Mayim Bialik : Don't fall for that similac commercial

[rugbywife]

Feb 4, 2015 11:56:08 GMT -5 cilantro said:

Feb 4, 2015 11:50:34 GMT -5 catbus said:

*Whispers* I've seen that on this very board. People are skeptical that the generic is "as good as" the real stuff, or they buy Motrin/Advil because they don't realize it's just ibuprofen. We never had the brand names in my house growing up, so I always assumed everyone knows Tylenol=acetaminophen, Advil=ibuprofen, etc. 

And now I want to move on with changing this thread to this topic....people have insisted to me that 'the binders' are different in generics v. real thing and that somehow matters.

Someone tell me if this is a real thing?!?!

I am not a pharmacist but I have had doctors say that 'real stuff' was better than a generic for specific drug (I want to say it was my BC because for a while I was getting the initial drug but after a while my insurance forced me to switch to the generic and my doc made a big deal about it and forced them to give me the initial drug).

That being said, I don't know if that is the case for stuff like acetaminophen and ibuprofen. 

[rugbywife]

Feb 4, 2015 11:57:12 GMT -5 h said:

Feb 4, 2015 11:53:32 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

Yes, exactly. I don't disagree that, in a perfect world and all other things being equal, BM has health benefits over formula. BUt I think the benefits are so small compared to how they have been touted. I mean, it gets ridiculous to hear people talk about all the things that BM and breastfeeding itself do. Any problem you or your baby have, breastfeeding will solve it! Breastfeeding lets you survive on less sleep! Wards off the common cold! Cures conjunctivitis! Prevents alzheimer's! Breast cancer! And so on. It starts sounding like snake oil.

I really, really wish I had the post from mothering.com years ago where a woman claimed that she was able to reattach her child's nose with breast milk after it was bitten off by a dog. It is my favorite ridiculous example of breast as a panacea ever.

SHUT UP. No way. 

[redheadbaker]

I am perfectly happy to use OTC vs. brand-name in some circumstances. Pain relievers, for instance.

But, I was on Accutane in my early 20s. It was working really well. Then one month, my acne started to get bad again. That month, my pharmacist gave me generic instead of brand-name. My dermatologist wrote "brand necessary" on my Rx after that, and the treatment starting working again.

So I don't think that generic is ALWAYS equal to brand-name.

[gretchenindisguise]

Feb 4, 2015 11:49:05 GMT -5 redheadbaker said:

Feb 4, 2015 11:48:01 GMT -5 gretchenindisguise said:

I feel like having formula available undermines breastfeeding in the same way that having condoms available makes teenagers have sex.

Then why do you think formula companies keep doing it? Why not save the money they lose from giving away product? 

Because there are tons of choices of what formula people are using, and they want you to use theirs.

Bottom line is that there will always be a market for formula, for a multitude of reasons. They want you to chose their formula.

I don't think the mere availability of formula isn't making people switch from bf'ing to formula. That's way too simplistic.

[gretchenindisguise]

Feb 4, 2015 12:02:48 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

Even if IQ is higher, isn't it by, like, 2 points? I'm confident my kids can get by at a few points lower.

Even the immunological benefits have been overblown.

Yes. This is where the whole statistical significance does not equal clinical significance comes in.

[babyrn]

I've had several patients who need to be on brand name Synthroid because the generic doesn't work for them.

[gibbinator]

Feb 4, 2015 11:41:09 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

"Artificial baby milk" just makes me lol. I guess that's supposed to be more offensive than "formula"? I'm assuming I don't have the same visceral reaction to the word artificial that she does.

There are so many better things to call formula than "artificial" milk. think "alternative baby milk", for example, would be much less finger pointy. Oh semantics.

[Velar Fricative]

Well now that we're on the next discussion, TARGET FORMULA/ARTIFICIAL BABY MILK 4LYFE!!!!

[SJ]

Feb 4, 2015 12:07:57 GMT -5 @this said:

Feb 4, 2015 11:48:14 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

I think that's why. lol. Most guys just don't care about the "mommy wars." They just take care of their kid and don't worry about what other dads are doing. They don't need the warm fuzzy commercial.

Speak for yourself. I have no idea where DH picked it up (...shifty eyes...), but he TOTALLY mom/dad judges. He'll comment that he saw a dad putting his 1yo into a FFing carseat now and like *tsk tsk* about it. He judges one of his friends because the wife never leaves the kid with the dad. DH is all high and mighty and says things like, "It's a shame he's not an equal parent, hm?" LOL

THEN he's a total martyr. I miss bedtime a few times a month for HH/work events/whatever and he is hesitant to EVER miss bedtime. Or I'll tell him to go take a nap on the weekend and I'll handle DD and he lays on his working parent guilt. "It's our job to be present in her life! We only have the weekends!!!"

Yeah, my DH is very judgy about parenting stuff. I think it's because he knows so many less parents and spends so much less time thinking/reading/posting about parenting issues. It's easy for him to assume that our experience is normative or that what we have done (in 7 months of being parents lol forever) is best.

[gibbinator]

Feb 4, 2015 11:53:32 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

Feb 4, 2015 10:56:54 GMT -5 gibbinator said:

I think there's little doubt on the board that there are lots of benefits to be gleaned from breastfeeding. I'm assuming the correlation vs causation concerns pp brought up are more geared to studies that link off the wall things like high IQ and good grades to breastmilk.

Yes, exactly. I don't disagree that, in a perfect world and all other things being equal, BM has health benefits over formula. BUt I think the benefits are so small compared to how they have been touted. I mean, it gets ridiculous to hear people talk about all the things that BM and breastfeeding itself do. Any problem you or your baby have, breastfeeding will solve it! Breastfeeding lets you survive on less sleep! Wards off the common cold! Cures conjunctivitis! Prevents alzheimer's! Breast cancer! And so on. It starts sounding like snake oil.

I think you mean coconut oil

[cilantro]

Feb 4, 2015 12:02:48 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

Even if IQ is higher, isn't it by, like, 2 points? I'm confident my kids can get by at a few points lower.

Even the immunological benefits have been overblown.

The peer-reviewed studies I've read (as opposed to the hippy articles that say a bazillion) have said 6 pts. 

What that means, if even remotely true, and how much of a difference that could make depending on 70 v. 76 or 120 v. 126 I have no idea.   

[babyrn]

How about imitation liquid infant nourishment? Liquid fools gold? (since BM is liquid gold, of course)

[karinothing]

Brand name paper towels TOTALLY win over generic ones. VIVA for life (see what I did there lol) And yes, I know I am destroying the environment by using paper towels.

[redheadbaker]

Feb 4, 2015 12:03:18 GMT -5 gretchenindisguise said:

Feb 4, 2015 11:49:05 GMT -5 redheadbaker said:

Then why do you think formula companies keep doing it? Why not save the money they lose from giving away product? 

Because there are tons of choices of what formula people are using, and they want you to use theirs. 

I agree that's part of it. But why not just rely on advertising, then? Because the availability of formula samples do affect breastfeeding rates. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2376885/

You're a new mom, you're sleep-deprived, you're in pain from trying to breastfeed. You have samples of formula, so you give one of those instead of nursing, signaling your body to not produce as much milk. When your body doesn't produce the amount of milk your baby needs, you need more formula to supplement. 

Doesn't happen with every new mother, but it happens enough to make it worth it to the formula companies. 

[Velar Fricative]

Feb 4, 2015 12:17:01 GMT -5 @mrswindycity said:

Feb 4, 2015 12:13:34 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Well now that we're on the next discussion, TARGET FORMULA/ARTIFICIAL BABY MILK 4LYFE!!!!

REYNOLDS WRAP FOREVER!!!!!!!11!

AND GLAD GARBAGE BAGS AND HEINZ KETCHUP!!!!!!

[water*drop]

Feb 4, 2015 12:11:46 GMT -5 @bunnybean said:

I hope to breastfeed the next one to save money only. That's legitimately it. The sibling study absolutely helps control for all the things the other studies can't control for.

I buy generic everything to save money.

That is the theme of my post.

MM.

That is pretty much the sole reason that I stuck with breastfeeding when we found out DD was MSPI. That formula is expensive!

[narockshard]

I tried the Target brand formula when I ran out of free samples early on and it made J super fussy, her spit up was gross, smelled bad, and was chunky, and her poops were awful. Plus the powder smelled awful. I was too scared to try anything else after that, so we've been using Enfamil ever since. Maybe at 7 months it's time to try generic again?

Also, I have tried generic (Meijer brand) diapers several different times and each time J got bad diaper rash.

Why does my child insist on name brands??!

[anna7602]

Feb 4, 2015 12:21:10 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Feb 4, 2015 12:17:01 GMT -5 @mrswindycity said:

REYNOLDS WRAP FOREVER!!!!!!!11!

AND GLAD GARBAGE BAGS AND HEINZ KETCHUP!!!!!!

Omg, "artificial" ketchup 4 lyfe. The stuff from the farmer's market doesn't taste the same AND it spoils in about 2 days because it has zero preservatives in it. 

[babyrn]

Feb 4, 2015 12:29:35 GMT -5 narockshard said:

I tried the Target brand formula when I ran out of free samples early on and it made J super fussy, her spit up was gross, smelled bad, and was chunky, and her poops were awful. Plus the powder smelled awful. I was too scared to try anything else after that, so we've been using Enfamil ever since. Maybe at 7 months it's time to try generic again?

Also, I have tried generic (Meijer brand) diapers several different times and each time J got bad diaper rash.

Why does my child insist on name brands??!

She must have been swayed by the comercials

[anna7602]

narockshard, your avatar goes perfectly with the tag line, "see what happens when you try to give me generic crap, mommy?"

[catbus]

Feb 4, 2015 12:32:22 GMT -5 @mrswindycity said:

Whatever happened to Jenna Von Oy?

Off to google...

abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/jenna-von-oy-talks-motherhood-breastfeeding-charity/story?id=28666194

[narockshard]

Feb 4, 2015 12:30:39 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

Feb 4, 2015 12:29:35 GMT -5 narockshard said:

I tried the Target brand formula when I ran out of free samples early on and it made J super fussy, her spit up was gross, smelled bad, and was chunky, and her poops were awful. Plus the powder smelled awful. I was too scared to try anything else after that, so we've been using Enfamil ever since. Maybe at 7 months it's time to try generic again?

Also, I have tried generic (Meijer brand) diapers several different times and each time J got bad diaper rash.

Why does my child insist on name brands??!

I think some babies are just sensitive to change. I had J on Gerber Good Start Protect, tried a different kind of good start once, and she had the nastiest liquid green poop.

Yes, that's probably true. This was also when she was tiny, like 3 or 4 weeks, so peak awful newborn time for me, and there was NO WAY I was going to do anything that made things harder, so I've just kept up with the stupid expensive Enfamil. Heck, I'm still kind of scared to change now lol. It would be SO nice to buy cheaper stuff though, so maybe it needs to be done.

[babyrn]

My sister got a sample pack of formula in the mail recently. Her youngest kid is 10. WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!?!

[redheadbaker]

Feb 4, 2015 12:27:07 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

Feb 4, 2015 12:20:57 GMT -5 redheadbaker said:

I agree that's part of it. But why not just rely on advertising, then? Because the availability of formula samples do affect breastfeeding rates. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2376885/

You're a new mom, you're sleep-deprived, you're in pain from trying to breastfeed. You have samples of formula, so you give one of those instead of nursing, signaling your body to not produce as much milk. When your body doesn't produce the amount of milk your baby needs, you need more formula to supplement. 

Doesn't happen with every new mother, but it happens enough to make it worth it to the formula companies. 

It irritates me that women are expected to just power through in this scenario, because I did exactly what you said. I could not bring myself to put her to the breast one more time, and for some crazy reason, I didn't have a pump or formula on hand other than that sample. That sample was a sanity saver. Of course, I wasn't that committed to breastfeeding anyway, and also I went and bought a pump and started pumping and had plenty of milk. I guess that bottle of RTF formula could really be some people's downfall (and maybe it was mine) and could ultimately cause a lot more emotional trauma than good. But whenever people bring this up, paint the samples as bad and suggest that I should have just nursed through it, it really, really bothers me.  I had the baby blues bad in those first couple of weeks, and it was a dark time.

I was in a lot of pain and had bleeding nipples from a bad latch, and had baby blues, too. I gave in and used the formula samples, too. But I had an LC tell me about cooling gel pads for nipples to help them heal, and helped me adjust his latch so it didn't hurt anymore. Personally, I *really* wanted to breastfeed (and make absolutely no judgment on how committed others are or aren't) and I cried watching FI feed DS formula. 

It pisses me off that formula companies count on women having trouble breastfeeding, plus having lack of support, to make money. I don't care how much they advertise on TV or in print or on the web. 

[Velar Fricative]

Feb 4, 2015 12:30:40 GMT -5 @this said:

Feb 4, 2015 12:20:57 GMT -5 redheadbaker said:

I agree that's part of it. But why not just rely on advertising, then? Because the availability of formula samples do affect breastfeeding rates. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2376885/

You're a new mom, you're sleep-deprived, you're in pain from trying to breastfeed. You have samples of formula, so you give one of those instead of nursing, signaling your body to not produce as much milk. When your body doesn't produce the amount of milk your baby needs, you need more formula to supplement. 

Doesn't happen with every new mother, but it happens enough to make it worth it to the formula companies. 

Not if Blossom has anything to do with it! Formula is for DOCTORS ONLY.

Due to all of the training needed to use this dangerous substance.

My formula-feeding class was just like my CPR class. I was so nervous the first time I had to give DD a bottle of formula because I worried I would do it all wrong and kill her, but thankfully I was very careful and persevered.

[redheadbaker]

Feb 4, 2015 12:30:40 GMT -5 @this said:

Feb 4, 2015 12:20:57 GMT -5 redheadbaker said:

I agree that's part of it. But why not just rely on advertising, then? Because the availability of formula samples do affect breastfeeding rates. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2376885/

You're a new mom, you're sleep-deprived, you're in pain from trying to breastfeed. You have samples of formula, so you give one of those instead of nursing, signaling your body to not produce as much milk. When your body doesn't produce the amount of milk your baby needs, you need more formula to supplement. 

Doesn't happen with every new mother, but it happens enough to make it worth it to the formula companies. 

Not if Blossom has anything to do with it! Formula is for DOCTORS ONLY.

Due to all of the training needed to use this dangerous substance.

Maybe that's what she thinks. I don't know. I don't agree. But I see I've already painted myself as the "BFing crazy". So I'll step out. 

[Velar Fricative]

Feb 4, 2015 12:31:05 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

Feb 4, 2015 12:21:10 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

AND GLAD GARBAGE BAGS AND HEINZ KETCHUP!!!!!!

Omg, "artificial" ketchup 4 lyfe. The stuff from the farmer's market doesn't taste the same AND it spoils in about 2 days because it has zero preservatives in it. 

I stick with the "Simply Heinz" ketchup because ZOMG evil ingredients! So I think I'm sorta like Mayim here, sadly. It's ketchup, there just doesn't need to be corn syrup and bullshit in ketchup!

[babyrn]

Feb 4, 2015 12:35:19 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

Feb 4, 2015 12:34:06 GMT -5 narockshard said:

Yes, that's probably true. This was also when she was tiny, like 3 or 4 weeks, so peak awful newborn time for me, and there was NO WAY I was going to do anything that made things harder, so I've just kept up with the stupid expensive Enfamil. Heck, I'm still kind of scared to change now lol. It would be SO nice to buy cheaper stuff though, so maybe it needs to be done.

I know, I was the same way. I bought that stupid expensive Gerber for Joanna the entire time she was on formula. And I got all these checks in the mail for Similac and Enfamil, but none for Gerber. THEY KNEW. ha

Yes! DD did best on Gerber so we stuck with it and never got any freaking checks for it. Tons for Enfamil and Similac though. Conspiracy!!

[AmyRI]

Feb 4, 2015 11:03:50 GMT -5 page said:

I honestly don't know why anyone gives a shit about how someone else feeds their baby.

Because we are a society that is supposed to be helping look after each other, and science has shown that breastfed babies and breastfeeding mothers are, on average, healthier. Increasing breastfeeding rates helps increase the general health of our society. This is why it is a public health concern, complete with the "breast is best" campaign, and not just a matter of choice.

[ilikedonuts]

Feb 4, 2015 12:35:19 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

Feb 4, 2015 12:34:06 GMT -5 narockshard said:

Yes, that's probably true. This was also when she was tiny, like 3 or 4 weeks, so peak awful newborn time for me, and there was NO WAY I was going to do anything that made things harder, so I've just kept up with the stupid expensive Enfamil. Heck, I'm still kind of scared to change now lol. It would be SO nice to buy cheaper stuff though, so maybe it needs to be done.

I know, I was the same way. I bought that stupid expensive Gerber for Joanna the entire time she was on formula. And I got all these checks in the mail for Similac and Enfamil, but none for Gerber. THEY KNEW. ha

And I got way more Gerber checks then Similac (which we used for DD1). I put DD2 on Target generic as soon as we were out of our RTF similac. I barely got any brand checks for DD2. They must have been like 'fuck it. we've already lost her to the generic dark side'