the most miserable 6 weeks of my life with my dd and after that I just couldn't. With my ds we bonded from day 1 and I bottlefed right from the begining. The media had nothing to do with it. It was my own feelings on the subject.
JoMama
02-13-2007, 07:29 PM
I agree w/ Brooke. If you don't even try to breastfeed, you are choosing not to try to do what's best for your child. I have nothing negative to say about people who truly can't, for whatever reason, only about those who can't be bothered to even try.
I think advertising probably influences people to some degree or another. I also think, though, that informed health care decisions are the responsibility of the individual, and if one makes those decisions based on advertising alone, that's a problem.
gr8mommy
02-14-2007, 07:37 AM
I agree w/ Brooke. If you don't even try to breastfeed, you are choosing not to try to do what's best for your child. I have nothing negative to say about people who truly can't, for whatever reason, only about those who can't be bothered to even try.
I vehemently disagree. There are many reasons someone wouldn't 'bother' trying to breastfeed, and no one should judge whether another woman's reasons are valid.
I agree w/ Brooke. If you don't even try to breastfeed, you are choosing not to try to do what's best for your child.
I also disagree with that. I don't think it's that simple to determine what's "best" for a child, because there are so many factors. How you feed your child is only one part of parenting, and there's more to the decision than just what is most ideal for the child. It might be most nutritionally ideal for a child to breastfeed, but if a mother--for whatever reason--has strong negative feelings about breastfeeding, then I think it's very possible that breastfeeding could cause her relationship with her child to suffer, and that would be far more damaging for the child than having a slightly less ideal feeding method.
I don't think that any parenting choice can be judged in isolation, because there are so many other factors. I certainly wouldn't want people judging individual choices I've made in isolation, because any number of them have been less than "ideal," but have been what we've decided is best for our family. As long as we're not talking about something truly harmful or dangerous, than I don't think we can understand what is "best" for a child without knowing about the family dynamics as a whole.
It's best not to have children under two watch TV. I completely agree with that. However, from the time Thomas was about nine months or so, he'd watch about 30-60 minutes of DVDs a day, because I have been either a grad student or a teacher for most of his life, and that means I have to make time to get work done. I could hire a babysitter, but most of the time we didn't have the money for that, and I liked being around so that I could nurse him or hold him if he needed me. For our family, choosing to use DVDs to entertain him for short periods every day so that I could get work done while still being at home with him was the best choice, even if putting your child in front of the TV is NOT, in isolation, the best thing to have them do.
In a family, the needs and interests and wants of all of the members have to be negotiated and balanced, so that the family can find the balance that is best for them, the one that does the best job of meeting everyone's needs in the best way. But, that's going to mean that everybody's needs don't always get met in the absolute most ideal way. Formula is a safe and adequate way to feed a child, and the child's nutritional needs ARE being met when formula is used. If that fits best into the needs of the family as a whole, then I really don't see any reason to judge someone for that choice.
I think that breastfeeding should be encouraged and that misperceptions about it should be cleared up, and support should be provided so that mothers who do breastfeed can do so successfully as often as possible, but it should also be acknowledged that formula feeding is a fully acceptable and adequate way to feed a child, too, and there is no reason to make anyone feel guilty or judged because they've made that choice, which is only one small part of how they are parenting their child.
I also think that making it an issue of individual choice isn't as useful as addressing the large social reasons why nursing is so much more or less common in some communities than others. I know that rates of nursing among African-American women are very low, and if we imagine that is a matter of people just making bad choices, what good does that do, except causing people to feel superior to those we judge as making worse choices that we did? The lower rates of nursing seem highly related to less and lower-quality prenatal and postnatal care. That's a very serious issue, breastfeeding rates aside, that needs to be addressed, rather than focusing on the choice that a woman given full knowledge and support makes.
Jejune
02-14-2007, 10:57 AM
I'm also going to pipe in and say that while I'm very pro breastfeeding, the breastfeeding and circumcision debates always seem like the debates of people with babies or toddlers. I can tell you right now, I can't tell which children in my son's second grade class were breastfed. I think these debates are so popular because they're absolute. Either you did or you didn't, and if it is used as a measure of parental good, then it doesn't have to take into account all the many, many variables that go into good parenting. Beyond that, even with the variables taken into account, how do we measure good parenting? By the outcome? But some parents are loving and do everything "right" and still have children who become drug addicts or criminals. There are definitely ends of the spectrum where it's easy to see good or bad, but most of us fall somewhere in the middle, and I don't actually think breastfeeding has a lot to do with good or bad parenting.
I can't tell the kids that were breastfed either, but I can still tell which parents probably breastfed simply by who is more comfortable with breastfeeding talk. As far as breastmilk goes, it is a better product than formula. A lot of foods are better than others whether is be by a large margin or a small one. I just can't wrapped up about who breastfeeds or not anymore. Personnally, I don't have a leg to stand on. I have a breastfed 13 month old whose favorite food happens to be french fries. That certainly is not a superior food product. So if I average it out, I am an average parent.
I worry less about who is doing what and more about what kind of information is made available to new parents. I do think that advertising does reinforce formula as an equal choice. I simply don't consider it to be an equal product and that bothers me. I also think there are many flaws in the information given to parents by doctors and other health professionals. Those are issues I would rather see changed.
Jejune
02-14-2007, 11:56 AM
Well said, Jo. I feel like I keep dodging around what I mean without ever finding the words lately.
I worry less about who is doing what and more about what kind of information is made available to new parents. I do think that advertising does reinforce formula as an equal choice. I simply don't consider it to be an equal product and that bothers me. I also think there are many flaws in the information given to parents by doctors and other health professionals. Those are issues I would rather see changed.
:yup That's exactly what I was trying to say, only said much better. For me the issue is that every parent make their decision based upon accurate information and with the support in place to follow through with breastfeeding if they choose it, rather than which choice any individual parent ends up making.
Kristen
02-19-2007, 05:50 AM
I'm also going to pipe in and say that while I'm very pro breastfeeding, the breastfeeding and circumcision debates always seem like the debates of people with babies or toddlers. I can tell you right now, I can't tell which children in my son's second grade class were breastfed. I think these debates are so popular because they're absolute. Either you did or you didn't, and if it is used as a measure of parental good, then it doesn't have to take into account all the many, many variables that go into good parenting. Beyond that, even with the variables taken into account, how do we measure good parenting? By the outcome? But some parents are loving and do everything "right" and still have children who become drug addicts or criminals. There are definitely ends of the spectrum where it's easy to see good or bad, but most of us fall somewhere in the middle, and I don't actually think breastfeeding has a lot to do with good or bad parenting.
I agree, Kristen. Sure, breastfeeding is good and beneficial, but it's hardly one of the biggest parenting decisions you'll ever make(and further down on the list of important stuff for me is the circing issue, which is also made into a be-all, end-all parenting decision).
Take my husband, for example. He was circed AND formula-fed by his parents, but I do not at all see that as the really damaging thing that they did. His circ and his formula don't really affect his adult life today. But things like disciplining in anger, not encouraging him, making fun of him, humiliating him, etc, DO affect him to this day. :(
Like you said, Kristen, breastfeeding and circing and these types of debates are very cut and dried....either you did, or you didn't. But saying you breastfed or you didn't circ is far, far easier than saying that you encouraged your children and disciplined calmly and didn't yell at them, and that you modeled healthy, positive behavior for them.
When Joshua was an infant, breastfeeding seemed like the most momentous, important decision I could ever make. But, now that I am a little older and wiser, I can clearly see that it is not NEARLY as big a deal as I once thought it was.