Question: do most moms breastfeed first few mo or are your stats as 
dismal as US?Do your formulas have DHA & ARA?  Do you see lots of 
reflux in UK? How about other countries for all the questions above? 
Thanks, Pat in SNJ


Pat: Our stats are , broadly, the same as in the US, maybe a tad 
higher.  I think there may be  a little less early supplementation 
with formula - latest stats I have seen indicate that a third of 
babies are supplemented with formula in the UK while still in the 
maternity unit.  There is widespread acceptance that formula 
supplementation is to be avoided, but  babies are unnecessarily 
supplemented everywhere, all the time, despite this.  If formula 
supplementation was linked with blood in stools of a bf baby, then 
we'd see a lot more blood in stools, I am sure. And we just don't!

The days are gone, thankfully, when UK babies had glucose or dextrose 
or concoctions like Pedialyte - could it be that???

Reflux is not widely diagnosed, but it is flavour of the month among 
some mothers and doctors!  I have seen it applied to babies for what 
I would regard as totally normal infant behaviour, and it is 
sometimes used to 'explain' babies who prefer to be next to mum 
instead of being laid down to sleep elsewhere.

It's more common for mothers to be told their babies have 'colic', 
and for the same reasons, too.

(I am not disparaging these diagnoses per se....just saying that 
often, they are used as a convenient label. )

Heather Welford Neil

NCT bfc, tutor, UK

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