March of Dimes time again and baby bottles

[foreverinbluejeans]

I went to my local giant grocery store chain and they were collecting money for March of Dimes in big baby bottles. I will not give money to the March of Dimes and can not support the organization as long as they continue to allow money to be collected in baby bottles and baby bottles to be used as symbols for the March of Dimes campaign.

The March of Dimes claims to support breastfeeding. Every year I write to them and explain to them that using bottles to collect money and images of bottles is not supportive of breastfeeding. I use quotes from the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and AAP. They don't respond and obviously they keep using bottles.

I think the March of Dimes has good goals. Some of their info isn't always correct. They have changed some things. Several years ago on the web site they said the only safe pacifiers were the one piece kind and they had a picture of a 3 piece pacifier. They have made some small changes.

The March of Dimes wants to help premature babies, the babies that can benefit most from breastfeeding. As an organization they should have someone involved that is a breastfeeding expert that makes sure they don't make mistakes like using baby bottles.

Please let March of Dimes know that using bottles promotes bottle feeding.

[jocelynr]

They also promote using formula on those preemies, so they no longer get my money.

[serenekitten]

So... should they collect donations in giant breast replicas?

(I'm joking. )

What other containers would you suggest? I can pass the ideas along to a local March of Dimes group.

[onlygirls]

Why not use a jar with the March of Dimes logo?

Lots of things symbolize "baby" if they want to go that route: A carriage, rattles, blocks, a baby w/out a bottle

[MaryJaneLouise]

Ugh. It's so frustrating when people just don't get it

[annettemarie]

Or even a baby food jar.

[Sandstress]

Originally Posted by jocelynr

They also promote using formula on those preemies, so they no longer get my money.

I'm interested- in what context have you seen this? Are you talking about human milk fortifier, or outright formula feeding?

As for the bottle feeding and MOD, a large percentage of premature babies actually start on bottle (or tubes, syringes, etc). I'm not sure it would be reasonable for them to be totally "against the bottle."

[felix23]

I guess it is because bottles and feeding tubes help a lot of tiny preemies drink breastmilk and it would be hard to collect change in a feeding tube.

My 3 lb 10 oz baby didn't have the stregth to nurse, but she could take a bottle, so I was able to bring her home. If I had to have waited till she was strong enough to nurse, then I don't know how long we would have stayed in the NICU. And a NICU stay is not cheap. Plus the feeding tube bothered her and she kept pulling it out.

[KimberlyD0]

But just think that every bottle used to collect money is one less used for a baby..

seriously though I know what you mean and I understand. For me right now though it hits very close to home.

In Feb of this year a very dear friend of mine had her baby at 26weeks. She pumped and pumped and pumped like a mad women but could not get enough milk for her beautiful baby girl. It was so bad I even send my entire freezer stalk to her (after being screen by the hospital for nearly a month) But that supply is almost gone. There is no milk bank here. There is only one that I know of in Canada and its not our provence, there is no way to get the milk at this point. So when the milk runs out, which should be about a month, she will have fed her baby EBM for just a little over 3 months. Her daughter is currently using a feeding tub and they are trying to get her to suckle, using a soother and a bottle. My friend has compleatly dried up, but I know she's done what she could. I no longer am able to pump the extra I had been so I have no more to give

March of Dimes trully cares about these babies and I don't believe the idea with the bottle donations is to undermine BF. I have heard and seen them promoting BF constantly. They were part of the reason my friend tried in the first place. She was dead set against it, but between me and all the information the hospital provided and the March of Dimes, she decided to try, and did she ever try. She did anything and everything she could. They supported her and they helped her.

Personally while the bottles don't bother me, if they bother you, or others then why not try a letter or a patition or something of the sort. Something that can show them how strongly you feel, while not compleatly taking away from what they do.

There's got to be a way.

[ChickityChinah]

Seems to me that bottle or breast are both just delivery methods. It's what's IN the bottle that matters. Lots of babies drink breastmilk from bottles. Personally I think that refusing to donate to an amazing organization like March of Dimes over something like this is throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak.

[AllyRae]

It's just a symbol. People see bottles, they think of babies. If you're walking through a display and you see a giant bottle with money in it, you're likely going to donate because you instantly think 'baby in need'. If you see a giant plastic container, you're likely to pass it by like you do every other giant plastic donation container.

If MOD plopped out a giant clear boob replica for people to donate money in, I'm not sure people would get the connection (although maybe they *should* do that...something tells me our society would put a lot more money in the plastic boob than the plastic baby bottle. : )

Point blank, some babies use bottles. Some babies (like mine) who were preterm NEEDED bottles to learn how to suck because they couldn't suck on the breast. Not every baby fed by bottle in the prematurity stage will give up on breastfeeding--my pretermer is fully breastfed now. And many preemies in the NICU can't be fed by breast in the early stages...it's feeding tubes and baby bottles.

MOD's mission is to end prematurity and deaths of neonates. Their mission has nothing to do with feeding methods of ANY type. In fact, once the baby IS eating (bottle or breast), the mission of MOD has very little to do with that child anymore since it's what happens during pregnancy and in the NICU that MOD is concerned with.