We at Fed ain’t Best it’s Expected (FABIE) believe that breastmilk is the optimal nutrition for babies. But we fully acknowledge that some women cannot breastfeed, and neither can some babies. There are a great number of reasons that may prevent women from breastfeeding, and we support parents to make a decision that is right for them. All of our admins have used formula, some exclusively from birth.
Statistics tell us that the majority of women start off breastfeeding, however by the time their baby is 6 months old, the majority of women had stopped breastfeeding, many shortly after birth. Research tells us that there are a great number of barriers that prevent women from meeting their breastfeeding goals. Much of this is due to poor information and advice by medical staff, lack of access to evidence based support and relentless formula pushing on new mums. Since the 1950s, breastfeeding rates dramatically declined due to strong formula marketing and scaremongering campaigns about breastmilk by formula manufacturers.
This has led to a loss of breastfeeding knowledge and culture. It is common now for mums to have no family member who has breastfed and can provide support and advice. A breastfeeding mum is often the only breast feeder in their mothers’ group or friendship group. New mums are bombarded with incorrect breastfeeding advice, conflicting advice and defensiveness by some who didn’t breastfeed, as well as a culture where skimpy bikinis are normal but feeding in public is not. Feeding toddlers and older children is looked down upon and often the victims of lewd jokes and sexual innuendo. It’s no wonder that formula feeding is by far the majority.
We believe that formula needs to be better. There are risks to formula feeding that are well documented. Formula feeding parents deserve a better product for their babies. Better regulation, better research into ingredients and better quality control. Research strongly tells us that many formulas contain protein levels 4 times higher than that of breastmilk, leading babies to gain large amounts of weight and metabolic changes. Parents are often paying for ingredients advertised as
better, when in fact they have not demonstrated any of the outcomes claimed. Parents are also paying for brand names, when there is no difference in outcomes for babies fed cheaper formula than with more expensive brands.
In lower income countries, millions of babies have died from unethical formula company marketing. Selling or giving away free formula to mothers who don’t have the finances to pay for it, or clean water or sanitation to safety prepare it. Babies in many of these countries desperately need breastmilk to reduce their risk of dying from diarrheal or respiratory diseases or because they are born prematurely.
Even in developed countries, women are bombarded with free formula samples, aggressive marketing and fear mongering language to persuade them that their milk is not enough. We do celebrate that many countries have access to safe formula for babies who need it. However, the rate of formula consumption is now simply unsustainable. The CO2 emissions and water required to make formula are extremely high and is having a significant impact on climate change not to mention significant ethical issues within the dairy industry. In fact, one single tin of formula requires over 4000 litres of water to make.
We do however have an issue with the “Fed is Best” movement, particularly the Fed is Best Foundation (FIBF) and the Skeptical OB. The FIBF does not support women who want to breastfeed. The founder has a significant issue with breastfeeding after experiencing low milk supply due to retained placenta which she failed to recognise despite being an ER doctor. The claims made by the FIBF have become more and more absurd with various percentages cited regarding women who are unable to lactate, once claiming it to be as high as 90%. Their advice and information is far from evidence based and their references are often to their own opinion pieces. They promote strongly the “risks of breastfeeding” going so far as to claim that insufficient breastmilk is the cause of autism. They report that “babies are dying everywhere” due to this but continue to post about the death of infant Landon over and over and over, with differing versions of his death each time but always blaming “lactivism” for his death, citing insufficient breastmilk.
The FIBF scare mothers away from breastfeeding, making them believe that it is inherently dangerous and that starving babies is common. They also censor their critics or even other mothers who respectfully challenge their claims by deleting their comments, and banning them from the page. Jody, the other co-founder has been caught out stating “thank gawd your baby didn’t die” to mothers who tell her they did not need to supplement. They further claim that colostrum is not sufficient for any baby as it does not contain enough calories and therefore newborns require supplementation. There is no evidence to support this. They are now electing to erect Fed is Best billboards across America with absurd statements such as “Did you exclusively breastfeed? Is your baby now disabled?”. The FIBF preys upon mothers who have breastfeeding trauma, rather than helping them.
Now days when a mother is seeking support for a common breastfeeding complication, rather than supporting her to continue breastfeeding if she wants to, she is told “fed is best” “formula is just as good” aka just use formula.
The FIBF constantly promote the risks of breastfeeding but completely omit risks of formula feeding. They allow bullying of breastfeeding mothers, comments promoting unsafe formula preparation and bottle propping on their page without challenge. They also promote early introduction of solids, well before medical recommendations and claim that breastfeeding causes higher rates of allergies than formula.
Worst of all the FIBF are best friends with the Skeptical OB (SOB) and frequently share her posts. A vicious anti breastfeeding bigot who continues to refer to herself as an OB despite being unregistered for decades. The statements made by the SOB are purely for theatrics. She claims that formula is without risks, breastfeeding has no benefits, vaginal births are unsafe and that mums should opt for caesarean sections. This is nothing more than a joke to her, given that she vaginally birthed and breastfed all 4 of her children whilst encouraging others not to. We have observed her likening breastfeeding women to white supremacists, told them that they don’t get to feel proud of reaching their breastfeeding goals, referred to disabled people as “retards” whilst referring to women who don’t breastfeed as disabled. It is no wonder that no reputable health agency will have anything to do with her. She has also referred to formula parents being victims in the same way that those killed in the holocaust are. Her posts are offensive and outrageous, but she always claims “satire” when even her own followers take offence.
She also frequently posts unredacted screenshots or names people personally who have disagreed with her and publicly calls them stupid and invites her followers to do the same. She particularly hates lactation consultants blaming them for every negative outcome whilst ignoring the role of the medical staff in poor patient outcomes. Recently, she made a post calling an admin of a breastfeeding page “a stupid cow with saggy boobs”.
The SOB also conveniently forgets every other country other that the USA. She publicly berates the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative despite strong evidence of its success across many countries. She ignores research, such as the recent Harvard study demonstrating the success of hospital based breastfeeding initiatives and instead cherry picks US based research to suit her agenda.
This woman is fully supported by the FIBF.
We acknowledge that excessive pressure to breastfeed harms women. But unlike to FIBF and the SOB, we also recognise the relentless pressure breastfeeding mothers face to stop breastfeeding and to use formula.
“Are you feeding again, she’s not getting enough?”
“Are you sure they’re getting enough?”
“How to you know that your milk is OK”
“If you gave some formula you could have a break”
“If you give some formula she’ll sleep better”
“She’s crying, it must be your milk”
“She’s too old to still be breastfeeding”
We don’t care about bragging about likes. We care about safe educated infant feeding. Formula feeding mums are so welcome here. Bu****it is not - Admin
