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Olympic triathlete and his son Fletcher - Source: Twitter -
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Another prominent New Zealand sportsman has waded into the debate about bottle feeding babies, following a storm of debate.
Olympic triathlete Bevan Docherty has posted a picture of himself bottle-feeding his baby boy Fletcher on Twitter , in support of All Black halfback Piri Weepu.
"Breast is best, but being a good Dad is better! Me bottle feeding my boy Fletcher," he tweeted with the photo.
The bottle versus breast debate has been raging on social media sites this week after a two-second clip of Weepu bottle-feeding his daughter Taylor was pulled from an anti-smoking advert.
The makers of the advert sent it to Plunket, the New Zealand College of Midwives and La Leche League and when all disapproved of the ad the shot was cut.
The organisations were concerned Weepu's high profile carried weight and would sway people away from breast-feeding their children.
Plunket has since apologised for any offence it may have caused through its stance on the clip, although the organisation has not back-tracked on its decision.
"Plunket strongly advocates for smoke-free households and we greatly regret that the important messages in the latest 'Smoking not our future' ad have been sidelined," it wrote on its Facebook page.
It described Weepu as an outstanding role model and supported the work he does to encourage Kiwi families.
"Plunket wishes to apologise for any offence or disrespect we may have caused to Piri and his whanau. We also apologise for any offence we may have caused to New Zealand fathers and mothers."
Supporters of Weepu and bottle feeding have been venting their anger at the decision to cut the clip on Facebook.
"Breast is best fanatics need to get a life! Good on Piri for bonding with his baby and sharing the load," Lisa Norrie wrote on the ONE News Facebook page .
"Piri is a fine example of a decent parent. Fathers unite!" added Allan Scadden.
"If a parent chooses to bottle feed their children it's their right and not this stupid campaign's right," said Teo Pavlof.
La Leche League said earlier this week that the debate over the advert has been misleading and completely missed the main concern of breast-feeding supporters.
"The Health Sponsorship Council notified LLLNZ that it was about to release a smoke-free ad that contained footage of Piri bottle-feeding his baby daughter," spokesperson Lisa Manning said.
"LLLNZ responded constructively to the HSC to the effect that this could detract from other health promotion campaigns and encouraged it to use footage depicting the close father-baby relationship in other ways."
Manning said their main concern was to present a consistent message about breastfeeding from one Government campaign to the next.
What do you think? Have your say on the messageboard below.
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Post new commentOdo said on 2012-02-10 @ 07:13 NZDT: Report abusive post
The whole point (and it is effective) of making a commercial to change people's behavior is to model the desirable behaviors in a positive light. So it is just as counter-productive to have a soft, lovely commercial promoting breastfeeding where the parents happen to incidentally be smoking cigarettes as the other way around. One doesn't want to model cigarette smoking in a positive, supportive setting. Nor does one want to model other hazardous behaviors, such as formula
bronaron said on 2012-02-08 @ 21:40 NZDT: Report abusive post
Breast is great....if you can do it! There is so much to deal with after having a baby, bleeding, tiredness, soreness, sometimes other children to look after. SO sometimes a bottle is what is needed to keep mum together...and if mum is happy, baby is happy and that is all that matters!
florriegirl said on 2012-02-08 @ 21:24 NZDT: Report abusive post
This is not a personal assault on Piris fathering or bottle feeders. We simply need to encourage breastfeeding as being the norm and discourage bottlefeeding. Why because it is better for Mums and babies health. I think every semi-intelligent person knows that. Yes not everyone can breastfeed but stop using that excuse when plenty of people can breastfeed who choose to use formula.
heatherew said on 2012-02-08 @ 20:46 NZDT: Report abusive post
There is no need to show heros on TV bottle feeding. Young people have always been known to be influenced by heros, so it would be so sad if they copied this and their babies didn't get the perfect nutrition nature provided their mothers with to feed them, also the closeness & lovingness of it. Breast milk is the perfect temperature. Piri could be shown as a good Dad doing a lot better things than this.
Kimy said on 2012-02-08 @ 20:45 NZDT: Report abusive post
I can't belive that this is happening and the discrimination that is being put on these mothers who choose to bottle feed. I have 2 children (now 17,and 14 1/2 )i am a 41 year old mum.When i was 18 mnths old i was severley burnt by a boiling jug all down the left side of my chest and arm and on my right arm, i had NO CHOICE but to bottle feed my children, and they were beautiful chubby healthy babies that never got sick, and my husband loved being able to feed them.Dont judge as you dont know!!