Have you heard about the BabyNes? It‘s a new machine from Nestle that claims to serve baby formula in
“warm, properly-dosed servings” at the touch of a button . It works in the same way as those Keurig and
Tassimo coffee makers you see in everyone’s kitchens these days. Although currently being marketed
only in Switzerland, I can imagine that it might catch on like wildfire here in Newfoundland where so
many babies are formula fed. Within a year or two, I bet you’ll see one as a gift at every baby shower,
right alongside the pile of receiving blankets and stack of Pampers.
The BabyNes Machine as per their ads
Like every advance in the baby formula world, the BabyNes has breastfeeding promoters worried.
This could be a big blow to breastfeeding; with this machine the argument that breastfeeding is better
because it is more convenient and always at the perfect temperature and consistency goes right out the
window.
You won’t find me lining up at Walmart to pick up a BabyNes when they go on sale here. Aside from the obvious environmental concerns, there’s something else that bugs me about the BabyNes: it’s just a coffee maker that makes milk, a “milk maker” you might say. It provides no cuddles, no comfort, no love. There’s no way it can come close to replacing breastfeeding.
When my little one is hungry or tired or hurt, she is always cuddled in close, skin to skin with my body, eyes closed, almost like she has gone back to the womb. A bottle or cup of milk, served at any temperature or consistency, couldn’t come close to replacing me. Sometimes I think the milk doesn’t even matter. It’s the way I pick her up and comfort whenever she needs me, day and night, that matters. It’s the fact that she can return to a safe place whenever she wants that spurs her on to explore the world with such confidence.
That being said, I’ll admit that I longed for a BabyNes one night last week. I was so desperately tired, barely able to string two words together to make a sentence; wishing that my little one would sleep all night for once. Of course she didn’t. As I lay in bed and listened to her cries, my thoughts turned to what seemed like a perfect solution- a milk maker, some mechanical apparatus that would provide milk for her, without me getting up. I thought about the BabyNes, but I knew in my heart it wouldn’t work. After all, it wasn’t the milk she wanted, it was the comfort. As usual, the knowledge that nursing would instantly stop her cries and let sleep return, sent me down the hall to collect baby and lie back down again.
Breastfeeding is about a whole lot more than just milk. BabyNes might be convenient, but it can’t even begin to replace the real thing. Breastfeeding moms are more than just milk makers!
Any thoughts? Would you buy a BabyNes?
Felicie is a teacher turned work at home mama to two busy little angels, aged 22 months and 4 and a half years. She is a proud member of La Leche League Canada and has helped to organize three World B[..]
You hit the nail right on the head, Felicie. Breastfeeding is so much more than “just” nourishment, and no machine could ever replace that.
I just went back to work on Monday after being at home with my little guy every day for 15.5 months. I’m lucky that I work very close to my home and that I get a lengthy lunch break so I can come home in the middle of each day to nurse him to sleep, just like every day before I started my job. The look on his face when I walk in the door is priceless, and the sounds of contentment as he snuggles in and holds my breast in his hands melts my heart every. single. time. Sometimes he doesn’t even drink right away — he just breathes me in and makes little humming noises.
Somehow I don’t think the BabyNes would invoke the same response from him!
As an aside, the BabyNes is being marketed as “the first comprehensive nutrition system for babies.” Sorry Nestle, but my breasts, and the breasts of women around the world, beat you to the punch.
I am in complete agreement with both Felicie and Lisa. Something about this product just doesn’t seem right. Although I do not plan to have any children in the near future, when/if I do, I would not feel comfortable giving them formula, especially dispensed from a milk machine. Besides the fact that baby formulas do not carry a number of important nutrients found in breastmilk, including the unique and individualized antibodies passed from the mother to the infant, the BabyNes seems like an even more impersonal and uncomforting way to feed your child.
The BabyNes seems very convenient for those mother that already do not breastfeed their infants. You would still be able to hold your child while feeding him/her this formula, and therefor still be able to form a bond with the child.
When i have a child i would definitely consider this as an option for me.
Teach babies early that their ‘fix’ comes from a machine that sits on the bench top. When they grow up, they can graduate to a coffee maker! I won’t be buying one for any babies I know. I’d rather spend the night and give an EBM feed with cuddles so Mom can sleep.
While I agree with your perspective that the BabyNes does pose some risk to breastfeeding rates, I completely disagree with your implication that breastfeeding is the only way to love, comfort and cuddle your child. As a new mom who had to, sadly, switch to formula I take offense and issue with this. You can read more of my thoughts on your thoughts here: http://useveryday.blogspot.com/2011/06/boobs-dont-equal-love.html
So, while I firmly support breastfeeding, wish wholeheartedly I could have continued it and agree that breastfeeding is more than milk-making – this machine is not evil. Love comes from the heart, not your breasts or a bottle.
Amen, Colleen! While I breastfed both of my children and truly believe that breast is best, I also fully recognize that breast feeding is not always an option, for whatever reasons. This is not an evil machine, but a great help to mothers and/or fathers who choose to or have to formula feed. Consider adoptive parents, as an example, or people in Colleen’s situation. I don’t think any of us can judge another with regards to breast or formula, you never know the situation. I truly consider myself very, very lucky and blessed to not have had that decision to make.
Considering the machine itself costs almost $300 and the cost for the pods is $56-$60 for 26 (less than a week’s worth) I wouldn’t call this machine a great help or praise its convienance too much.
And while it does deliver the formula at exactly the right temperature for baby to drink, the water is not heated according to WHO recommendations to kill any potential bacteria or other pathogens.
I don’t think Felicie is trying to say that only breastfeeding moms love their children – what I’m reading is that she’s responding to the worry of breastfeeding promoters that this machine will take away some of the touted benefits of breastfeeding – its convienance.
By declaring that there are other, immeasurable benefits she’s showing that the machine, though convienant, cannot be truly expected to be a threat to breastfeeding.
However, by creating this machine, Nestle is trying to make bottlefeeding look trendy, hip, and convienant. In their ads, they undermine breastfeeding and even have touted this machine as a replacement for breastfeeding. That may not be “evil” but it’s not because they care about babies – profit is their only concern.
Hey everyone! Excellent comments! Just want to point out that nowhere in the post do I refer to the BabyNes as “evil”. After all, it’s just a machine. My point is that breastfeeding is about a lot more than just the milk. Maybe I should have said that infant feeding, breast or bottle, is about more than just the food.As Colleen so eloquently describes in her blog post, mothers can provide just as much love and care when they bottlefeed too. In fact, I’d be the first to argue that a lot of the benefits attributed to breastfeeding are due to the closeness the baby has with mom, not the milk. Bottlefed babies can have that too. It’s just that cuddles and closeness go naturally with breastfeeding and with bottlefeeding the mom would have to make an extra effort; Colleen is obviously doing an admirable job of this!
Any thoughts on the environmental impact of this machine? North American babies already produce a lot of garbage!
Breastfeeding is best- we all know that. Mothers decide to bottle-feed at whatever point for their own reasons, and that decision is theirs to make. The decision to mix formula themselves, or to let the BabyNes do it for them will also be that of mothers.
Personally, as someone who is not generally trusting of something until it is tried and true, this is my opinion: IF/When you decide to start giving your baby formula, do you really want to trust your baby’s nourishment to a machine? What if it malfunctions/breaks or is later proven unsafe? Sure, when you mix formula yourself there’s the possibility of human error- but when you use a machine there’s the possibility of human error and machine error to boot! It just seems wrong.
I would also like to add to my above post that I breastfed my first son for 2 months and my second for just a month in a half. I have a severely inverted nipple and was experiencing excruciating pain while feeding my babies from that side. With my second son, I ended up infected and tried to keep using a nipple shield in order to feed him from that side, but I would cry through the feedings and pull him away. Instead of holding him close, I was pushing him away. To this day, he still doesn’t like to be bottle-fed from that side- perhaps he could sense my tension in those early weeks, or perhaps he just got used to my “good” side.
In any case, my point is that I, in no way, wanted to formula-feed my children. Most mothers WANT very much to breastfeed and will not see a machine and think, “Oh I just have to have that”- so, no, I don’t believe it will affect breastfeeding in NL negatively. A convenient machine will not deter a mother from breastfeeding if she really wants to. I do, however, believe in making mothers want to breastfeed.
Hi! I do see your point of “yet another contraption” for baby. I had trouble with my milk coming in and had to formula feed for the first month & 1/2 for my daughter. I’m glad you clarified your point of view Felicie! lol The next family xmas dinner may have been more exciting if not
Frankly I don’t consider ANY thing junk if it works for you! What’s JUNKY is if you got it and never planned to use it! Frankly this isn’t more junky than any of those coffee makers that its modeled after!
I consider this a bonus! As someone who had to get up at all hours and MAKE formula after being exhausted–like the rest of you–this would have been a MAJOR bonus to my life during that time frame!! I wish it was available for North Americans! We have a LOT of friends who are for various reasons unable to breast feed & this machine would simply simplify their lives right now!
Cheers!
Thanks for the comments, Melanie and Jenn! You guys make some really good points about the use of the BabyNes. Jenn-I’m sure you and I will still have a good conversation next time we see each other, regardless of our feelings towards this milk machine
. Melanie- I wondered about your last comment “making mothers want to breastfeed”… What would that look like for you?
I completely, 100%, over-the-top agree that breastfeeding is not the only way to “love” your child, and I would never argue that those who formula feed their children, by choice or by force, don’t love their babies. That is an unfair argument for anyone to make.
What I DO take issue with is the marketing of this product. Nurtured Child (http://blog.nurturedchild.ca/index.php/2011/06/07/why-formula-companies-love-breast-is-best/) did a fantastic job of breaking down Nestle’s advertising scheme for the BabyNes. It’s deplorable.
Lisa- Thanks for sharing!