Other parenting boards

Do many of you post/read elsewhere except here? I noticed La Leche League
International has a new bulletin board feature, but honestly I haven't spent
a lot of time on there. There are a lot of leaders and experienced
breastfeeders, and you're preaching to the choir there - or at least there
are plenty of other knowledgeable people around to help.
There's a NZ parenting board that I post to, and it makes me despair...I'm
so used to the culture of MKB now that it feels like I'm at the front line
there. They now have a bottlefeeding support thread, which is good and it
has stopped people sabotaging the breastfeeding thread, but wow...there are
just so many mothers there who really want to breastfeed and are getting
terrible information, like one mother who was told by her midwife to put her
newborn on scheduled four-hourly feeds, then was (quite rightly) upset
because her poor baby was crying and she thought she wasn't supposed to feed
it!
I know we've all had and heard of some horror stories, but it's my
impression that most posters here are pretty confident in their parenting
skills, and sometimes all we want is back-up to say to someone 'Pfft, you
don't know what you're talking about'. Not so, elsewhere. So many mothers
who 'couldn't' breastfeed, when really they had their breastfeeding
relationship sabotaged at every opportunity. *sigh*

--
Amy
Mum to Carlos born sleeping 20/11/02,
& Ana born screaming 30/06/04
http://www.freewebs.com/carlos2002/
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/a/ana%5Fj%5F2004/
My blog: http://spaces.msn.com/members/querer-hijo-querer-hija/

Mum of Two wrote:
Do many of you post/read elsewhere except here? I noticed La Leche League
International has a new bulletin board feature, but honestly I haven't spent
a lot of time on there. There are a lot of leaders and experienced
breastfeeders, and you're preaching to the choir there - or at least there
are plenty of other knowledgeable people around to help.
There's a NZ parenting board that I post to, and it makes me despair...I'm
so used to the culture of MKB now that it feels like I'm at the front line
there. They now have a bottlefeeding support thread, which is good and it
has stopped people sabotaging the breastfeeding thread, but wow...there are
just so many mothers there who really want to breastfeed and are getting
terrible information, like one mother who was told by her midwife to put her
newborn on scheduled four-hourly feeds, then was (quite rightly) upset
because her poor baby was crying and she thought she wasn't supposed to feed
it!
I know we've all had and heard of some horror stories, but it's my
impression that most posters here are pretty confident in their parenting
skills, and sometimes all we want is back-up to say to someone 'Pfft, you
don't know what you're talking about'. Not so, elsewhere. So many mothers
who 'couldn't' breastfeed, when really they had their breastfeeding
relationship sabotaged at every opportunity. *sigh*


I sometimes follow another parenting board, mainly the breastfeeding
threads. It's mostly youngish women newly married/new parents (it's an
off shoot from a wedding planning board). I don't like the format much
anyway, but on the topic of BF it gets really frustrating. More often
than not, those with real questions as they're struggling at the
beginning get a barage of "just stop." While I fully support someone
who *wants* to stop and won't bother to try to convince them otherwise,
it bugs me that whenever someone has a BF problem, all those who 'tried
and it didn't work' chime in to say they should just stop too.

I always point people over here, altho I'm not sure anyone has come. I
also read kellymom.com, which I've found very useful, but it's not chat.

I sometimes follow another parenting board, mainly the breastfeeding
threads. It's mostly youngish women newly married/new parents (it's an
off shoot from a wedding planning board). I don't like the format much
anyway, but on the topic of BF it gets really frustrating. More often
than not, those with real questions as they're struggling at the
beginning get a barage of "just stop." While I fully support someone
who *wants* to stop and won't bother to try to convince them otherwise,
it bugs me that whenever someone has a BF problem, all those who 'tried
and it didn't work' chime in to say they should just stop too.

hecky thump, if they wanted to stop they wouldn't be posting, or at least
the question they would be asking would be along the lines of "how do I stop
bfing without getting engorged". On odd occasions I think sometimes it is a
case of looking for permission, but most people don't usually ask for
permission from the general public, it's more likely someone you respect,
like when I had my first baby and then knew it was going to be an induction,
my entirely pro natural birth midwife suggested I get an epidural and it was
like having permission to do so, I intended for a few hours to get it before
I had any syntocinon, until my mum convinced me to at least give it a try
without (I ended up having one, after hyperstimulation from the synto).

I always point people over here, altho I'm not sure anyone has come. I
also read kellymom.com, which I've found very useful, but it's not chat.

me too, I hope that even if they haven't subscribed that people have at
least made it as far as the google groups archive. Kellymom is also
fantastic.

Anne

Anne Rogers wrote:
I sometimes follow another parenting board, mainly the breastfeeding
threads. It's mostly youngish women newly married/new parents (it's an
off shoot from a wedding planning board). I don't like the format much
anyway, but on the topic of BF it gets really frustrating. More often
than not, those with real questions as they're struggling at the
beginning get a barage of "just stop." While I fully support someone
who *wants* to stop and won't bother to try to convince them otherwise,
it bugs me that whenever someone has a BF problem, all those who 'tried
and it didn't work' chime in to say they should just stop too.

hecky thump, if they wanted to stop they wouldn't be posting, or at least
the question they would be asking would be along the lines of "how do I stop
bfing without getting engorged". On odd occasions I think sometimes it is a
case of looking for permission, but most people don't usually ask for
permission from the general public, it's more likely someone you respect,
like when I had my first baby and then knew it was going to be an induction,
my entirely pro natural birth midwife suggested I get an epidural and it was
like having permission to do so, I intended for a few hours to get it before
I had any syntocinon, until my mum convinced me to at least give it a try
without (I ended up having one, after hyperstimulation from the synto).

I always point people over here, altho I'm not sure anyone has come. I
also read kellymom.com, which I've found very useful, but it's not chat.

me too, I hope that even if they haven't subscribed that people have at
least made it as far as the google groups archive. Kellymom is also
fantastic.

Anne

I do post to a few other parenting boards, but no others just on
breastfeeding. I have to say, I hate it when I read about someone
having problems breastfeeding, and then there's the barrage of 'just
stop' replies. When I try to gently say don't stop, don't give in, I've
been occassionally called a 'breastfeeding Nazi' (a rather horrid
term).

Before people start hitting me over the head, I know that there are
probably some folks who can't breastfeed. But I honestly feel that many
women just give up too quickly.

Personally, I had an awful time in the beginning. I have an inverted
nipple that hurt even more than the 'good' one, and the 'good' one was
excruciating enough! Every time the baby cried for food, I cried too.
That went on for about three or four weeks. Now it's easy.

It would have been really easy to just throw in the towel, I do
understand why so many women do so. I think for some of us, you have to
be quite determined to do it in order to get through the initial bad
period. Now I'm quite proud of myself to have stuck with it. My boy
gets nothing but breastmilk and has done really well, he's five months
old now and 23 pounds!

KD & G

I do post to a few other parenting boards, but no others just on
breastfeeding. I have to say, I hate it when I read about someone
having problems breastfeeding, and then there's the barrage of 'just
stop' replies. When I try to gently say don't stop, don't give in, I've
been occassionally called a 'breastfeeding Nazi' (a rather horrid
term).

Before people start hitting me over the head, I know that there are
probably some folks who can't breastfeed. But I honestly feel that many
women just give up too quickly.

I've been reading/posting on another series of boards recently. The
breastfeeding boards are actually quite good, generally committed
breastfeeders and generally sensible questions and good advice. The
other boards are ... not so good. Lots of scheduling questions, most
moms seem to start solids at 16 weeks on the dot, if not before. Most
babies on the general babyfeeding (and other non-feeding related)
boards are formula fed.

I got into another bit of bother there with the formula board. (Where I
often am able to post responses to general types of questions [i.e., is
it ok for my baby to be eating every X hours?). But a mom wrote that
her 5 week old had been through 5 different formulas and couldn't
handle any of them ... she was desperate, her baby was miserable ...
what to do? So I (very gently and tactfully, I thought) suggested that
IF it was possible for her, that she *might* *consider* trying to
relactate ...that for a few babies who can't tolerate any formulas,
it's the best option. (I also suggested that she talk to the doctor to
make sure that the problems are, in fact, formla related and not some
underlying health problem.) And got a warning note from the admin.
about how this board is supposed to a 'safe place' for formula feeding
moms, and not a place for 'debate or breastfeeding advocacy.' So .. I
guess it's better for this baby to be miserable for months on end, and
for mom to go through dozens of expensive formulas than for her to even
CONSIDER that breastmilk might be a possible solution?


Naomi