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AIBU?

To call bollocks on this woman on bbc news...

84 replies

MadBannersAndCopPorn · 26/06/2013 07:28

Being breast fed determines social class........ Okay

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AintNobodyHereButUsKittens · 26/06/2013 07:30

If she said that then she's a very poor user of language. If she means that likeliness to bf is strongly correlate with social class then of course she's correct.

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usualsuspect · 26/06/2013 07:34

She did say that. She said being BF has a direct result on where you end up in life.

That being BF helps you climb the social ladder.

Load of bollocks if you ask me.

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Finallygotaroundtoit · 26/06/2013 07:35

It's not a random theory she dreamt up - it's statistics demonstrating a measurable effect!

It's not judging people Confused

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usualsuspect · 26/06/2013 07:35

I mean it's not like you write it on your CV .

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blondecat · 26/06/2013 07:36

Or perhaps she just has a very poor grasp of logic

Just because A and B tend to go together, it doesn't follow that A causes / determines B

This sort of reasoning is very common. It's just a shame that its proponents are invited to speak as 'experts'

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AintNobodyHereButUsKittens · 26/06/2013 07:37

Well that's just bollocks isn't it. It has a couple of points improvement on IQ on average, but that's not going to be enough to move your social class. The thing that makes you most likely to be of class X is having a mother of class X, which affects how likely she is to bf you - so the causation is precisely the wrong way around. She's an idiot.

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PumpkinPositive · 26/06/2013 07:39

Well, I wasn't breast fed and I'm as posh as the queen.

SIBVU.

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lightrain · 26/06/2013 07:40

Finally - it's not correct though. Just because there are statistics to show that more ice creams are eaten on hot days, it doesn't mean that if people eat ice creams it makes the weather hot.

People in a certain social class may breast feed more, but this does not mean that if you are breast fed, you will move social class! It's not causal.

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usualsuspect · 26/06/2013 07:40

I was BF and I'm as common as muck Grin

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usualsuspect · 26/06/2013 07:41

She really did say it helps you move social classes.

I was all Hmm at the tv.

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catgirl1976 · 26/06/2013 07:49

What a loon

That's like saying eating mushy peas makes you Northern, as opposed to saying mushy peas are more usually eaten by Northerners

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MadBannersAndCopPorn · 26/06/2013 07:51

She said that her study was based on looking at the father's social class growing up compared to the child's social class after being breast\ bottle fed. (She didn't mention the mother)
As the reporter pointed out, what happens if one child in a household is breastfed and one bottlefed etc.
What about in countries like france where they barely breastfeed past hospital? Or in third world countries where most mothers breastfeed?
I Believe it's bollocks, as someone said, it's not something you put on your cv.

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MaMattoo · 26/06/2013 07:52

Ye gods!!

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SpooMoo · 26/06/2013 07:59

It's correlation not causation. More middle class people breastfeed.

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TeWiSavesTheDay · 26/06/2013 08:03

You'd think someone would've pointed her bad logic out before she went on telly....

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Fozziebearmum2be · 26/06/2013 08:05

Eating ice cream makes you wear shorts

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ComtessedeFrouFrou · 26/06/2013 08:07

This sort of stuff had always annoyed me, but now I'm pg it's started giving me the rage.

There was an article in the Telegraph yesterday by Vryony Gordon that mentioned that she had switched bottle feeding and that she didn't believe that it made very much of a significant difference and the comments were filled with people condemning her and telling her that her child would end up in prison or mentally deficient. Guess who the comments were mostly made by? Men - saying "my wife this" and "my wife that".

Don't bloody comment until you're actually qualified by having tried it.

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OnTheNingNangNong · 26/06/2013 08:10

I bottle fed one child and breastfed the other. If only I knew that I was setting one child up for a lower social class than the other, I wouldn't have bothered breastfeeding.


Although, the breastfeeding mothers in my area are all 'working class'.

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ExcuseTypos · 26/06/2013 08:17

I'm sure I heard them talking about this on the radio yesterday. I cant remember too much as I zoned out thinking what a load of bollocks.

I have one breast fed dd and one bottle fed. I'm sure that wont be the deciding factor, in their life, as to which SC they end up in.

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Katnisscupcake · 26/06/2013 08:18

Out of a family of five, the two eldest (my elder sister and I) were bottle-fed (various medical issues) and the three youngest were breast-fed.

My elder sister and I definitely live in a higher social circle (albeit not that high around here Smile) than the other three. So clearly it is bo**ocks.

My Dad was very well known in the local area (involved in local organisations etc) and quite 'well-to-do' and was around when we were growing up so we're like him. When the younger three were small he had to start working away from home so they didn't get as much interaction with him and that's the reason that they didn't get the same opportunities as we did to meet people.

Nothing to do with how we were fed - but how we were raised!

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MadBannersAndCopPorn · 26/06/2013 08:19

It's coming up again on BBC1 at 8.50.

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Katnisscupcake · 26/06/2013 08:20

Also, on an intelligence level. I was the only one that got into the Grammar school (although it may well have been easier 28 years ago than it is now). The others didn't. And I was bottle-fed!

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thebody · 26/06/2013 08:21

My dm proudly tells me she could bf, have a fag and a coffee at the same time. //😜 thanks mum.

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MadBannersAndCopPorn · 26/06/2013 08:31

My grandmother, who had her first DS circa 1944 said that it showed that you were lower class if you breastfed. So, the better off you were the less likely to breastfeed you were. She fed My eldest uncle on formula, cow's milk and condensed (or was it eveporated?) milk.
They're all as posh as you like...

My mother (the youngest), however was breastfed and went on to be the absolute rebel of the family, having children out of wedlock with a black American and living in a council flat with a bastard child (Oh, the shame!!)

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AuntieStella · 26/06/2013 08:49

I half heard this - she seemed to be saying that breast-fed babies were more likely that bottle-fed ones to end up in a higher social class than their parents, so it was (a generation ago) associated with upwards social mobility.

The BBC didn't seem to give airtime to the detail of the study, and how it allowed for known confounders (such as mother's educational level) nor whether the reported effect applied to all social classes.

Can anyone link the study itself, so we can see if that was done?

For at the moment, I don't know whether it's poor quality reporting or the study itself that makes it seem somewhat lacking.

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