Tag Archives: Formula Feeding

Sep 30 2014

GIVEAWAY: Win 1 of 5 copies of Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding by Madeleine Morris & Dr Sasha Howard (CD: 31/10/2014)

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I’ve written dozens of posts now about breastfeeding. Although I’d urge mum (that can!) to try and breastfeed, I know better than most that it isn’t easy. I lasted 6 weeks with both of my babies and I’m incredibly proud of myself for lasting that long.

With both children I was hit by crippling depression and anxiety. Although I believe every mother has the capacity to breastfeed, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best thing for her or her baby. My mental health really suffered as a result of breastfeeding and yet I put myself under incredible pressure to continue. Panic attacks ensued and I wound up being hospitalised several times. As a result I wasn’t the best mother I could be, and I didn’t enjoy those first precious weeks with Dexter or Heidi.

But Breast is Best… right?

Maybe not. Madeleine Morris and Dr Sasha Howard have now launched a myth-busting book that shows women they are not bad mothers if they can’t or don’t want to breastfeed; Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding - why your formula-fed baby can be happy, healthy and smart.

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This isn’t an anti-breastfeeding book, it’s an anti-guilt book

Unfortunately, in the quest to promote breastfeeding, formula and mothers who formula-feed or mix-feed have become demonised… We have all come to believe that ‘good mothers breastfeed, bad mothers bottle feed’. This is not only simply wrong, this ill-founded belief is damaging mothers, and their relationships with their babies, in what should be one of the happiest times of their lives. Madeleine Morris

9781908281777
Half of all British babies will have a bottle of formula before they are a week old and their mothers feel guilty. They feel guilty because every single book, poster and midwife tells them that breastfeeding is the single most important thing they can do for their babies.
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But for some families, breast isn’t best. Some mums don’t produce enough milk, some have post-natal depression, others are juggling two kids already, or need to go back to work, and some mums simply don’t like breastfeeding. Are they bad mothers? No! But they believe themselves to be.
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Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding, written by award winning former BBC presenter Madeleine Morris and paediatrician Dr Sasha Howard resets the conversation around infant feeding, revealing how the benefits of breastfeeding have been oversold to British parents, and showing guilt-wracked new mothers they have not failed their babies by giving them formula.
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With a thorough, yet easy-to-understand analysis of science, parenting sociology and the modern media, Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding provides a balanced, much- needed and long-overdue alternative view to the simplistic message that ‘breast is best’. This practical book proves that despite the huge pressure women feel to breastfeed, it possible to raise perfectly happy, healthy and smart bottle-fed and mixed-fed children.

Breast milk is wonderful stuff… but sometimes breastfeeding doesn’t work out, for a huge number of complex physical and social reasons. We need to show mums they are not failures for giving their babies a bottle. Dr Sasha Howard

Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding:
  • Examines over a hundred original medical journal articles to show the benefits of breastfeeding in the developed world are not as clear cut as women are told
  • Looks at emerging evidence that the immense pressure to breastfeed is now a contributing factor to post-natal depression
  • Shows how sloppy science reporting, ill-informed websites and celebrity culture unfairly demonise bottle feeding, leaving mothers feeling like failures
  • Points out the double standards of a medical system which relentlessly pressures mothers to breastfeed, but doesn’t provide them with the support they need
  • Calls for an individually tailored ‘feeding plan’, to give mothers a realistic feeding goal rather than the blanket 6-month exclusive breastfeeding target, which 98% of UK mums fail to meet
  • Calls for a mother’s physical and mental needs to be valued in the feeding relationship
  • Reveals the ‘X-Factor’ of breastfeeding research, and why we may never know the differences between breastfed and formula-fed babies
  • Gives a large, detailed guide to choosing a formula, safe bottle preparation and how to bottle feed for maximum health and bonding – information which is shamefully lacking in the NHS.
Told with humour and personal experience yet grounded in years of fastidious research, Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding is a much needed real-world counterpoint to the almost religious promotion of breastfeeding which now dominates medical and parenting discourse.
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As mothers who both breast- and bottle-fed their babies (they met at their NCT class), and decorated professionals in their fields of journalism and paediatrics, Madeleine Morris and Dr Sasha Howard are uniquely placed to provide evidence-based reassurance to mothers they are not failures if they don’t exclusively breastfeed.
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Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding: Why your formula-fed baby can be happy, healthy and smart By Madeleine Morris & Dr Sasha Howard is available on Amazon for £7.59 (ISBN: 9781908281777), or in e-book format for £6.99 (ISBN: 9781908281784)
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*** GIVEAWAY ***

I haven’t read this book yet, but a copy is on its way to me. As someone who staunchly believes that breast isn’t always best and advocates pro-choice when it come to feeding your baby, I’m all for it.

If you’re currently bottlefeeding, pregnant, or just interested in the findings, you can win 1 of 5 copies right here. Just enter via the rafflecopter below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

T&C’s – a.k.a – the boring bit!
    • Only 1 option is mandatory (leave me a comment) – the rest only improve your chances of winning so just complete as many as you feel like
    • UK entrants only – you must be over 18 too (sorry)
    • The winners will be contacted by email and must respond within 1 week of having been emailed (I’ll try all known avenues to contact them) or a new winner will be drawn
    • When the giveaway is closed, Rafflecopter will select the winner completely at random
    • The winners name will be published on this site

Win competitions at ThePrizeFinder.com

Feb 25 2013

Tommee Tippee - Unveiling the Perfect Prep Machine

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Craig, Dexter and headed to the London ExCel for the Baby Show this weekend. As well as an opportunity to stay in a posh hotel as a belated Valentine’s treat, we were there for a major product launch by Tommee Tippee. Their latest offering has been shrouded in such intense secrecy we’ve all been gossiping about what it could be.

All we had been given prior to the event was a teeny clue: “What can you do in two minutes?”
- I won’t tell you some of my other half’s cheeky guesses…

Well you won’t believe what these guys have gone and done… they’ve created the bottle-feeding mother’s must-have gadget! A machine to prepare the perfect bottle for baby in just 2 minutes - The Perfect Prep machine!

PERFECT PREP MACHINE (2)

Let’s face it - those nice guys from the NHS haven’t made things easy for us poor bottle-feeding mummies. The recommended advice is to pre-boil a kettle, fill a pre-sterilised bottle with this newly boiled water up to your required level (risking burning yourself), bring it to body temperature (to simulate breast milk), then add your powder… for every feed. In the early days I remember physically blowing on the water in desperate (and fruitless) attempt to cool it for Dexter.

As if all this wasn’t enough of a faff - doing it at midnight, 3am, 6am etc, under such intense sleep deprivation… it’s easy to look for shortcuts that would make your midwife cringe.

Well NO MORE.

The Perfect Prep machine is designed to make preparing bottles that little bit easier. Night-time hell feeding is now made simpler and you no longer have to spend 30 minutes placating a hungry crying baby before you can show them a teat. The Perfect Prep machine filters tap water, delivers a ‘hot shot’ (72 degrees) to kill bacteria, dispenses the correct amount of water per scoop of formula and ensures this dissolves quickly. You’re left with a perfect bottle to offer baby in just two minutes. Result.

PERFECT PREP ICONS FRONT OF PACK (2)

It’s so simple to use. You simply fill the machine with tap water and it’ll filter the water for you. You then set the correct feed in fluid ounces and machine will prepare your feed. It’ll hold enough water for 6 large bot bots and has handy warning alerts to let you know when to change the filter or de-scale. The filter also lasts for 3 months and is only £8.99 for a replacement.

You could even keep the machine in the bedroom to avoid negotiating the wooden hill (stairs) during the night. It’s so quiet you’re unlikely to wake up your other half and you won’t have to brave a freezing cold kitchen at an ungodly time in the night. This *might* even mean you could find yourself back in your bed in just 20 minutes.

You have to give Tommee Tippee extra ponts for making the machine compatible with most bottles too. You can adjust the height of the bottle stand to accommodate the heights of most brands and, given Tommee Tippee bottles are one of the widest on the market, widths too. They’ve really thought of everything.

So, will this product work for us? Well for Dexter we already have a good (albeit not recommended) system in place. At the moment we bulk-sterilise and fill with freshly boiled water. This means all we have to do is tip in the formula and shake. We don’t serve at body temperature as Dexter is used to having his at room temperature. As Dexie sleeps through the night we’re also through the worst of it and no longer have to worry about night-feeds.

For the next baby however, this will be invaluable. Although, I’m hoping this time around I’ll be able to breastfeed (with Dexter this wasn’t possible), when the time comes to wean him / her onto bottles - this will be a godsend. I won’t have to ask family and friends for tv box sets as baby shower presents (to ease the pain of middle-of-the-night feeds)!

Unfortunately you will have to wait until the first week of May to get your hands on one. But you can pre-order now from ether Babies R Us or Amazon.

If you are wanting to buy one I can offer you a fantastic 33% off a pre-order through Amazon, just use the code 9DIC8VIU expires 3rd March 2013. This makes the machine an amazing £66.66!

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