Infant Feeding Alliance

Parent-led UK movement campaigning for compassion, autonomy and safety in infant feeding.

[Infant Feeding Alliance @FeedingAlliance]

STOP PRESS - UK mums no longer the WORLD's WORST at breastfeeding 📢

The first national Infant Feeding Survey since 2010 shows big rises in BF rates

Exclusive BF at 6 months: 1% → 26% (26-fold higher; a 2500% relative increase)
Any BF at 6w: 55% → 71%
Any BF at 6m: 34% → 58%

[Infant Feeding Alliance @FeedingAlliance]

Dear reader - the body typically produces ketones when it doesn’t have enough available glucose for energy and starts burning more fat, such as during periods of prolonged fasting or limited food

There may be another explanation for high levels ketones in breastfed babies 👀

[Infant Feeding Alliance @FeedingAlliance]

Official guidance from the British Association Perinatal Medicine advises that babies being fed formula get minimum quantities in the first few days of life that far in excess of most women's colostrum production.

[A @A56263932A]

@sue_haddon Things I was wrongly told were ‘normal’ on PN ward: feeds of less than a minute, not latching, baby not waking for feeds through 1st night, baby not settling through 2nd night, yellowing skin (‘just put him by the window’). He only needs small amounts, tiny stomach, keep trying.

[Infant Feeding Alliance @FeedingAlliance]

Then speculate that the high levels of ketones in breastfed newborns may be because breastfeeding facilitates the production of ketones or because because formula inhibits it. Nobody knows which ...

Here's why this is bat shit ⬇️

[Sue Haddon @sue_haddon]

And the return on investment in the UK for over 30 years of national policies to promote exclusive breastfeeding and radical protocols in NHS hospitals that restrict use of formula is...

?

I'll wait.

I mean, readmissions for jaundice have skyrocketed. Any health improvements?

[Sue Haddon @sue_haddon]

Um.

What? 👀

#WorldBreastfeedingWeek comms from @WHO_Europe just get weirder and weirder!

The only sense I can make of this one is that WHO/UNICEF policies in hospitals are designed to withhold formula from babies struggling to breastfeed...

Let them eat cake?

[Infant Feeding Alliance @FeedingAlliance]

Anyone for a wet nurse since the WHO seems determined to blast us back to the 19th century?

[WHO/Europe @WHO_Europe]

1. Provide adequate paid maternity leave 🗓️
2. Ensure paid time off and dedicated spaces for breastfeeding or expressing milk. 🍼⏰
3. Offer options that reduce separation of women from their babies 🏢🕰️👩‍👧‍👦
4. Champion women's rights 💪🚫

#WBW2026

[Emily Barley @EmilyJBarley]

This from the lead researcher is a bit weird to me.

Surely the takeaway is what we (harmed & bereaved families) have been saying for years:

- nowhere in the NHS is truly safe to give birth
- the CQC's idea of 'outstanding' is totally detached from the public's view.

[Infant Feeding Alliance @FeedingAlliance]

@sue_haddon @Mary_Tom11 @Ben_Spencer This 👆

[Infant Feeding Alliance @FeedingAlliance]

Strong evidence shows introducing foods, including nuts, from 4m reduces allergy risk.

Yet UK guidance still delays solids until 6m. Why? Because introducing any food before then is seen as an assault on breastfeeding 🤯

Great article from @Ben_Spencer

https://t.co/okrAXEe2zo

[Sue Haddon @sue_haddon]

Evidence:
Food from 4 months reduces allergy risk
Early formula supplementation prevents neonatal jaundice admissions
Over 10% of mothers have low milk supply

Policy:
All UK mothers should not give their babies anything but breastmilk (esp not formula) for 6 months for...reasons

[Dr Ruth Ann Harpur @drruthannharpur]

Yet another example of infant feeding policy choosing ideological purity over evidence. Result: food allergies, including potentially fatal food allergies.

Why? Because the action to prevent food allergy (introducing solids at 4m) is seen as an affront to breastfeeding.

[Infant Feeding Alliance @FeedingAlliance]

The reality of UNICEF's so called "baby friendly" initiative's approach to supporting breastfeeding.

Underfed babies & women put on brutal pumping regimes, leaving them feeling like milk machines.

Formula avoidance is not the same as safely feeding babies or respecting women.

[Sue Haddon @sue_haddon]

Harrowing but familiar stories here.

UH Sussex’s reassurance in the article that they're working towards UNICEF 'Baby Friendly' and proud of high breastfeeding rates says it all.
The care described is the exclusive breastfeeding agenda in action, as found in all hospitals. 1 /

[Infant Feeding Alliance @FeedingAlliance]

@AmandaFord45010 @catherineroyuk This is exactly what occurred. Unfortunately the baby had both sepsis and hadn't had nutrition, both contributing to his utterly preventable death. Absolutely appalling.

[Amanda Ford @AmandaFord45010]

@catherineroyuk I do not know any of the details of this case only from reading those here on X but from what I have read this is a totally preventable death. A newborn not feeding for 10 hrs without assessing blood sugars and neonatal wellbeing ( examination of newborn) - did this occur ?

[Lucy Spain @DrLSpain]

@catherineroyuk I was told whilst still in hospital it was normal for some babies to barely feed at all for a similar time frame in the first few days of life. It didn't sit right, gave said baby who was not feeding by then a syringe of colostrum and he then fed fed fed!

[Lucy Spain @DrLSpain]

@FeedingAlliance @LittlePersonDoc @catherineroyuk 1) 'Maximise the chances of a straightforward normal birth as that will give you the best start to your intention to combi feed' (ignoring the history that suggests this is highly unlikely)

[Lucy Spain @DrLSpain]

@FeedingAlliance @LittlePersonDoc @catherineroyuk At 35wks pregnant I cannot handle any of the advice/warnings I am being given about the consequences I might face with the intention to combi feed. All delivered in the guise of offering feeding support.....

[Sue Haddon @sue_haddon]

@FeedingAlliance @catherineroyuk I could go on all day!

Needless to say, the survey is not really aimed at learning about families' feeding decisions (most of which involve formula), but about how successful gov measures to coerce women to breastfeed have been. Nevertheless the results are always interesting!

[Sue Haddon @sue_haddon]

@FeedingAlliance @catherineroyuk The survey researchers in 2010 had a hilariously telling phrase for when women introduced formula. They called it:
'Losing their exclusive status' 🏅

[Sue Haddon @sue_haddon]

@FeedingAlliance @catherineroyuk Things I couldn't fit in the blog:

When women were asked in 2010 what would have helped them breastfeed longer, a full 15% of women who stopped wrote freely (ie not multiple choice):
'Naturally producing more milk'

The researchers saw a sad problem. I saw sarcasm 😆