responses to the "I turned out fine" argument?

My response to this depends on who I am speaking to. I typically use the "ff babies are 14 times more likely to be hospitalized with gastro-intestinal disorders at some point in their lives" and that "Over 8000 babies died in one year in the US alone as a direct result of withholding breastmilk." A friend of mine pointed out she was never hospitalized with gi issues, and I replied "Nope, not hospitalized. But didn't you spend over a year seeing a specialist and trying elimination diets because your gut was such a mess?" I also got to point out the immunity argument to that same friend: Breastmilk generally means fewer infections, at 2 yrs old this friend has a tonsillectomy due to a series of throat and ear infections...the surgery caused her to hemmorage and she nearly died. Then I asked her if it was worth risking her child's life. And she shut up.

The argument against "I turned out fine" really depends on how to relate it to the person your educating. But it's a tough one because it means trying to make them see that no, sorry, but you're not fine.

My best friend and I have kids close in age. She has exclusively ff both of hers and I have ff/EBM (I had a lot of issues nursing her so I pumped as much as I could) my first and EBF my second kid. She says she doesn't see anything wrong with BFing and if you want to do it it's fine but it is not for her. Her elaborations on this haven't been very extensive but I get the feeling that she thinks it's gross and couldn't imagine having a baby attached to her all the time. I don't think she can get past the sexual aspect of boobs.

So she has said on several occasions that she doesn't believe that BM can make a kid smarter since, "DS wasn't breast-fed and he gets all A's and B's in his first grade class so I think it's bullsh*t."

Or my other favorite gem that she said one time about BM and immunity was, "I didn't bother BFing DS because my antibodies don't work, I was always sick when I was a kid, so what good are they going to do him?" (She was formula fed until she was 6 months old, was on cow's milk after that, and was in and out of the hospital for her whole childhood because of chronic strep throat/severe allergies/asthma) : I fell off my chair at this one. This is the girl who has a masters in Health and Human Development.

Not to mention the fact that we lived with her and her family for the first year of my 1st dd's life. We shared a HUGE house because we were all going through a transitional phase (trying to save money to buy homes). Her son was in daycare and caught every. single. illness. that came his way. And in turn my infant daughter got sick with everything he had, and then my husband and I. Honestly, not a month went by where my family wasn't sick with whatever her little boy had. We moved out, and we didn't get colds or anything for 2 whole years.

I don't think she realizes how completely ignorant her POV on this is.

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Oh, and I was FF... and I turned out fine... except for my NONSTOP COLIC until they put me on Isomil!

I read a reply to the "I turned out fine..." argument: "Most of the people who didn't turn out fine aren't here to tell us".

Also, no one says formula is poison or going to kill a baby. It's just not as good as breastmilk, and by using it you're taking a risk. Maybe nothing will happen, maybe the results are subtle enough that they're hard to see individually. But the risk is there. if you haven't got breastmilk, then this is an acceptable risk, because formula is better than nothing. But if you can BF, why take that chance?