They should encourage healthy feeding, no matter what way works best for the family. Bottle or breast, fed is best.

As a mother of 6 children with long years between some. I breast fed my children and some needed formula to back it up. My oldest it was ready made bottles given out us for our babies. My 2nd one cracked my nipples on the 2nd day so he had to be spoon fed as would not take a bottle, never did. But my milk dried early with him and so was left with a nearly 6 month old child who hated formula and no matter how hungry he was would take a bottle. Had to make a mixture up the the baby nurse showed me. My 3rd child milk just poured out and he was fed up hill (lying on my back with him on top) for the first month. My daughter fed ok and the twins had formula back up due to my age (51). So yes if you can then do BF but do not let anyone force you to feed your baby the way they want.

Can’t they just supply gift bags with no formula samples? The bags I got for my babies didn’t have formula samples. I loved getting them too, with info leaflets

It is a way to stimulate breastfeeding. Why would you hand out gift bags with formula anyway ? Those are only produced by the company to let you try and hook you on their product.

Each mother’s situation is unique and should be treated that way. It seems pointless to push a “one size fits all” agenda.

Just because you produce breastmilk doesn’t mean that is necessarily the quality needed to sustain the nourishment your baby needs. Please don’t be put of by this but I am stating facts I know to be true. I know one Mum personally and of another one. Both were producing plenty of milk but it was like white water to a baby. ( one had 4 babies and for that reason they all had to be switched to formula – one of them lactose free).

Again, another push to vilify mothers and their decisions. I agree that breastmilk is the best but a black and white approach never works for everyone. As a mum who breastfed one child and couldn’t for the other, I can see both sides to this story. I was made to feel like a monster for having a child on formula despite physical and medical reasons why I couldn’t breastfeed. All this will do will intensify the mummy wars. Why not have a balanced approach and have information on all ways to feed a baby.

Hope this trial works – so many mums give up before they have really worked out how they and their child need to do it properly.

An absolute load of rubbish! As the mother of two premature babies that were too tiny to breast feed and had dummies the size of their heads I can say for sure that it is rubbish! Both my little boys were fed through a nasogastric tube for weeks until they were strong enough to suck feed and then it was both bottle and breast! I am still breast feeding now at 10 months. All this does is add more pressure to the mums that are for some reason unable to feed themselves. Yes I think breast feeding is fantastic but I think it is way more important that mum and baby are not stressed and bub has a nice full belly!

I have no idea how they can say this won’t impact mother who choose not to or cannot breastfeed. Both options should have adequate information provided to new and expecting mums. I was horrified at the way formula was spoken about by midwives and nurses after I had my son. you can’t just tear one option to shreds to make the other seem better. And yes, I’ve heard all the breast is best crud. But for many many reasons it’s not always

Some babies like a pacifier to suck on after a feed while they sleep, then spit it out when they are hungry when they wake up

I tried breastfeeding my first daughter and she didn’t latch on properly and I developed mastitis, so I had to stop breastfeeding and then I let her have a dummy. My second daughter latched on properly and didn’t even need a dummy. However the breast fed daughter developed asthma and the bottle fed one didn’t!