Milk scandal?

I was just reading a piece of news on babies in China being given formula milk since they were born!!

Oh my, don’t these mothers know that a mother’s milk is the BEST that one can give to their child?! And the ‘first milk’ called the colustrum is probably the super-nutrition food for newborns.

No offence to anyone, but I believe all mothers have the capability to breastfeed their newborns, given the right advise in latching and of course, feeding by demand before a routine and milk supply is established.

I don’t believe in a mother having no milk, no time and worst of all, having the belief that formula milk is better.

It’s au natural, with DHA, vitamins and minerals not found in processed milk. I know of a relative from my in-law side who even insisted on giving goat’s milk to her infant after getting jaundice, with the belief that goat’s milk is more superior than mother’s milk!!

Oh well, I’m a strong supporter of breastmilk. So, I just want to bring this out. Breastmilk is the BEST food for babies. In fact, I believe that it doesn’t cause a baby to fall sick so often and even if the baby did, he/she will not be so badly affected and will recover very fast. I noticed that with my daughter.

In a baby warehouse sale a few months back, I was shopping for some baby products for my pregnant sis and saw a demonstration by a lady selling a breastpump. I stood there watching and was literally pissed off with some of the instructions given by the saleslady. I wanted to tell them to just throw those pumps away.

My mum asked me to ignore them and I just regretted that I did, fuming inside that getting a lousy product that doesn’t do a good job will actually cause less milk to be produced overtime. I’ve tried a few pumps and I will give two thumbs up to the manually operated Avent breastpump - efficient and quiet. I heard Spectra is good as well.

Easier said than done? Well, let me share with you my breastfeeding journey. Those who know me, will know that I'm not busty at all. So, "how come I got milk ar?"

I berastfed Brendan until he was 6 months, but by 4 months, I had to supplement with formula milk. Brendan was staying with my parents in Johor. I pumped every single day, freeze the milk, and every Friday night I will take a bus from KL to Johor, carrying a cooler box FULL of frozen breastmilk. Thus is my determination in wanting to give Brendan the best. Yes, I did that every weekend.

No one imagine the tears in my eyes and the trouble I went through.

So, when no. 2 came, I was more determined than ever to give Eryn 100% breastmilk for at least 6 months. And yes, I did. In fact, Eryn was on 100% breastmilk until she was 1 year old. I gave her solid at 6-7 months to supplement her diet. No formula milk at all. She was still on breastmilk, partially, before she goes to sleep until she turned almost 2 years old.

There was once, when I was using an extremely noisy battery operated pump in the ladies toilet and when I came out of the toilet cubicle, there was this group of ladies going, “coming out already!! Coming out already!!” I turned to look at them and all of us started laughing cos they were feeling scared and thought there was some weird person doing some weird things in the ladies toilet!! Duh!!

Then, there's another time, when I had a letdown at a press conference!! I had to carry a file throughout the press conference and avoid shaking hands with clients so my wet blouse won’t show.

Pumping became easier when I did it in the comfort of my own office room, with the doors closed and I put up a long piece of cloth to cover the windows. Even the guys in my office always knew that it’s ‘milking time’.

I was in the media line, and we have meetings and appointments and proposals to do. Time was a constraint, but I always try to maintain my pumping time and pump 3 times in the office. My colleagues all know about it. I am actually thankful for their understanding.

So, reading about the sick babies in China due to all these stupid milk scandal really got me stirred up. And to even think that newborn babies were not even given breastmilk at all right from the beginning!!

Those poor babies shouldn't even ben affected so much. What a shame..