Is there any difference between FF & BF babies in your opinion?

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I FF my first but now thinking about BF for my second. I wonder though from people's experiences on here, what difference in any did you see in a FF vs BF baby?

I'm not wanting to start a controversial thread, fed is best and I don't judge anybody for how they decide to feed their child. I just want opinions.

I breast fed. Don't really have a comparison, but just wanted to add that while some people have said FF is easier, I personally thought BF was easier. Food is there on demand, baby can use BF for comfort as well as food, plus no bottles to sterilise!

I should add that DD would take a bottle, so could occasionally be fed by DH or other family members if needed

Ridiculous statement!

I have two teens now.

DD1 was BF from birth to 6 months with zero formula.

DD2 was BF for 6 weeks then I got awful mastitis and had split bleeding nipples. So she was FF from then on.

DD1 has eczema, was more prone to illness when young, is undergoing significant orthodontic treatment due to jaw issues (to put to bed the idea her jaw formed perfectly). She's academic, tall and lean.

DD2 has hayfever. Less illness when younger. No orthodontic treatment. More academic than the eldest (scholarship at school). Still growing but normal weight to height ratio.

So in my sample, no there has not been a real difference and the BF child is not 'better' for it than the other child. I so wish I had known this when I stopped BF DD2 because I really beat myself up and had extreme guilt over not managing the same for her as I had my eldest.

I’m so sorry lovely

No.

Or they're on average richer and more articulate and more likely to get diagnosed when they have a problem. No idea whether that's true, but it's an example of how much the huge biases in the maternal BF / FF population skew the numbers.

I formula fed my first and will also be formula feeding my twins when they are born.

In a country with access to clean water and healthcare, the risks of formula feeding are tiny which is good enough for me along with the other benefits that come with formula feeding.

FF don't always sleep longer stretches. Every baby is different

The one thing that's unarguable is that on average FF babies are more likely to get gastro bugs and more likely to be hospitalised with them.

For any individual baby you'll never know what effect the other choice would have had, but all other things being equal the gastro risk was enough to swing the choice for me, along with the reduction in breast cancer risk. Of course all other things rarely are equal.

I breastfed both of mine. The main advantage to me was the total ease of doing it (once we go the hang of it). Once they got to 8 weeks I expressed enough for a bottle each day and dh took over the middle of the night feed.
Health wise both were always fine.

studies... are conducted with large sample sizes and any statistics generated do not apply to individuals.

This is a very important point to understand about most public health advice (particularly global public health advice). It is looking at a broad population level - what does the evidence tell us and therefore what will we advise. At an individual level there are too many variables in each baby and each mother to be able to state categorically whether one is preferable over the other.

As context - I BF both my children for over a year. No formula or even expressed breast milk. One child had asthma, eczema, allergic to pet hair etc, has always been slightly overweight. The other none of above and very slim build.

My sister FF both hers. Almost exactly the same with her DC - one has had problems with asthma etc the other not.

If you are lucky enough to have the choice (functioning milk supply/access to clean water and equipment/time to do either) then it's a toss of the coin/preference/necessity.

The poos are different! BF poo doesn’t smell offensive IME, whereas I found FF poo to be more like…well poo.

Other than that, I don’t think it makes much difference on an individual basis.

But I loved the BF snuggles, and found it was an excellent tool to soothe a poorly/overtired/grumpy baby.

Nothing I’ve noticed in the early days, in my experience friends who are still breastfeeding toddlers seem to have a bit of a worse time with sleep.

Both my kids are FF, both have mild eczema and DD had suspected asthma that she’s grown out of. Is that related to formula or is it just genetics (DH and I also both had childhood eczema/asthma/hayfever, he was BF and I was FF), I suppose we’ll never know.

DC1 BF until 10 months
DC2 BF until 8 months ( I think pregnancy put him off)
DC3 BF is 11 months and still going strong.

The initial few weeks are very difficult until it’s established. However now it’s so handy and quick. We mostly sleep through night here but sometimes with teething or illness he is unsettled. It’s great not having to go downstairs to sort a bottle on those nights. When they are small BF is the solution to all their problems.

Even if BF isn’t for you I would encourage every new mother to get a bit of colostrum into their newborn.

That's not true

First baby was in NICU for three week. I stayed in the parent unit, tried to pump but it was futile. Nurses kept disposing of it, it was really sfressful, I’d be trying to pump and then someone would come in and I’d be told I had fo come immediately as it was an emergency. So guess he was tube fed BM for about a week.Not that I produced much and it was so painful.

Second I tried to BF, did it exclusively for 4 weeks but I wasn’t producing anything, was starving the poor thing. Tried everything, drove myself mad and then FF. I was heavily pressured to keep going by midwife and family, it was awful. I have no problem with FF. Looking back, the pressure to persevere was unforgivable. I drew the line when the MW started talking about medications I could take.

Third, I refused to even try. My body doesn’t seem to produce enough milk to keep a baby healthy. I wasn’t putting us through that again. FF from birth and she was the only one who thrived from birth.

They are 21, 10 and 3. Apart from vaccinations, none of them have ever needed to see the inside
of a doctors surgery, even my eldest who was prem and ill as a newborn. None have ever had antibiotics, only chicken pox and the odd sniffle or mild sickness bug (only my eldest so far when he was at primary school).

I’ve been told how unhealthy and sickly they must be due to me giving up BF and not trying hard enough, or not putting myself though it with my 3rd.

There's a lot of myths on this thread being disguised as facts for both options

Like what?

I EBF both of mine with ease, I had no need of professional support, plenty of peer support in the form of close friends who were also breastfeeding and a DH who is a decent man who couldn't do more.

I found breastfeeding very tough on my mental health - never getting a break away from the baby (neither would take a bottle), having to do every night feed. I found it quite oppressive. The physical exhaustion of cluster feeding and having to feed when ill also took their toll on my mental health.

I didn't have PND, although probably not far off it at times, and I have no regrets about how I fed my children but I think it's disingenuous to suggest that the only negative impact on mental health is lack of support. Breastfeeding can be very hard.

OP my eldest is 5, I certainly can't look at her friends and say how they were fed. I'm not convinced the benefits at an individual level outweigh the mother's preferences. Keep an open mind, you may feel one way when pregnant and then completely different when the baby comes.

I don't think it make anywhere near as much difference as some people think.

It's the shit they're fed from weaning and the large quantities that seem to be affecting kids/adults' health today.

Over 37% of children in year 6 are overweight/obese and that's just in England alone.

And there's been an increase of over 50% in children being treated for type 2 diabetes in England and Wales.

It seems so many parents concentrate on what type of milk to give their babies for a couple of years, and then drop the ball completely after that.

Both of mine had a mixture of bf and ff. Ds1 simply wouldn't feed at birth, so I expressed and mixed with formula for 6 long weeks - then gave bf one last go and lo and behold he took to it. However he never took a bottle again after that and indeed did not eat any significant amounts of solids until he was about 3. To this day he's an awkward bugger with his own mind. He does have eczema - however his dad is also ravaged with eczema so I assume he's inherited that joy from him.

Ds2 bf from the go (although I was still bf ds1 who was almost 2 and a half when ds2 was born so I have no idea if ds2 got any colostrum or just the same as what ds1 was getting? He then had a few pre- mixed bottles of formula thrown in for ease, went to nursery at 9 months, loved shovelling food into his mouth and still does and I stopped bfing before he was 3. He had rivers of green snot flowing out of his nose from a couple of days old pretty much until lockdown when he was nearly 2. He still snores like a train and has enlarged tonsils. But relatively little eczema which is a bonus. I think overall for them personality and inheritance of genes has played a big part in their health and development.

Pretty much everything on this thread is anecdotal and you won’t really be able to decide the pros and cons on a personal level for you and your baby until you have tried it.

FWIW, my breastfed baby slept through from 10 weeks old and has slept through consistently since (now 2yo), unless sick. My nephew who was ff from birth is and always has been a horrendous sleeper. But as you have seen on this thread, a lot of bf babies are also bad sleepers- I think it’s just random to be honest.

Agree with PPs saying that everything is on you if you are breastfeeding and nobody can take over from you, however my baby hardly ever cried or fussed because as soon as he showed an inkling of being hungry/tired/upset, I could just put him straight onto the breast and calm him- no waiting for a bottle to be prepped whilst they’re screaming in the background. I personally think I would have found it harder for myself to ff than bf, but it’s too early for me to tell what impact it has had on my child (and I don’t have another DC to compare to either).

I bf all mine and to me the main advantage was convenience. You always have some ready, right temperature perfectly made on tap. It comforted them when upset, and was particularly good when ill because they still took some milk when they wouldn't have fed if not for comfort.
#1 slept at least 6 hours a night from birth and by 6 weeks was reliably doing 12 hours every night.

I can't compare illness wise because I bf them all. Dc3 was the illest, but I put that down to having two big sisters to bring bugs home. Dd1 has hardly been ill ever.

They don't have asthma nor excema, both of which run in both families, and allergies are few and mild.

I think dh's family does have an interesting one though. He's got 2 siblings. #1 was not bf, #2 was bf.
They're quite similar, including sharing several of the same allergies. (diagnosed at a proper allergy place)
But #1 has the allergies badly, plus has excema and asthma.
#2 when #1 would be vomiting violently from the allergy, will just have stomach cramps. Where #1 comes out in a head to toe rash for 3 days, #2 is a bit itchy for a couple of hours.
Could that be down to bfing? One data, you can't say. But it is interesting.

Mine were all mixed fed, after a wonderful midwife pointed out that my first was starving’ and supported me to give her a bottle. The narrative up til then was just keep feeding to get the supply up. I was bleeding, sore and exhausted and must have been making crap milk.
after that she had two bottles of formula a day, slept sooooo much better, I was able to get a break and brew some decent milk, and we carried on for six months.

did the same with second, all good.

third was v hungry, had both sides then a whole bottle each feed then slept for England. But he actually went off boob within a few weeks and only wanted the bottle. He’s taller than his brother but otherwise no difference in childhood health. They’re both skinny and have hollow legs!