The Breastfeeding vs. Formula Debate, Debunked

Katie Gatti Tassin (0:00)

I do fear that this episode is gonna be the reverse of the abundance episode, where you're just gonna talk for two hours.

Caro Claire Burke (0:07)

Bad news, babe. I got a lot of white filler that I have filled in on my outline for you to speak, so you're gonna have to say something.

Katie Gatti Tassin (0:13)

Oh, fantastic, fantastic. And then it's just gonna be cutting to me every 30 minutes, being like, dude, that's crazy.

Caro Claire Burke (0:21)

Okay, Katie, what do you know about breastfeeding?

Katie Gatti Tassin (0:25)

I knew this was gonna be the opener. In all day, I've been trying to think about jokes about sucking on them titties, but— There you go.

Caro Claire Burke (0:33)

Whatever works.

Katie Gatti Tassin (0:34)

That's the extent of my knowledge.

Caro Claire Burke (0:36)

Okay. You don't know much about breastfeeding. What do you know about formula?

Katie Gatti Tassin (0:42)

If it's like the rest of the US food system, then US formula is just gonna be like Baja Blast Mountain Dew with like a little Starbucks pumpkin spice creamer mixed in to make it milky.

Okay. That's what you feed a baby, right? That's what infants drink.

Caro Claire Burke (1:01)

Baja Blast is what I'm gonna call it. Okay, so I'm happy to be talking about this. I want to highlight that this is a mat-leave episode that we're doing days in advance of my birth, which means this is gonna have like drunk history vibes. We're gonna be a little more casual today than we usually are, but I'm excited to talk about this because I feel like you will find this as interesting as I do once I hook my little tenterhooks into you. So I have clearly been in a little bit of a journey about like learning about birth, and I think that giving birth and the decisions that you make around that, whether you have an unmedicated birth or a C-section or an epidural, people feel very sensitive about it.

The same is true for breastfeeding and formula and like how you feed your baby. Katie, do any of your friends have these conversations with you yet or no?

Katie Gatti Tassin (1:46)

None of my friends have kids.

Caro Claire Burke (1:48)

Really, none?

Katie Gatti Tassin (1:51)

No, no one that I'm close with has had a baby.

Caro Claire Burke (1:54)

Wow, aren't you first?

Katie Gatti Tassin (1:56)

I'm like the only married friend. Not so true. I do have some friends that are married. But yeah, for the most part, my closest friends are still single.

Caro Claire Burke (2:05)

That's surprising to me since you're a Southern girl.

Katie Gatti Tassin (2:07)

Yeah, well, that's because like really I'm not friends with anyone from that chapter of my life anymore.

Caro Claire Burke (2:12)

Okay, fair enough, fair enough.

Katie Gatti Tassin (2:14)

The extent of my knowledge about the sensitivity that people have to this is in conversations that I see happening online.

Caro Claire Burke (2:21)

That is an interesting through point because I do think that this can be a very hot, roddy conversation online. The three online mothering conversations that I have had either tangential access to or direct access to that I find to be very, very imbued with emotions are fertility.

So if you're trying to conceive, those forums are unbelievably sensitive, charged, people arguing over data, all that kind of stuff. Giving birth, I think, is very sensitive and charged. And then feeding your baby, feeding your baby in particular for the first year of their life. It is fascinating to me and has been fascinating to me as I have become pregnant and on this journey. Like, it's not just other moms, it's doctors, it's people in the medical field. Like, people feel very comfortable asking you what your plans are. For how you feed your baby, and everyone has a very strong opinion. And what I find really interesting is that, regardless of whether you breastfeed or give your baby formula or some combination of the two…

Katie Gatti Tassin (3:21)

Baja blast.

Caro Claire Burke (3:22)

Baja blast? A shocking number of women feel…

Katie Gatti Tassin (3:26)

I'm gonna Baja blast that bitch.

Caro Claire Burke (3:29)

There you go. All right, we got it to full completion.

Katie Gatti Tassin (3:32)

Thank you.

Caro Claire Burke (3:33)

Regardless of what decision you make, I often notice women explaining their decision in a defensive way. Women who breastfeed exclusively often, I think, feel obliged to explain why they're still breastfeeding past six months, or they can feel kind of embarrassed about it in America. And then women who formula feed, who give their babies formula from, you know, from the earliest age, feel quite defensive about that at all.