Jody Allen, the founder of popular site Stay At Home Mum, has defended herself against criticism she received for bottle-feeding her first child.
After sharing her story while speaking at the Baby & Toddler Show in Sydney recently, Jody found herself the subject of a stinging online attack from a writer who identified herself as Erin.
“I was absolutely disgusted in [sic] what you had to say,” Erin wrote in the inflammatory letter Jody shared with her readers.
“Not only did you tell the world that you bottle fed your baby, you promoted the use of formula feeding.
“There is never a good reason to use formula ever ever ever. Do you even know what is in that crap? It is garbage.
“It contains nothing good for babies and is full of chemicals, genetic modified materials and I’ve even heard it has crushed sea shells in there. And YOU fed it to your child. I’m sure you could of tried harder to breast feed. Every woman is capable of breastfeeding. Every single woman.
“Your lack of a reasonable excuse is no excuse at all. It is my opinion that formula feeding is a form of child abuse. In fact, formula is POISON. It is so inferior to breast milk. Why not use a breast milk bank instead?”
Jody admits she thought the heated missive was a joke at first.
“I make no apologies about the fact that I don’t consider formula to be a bad word,” Jody writes on Stay At Home Mum in response.
“Because you see, my baby was fed. He put on weight, he was happy and contented – and excuse me, Erin, but isn’t that the job of a mother?
“And even though I did try to breastfeed my baby – so what if I didn’t, and just put my baby on formula? Isn’t it my choice as a mother to do the best thing for me, my child and my family?
In an open letter back to Erin, Jody’s riposte rightly points out that breast-feeding is simply not possible for many mums.
“Erin, What if I’d had a double mastectomy, or was a foster-parent, or a single dad? Would you attack me then and call me the ‘C’ word? I haven’t taken what you’ve said to me personally. I’m a big girl. But I fear that if you say something like your vile email to a brand new Mother that is formula feeding her baby and is doing the best she can, that you will shatter her already-fragile confidence.
“You will make her feel guilty for something that isn’t her fault. And new Mums need all the emotional support they can take. A fed baby is a happy baby. And I support FED babies. I really give no f*cks as to whether they are fed from the boob or bottle.”
Jody had yet to hear back from Erin at the time of writing.
But, adamant that all formula should be banned, Erin signed off her attack by promising that she would be making a formal complaint to the World Health Organisation about the Stay At Home Mum founder’s comments.
Meanwhile, many of Stay At Home Mum‘s 500,000+ Facebook fans, applauded Jody for standing up to the trolling.
“Thank you for this!”, writes mum Belinda Melvaine.
“So tired of these breastfeeding only bullies. I could not breast feed, so formula was my only option. My god, I was in the top maternity hospital and my baby was fed formula in the special care nursery! Do you honestly think that if this was not safe they would use it in every single hospital!
“My baby only survived because she was fed, and I never had any problems with her. She slept well, was a happy child, barely cried, had no health or growth problems, and very rarely got sick. She is completely normal and now is a beautiful smart 6yr old.”
