So what if this advertising campaign ran in Ireland ?

I was reading the post below from phd in parenting and found myself thinking ...what if the food safety authority here in Ireland  ran an ad like this ? What if they told parents that the claims that a certain formula will make your baby laugh all day are baloney? That the addition of DHA to infant formula is absolutely useless and the origin of the additives is fairly yuch?  That the additive in infant formula  to settle babies who are colicky/reflux  is potato starch ...
Why is it all glossed over and made look pretty ? Because thats what sells ..
And then i got to thinking , well is breastfeeding presented in a glossy ,angelic ,  never a problem and if there is its your own fault for not doing it right.   If you cant do it perfectly, there's something wrong with you as a woman ? Yes, sometimes it is and that doesn't help anyone .
I often say that if you are looking for someone to support you in the early days of breastfeeding , a mum who has had some teething (pardon the pun) problems might be  a better  choice than one who never had an issue. Learning a new skill generally isn't very pretty , so mums in white nightdresses with perfect babies ( no spots or blemishes!) would make me think that its a little unreal, only for the perfect beautiful people .... Most new mums are anxious , nervous , going feed to feed, one day at a time , don't  understand that just because the latch doesn't go right first, second or third time - doesn't mean that both of you wont be breastfeeding easily in a couple of weeks .
Everything thats worth it , takes time.
http://www.phdinparenting.com/2011/03/04/do-advertisers-just-think-parents-are-this-stupid-or-are-they

Its not thrush!

A little bit of a rant here so be warned ..  thrush (candida) is totally over diagnosed . Any mother that has sore nipples after one week is generally told that she has thrush .  In my 5.5 years of being in private practice , seeing hundreds of mothers , I've seen real thrush less than 10 times. A baby with a white tongue does not have thrush - it may have a slight runny nose and be breathing through its mouth.. it may have a tongue tie - where the tongue does not move freely so  fluids and secretions such as breastmilk do not wash off easily. Or it may just have a white tongue !
If someone tells you that you have thrush - unless there is white /greyish streaks on the inside of your babys cheeks not on the tongue , they should be checking your latch first. If you have any disortion of nipple shape after feeding - thats whats causing the pain not thrush.  Get a IBCLC who is experienced in assessing tongue tie to check  your baby.  (not all are ...).

There  are no figures available for incidence of candida in the breast but Tom Hale who has done alot of the research into the drugs used for treating it is now saying he thinks its very very rare ....most cases of deep breast pain are due to an underlying infection.
Next topic is going to be tongue ties - and I've a big announcement :)