to think my newborn DS IS bloody hungry!

[CosmicBurp]

Fed up of my MIL, DM, Auntie etc, all sticking their oars in. 'He just wants comfort', 'He's got wind'. If that's the case, why has he just latched on and fed for another 10 minutes? Just because you don't want me getting my norks out again/want to keep cuddling him.
It's actually painful to watch people jiggling him up and down whilst he gets more and more riled up and I'm sat there like a lemon going 'Ok Cosmicburplet, shall we feed you now? Shall we? Is it that time again?'
It's a bloody struggle to get him back, then there's the surprise when all is well once he's on the boob.
None of them has heard of cluster feeding because we were all bottlefed in my family/ DH's family. Thank God for Mumsnet, because nobody told me it was normal for little babies to want to feed this regularly.
Sorry. I've finished now:)

I disagree .

Thespokennerd why are you so sensitive about BFing? This isn't a thread bashing FF at all, it's a thread about how annoying it is when people don't understand how BFing on demand works.

Gin Ashamed to say, I'd have been right in there with the cuddlers before I had DS. Hope I never forget how protective a newborn crying makes you feel.
Pandemoniaa Awful.. yes there is a bit of this 'spoiling him'/'stopping independence' attitude still lingering. Like if we weren't shoving milk down their throats they'd be off learning to ride their bikes already.
Mrskbpw Yes the 'ignoring' advice was given by my great-Auntie. All hers slept through from very early on.
Nerd Really?:)

Do you have a vigorous letdown? You could try spraying the offending rellies with breastmilk!

FGS nerd. No one is bashing ff.

Get a grip.

• liberally sprays offending relatives. Serenely takes norkmonster. It's a possibility Bluestocking! Seriously though, SIL's DD was FF and I swear never had to feed so much as Burplet. Seem to remember her being passed about angelically, sleeping between well-spaced feeds. BF makes you less sociable at this age I think:)

Its not just a problem exclusive to breast babies!

I fed ds myself for 6 weeks then stopped. Now I've got my mum, who knew bog all about breastfeeding so she had to shut up, telling me I can't feed ds again when he had a bottle 3 hours ago. I can and will! He goes 10 hours at night with nothing so it stands to reason he needs to fit his feeds in somewhere!

...or rather in my case, want to be less sociable:o

Totally agree cosmic. My two SIL FF their daughters. Possibly their kids were just not so high maintenance as mine but they were angels, passed around happily from pillar to post, went ages between feeds, generally just seemed very content, which of course vindicated everyones opinion that BF was a complete pointless waste of time.

Fear that's the general opinion here too frost:( Can't get too cross with them though, because they had different advice when they had their babies. My DM was told to stop BFing my brother because he was still waking in the night 'expecting to be fed'. Was never told that this was normal and he would've actually been hungry as the BM was digested more quickly.

Oh this isn't a bf issue at all. I have a ds who is 6 days old and ff. My mum was round yesterday and he fed every 2 hours little and often and my mum was moaning saying he shouldn't be fed again because his tummy can't handle it... Well what am I supposed to do?! Let him scream in hunger??? Its not as if he's having 8oz every ten mins!

People do love to have an opinion.

Heaven forbid a baby might want comfort! Ugh, it's so bally annoying - and I hate 'is she due a feed?' - I dunno; if she latches on then yes, if not then no. Demand feeding is an alien concept to my family...

Wigglewoo My DS is exactly the same, and my dad keeps insisting we need to make him wait longer before feeding him again (yep, that magic 4 hours!)

AND while I'm at it - no, DH's cousin's baby is not 'better' than mine because she sleeps for hours on end. She's 4 days old. Commanderling is 5 1/2 weeks. Of course she sleeps less!

Where did the coveted 4 hours come from anyway?

It's comments that deliberately try to make people who formla fed feel shit...all that about a bottle being like a huge dinner....formula fed babies dont ALWAYS drink the whole thing! They sip a bit too...and want more an hour later...it's not exclusive to BF babies!

I wouldn't write some negative crap about BF on a thread about formula feeding.

Funny isn't it how people perceive things differently. I read this as a thread where some people seem to put their desire to cuddle a baby above that of a baby's need to feed.

YANBU

AND demand feeding can and IS done with formula too.

The spokennerd, I was just about to say the same thing. Not all ff babies feed to a schedule, I would never jiggle my babies if they were hungry, they just get their bottle earlier. Still get the same bullshit from MIL of ''he can't be hungry yet' except she also wants to feed them too

Demand feeding was around when my DC were born, in the late 1970s (DC1 ff, DC2 bf), so that's more than thirty years ago. Either it's ongoing ignorance about the needs of small babies, or it's a control issue. Either way, no-one should be preventing a baby getting nutrition or comfort.

There's nothing in the thread to suggest it is bashing people who choose to FF. Probably because those of us who have done both have experienced the same interference assumptions about babies going for 4 hours between feeds. I was also assured that I'd spoil ds2 who was FF!

You know would not occur to me to go on a FF thread and start throwing my weight about because I don't actually care how other people choose to feed their babies.

However I reserve the right to have an opinion on how I choose to feed my own and research a defence against the near constant criticism and moaning I had to endure from almost every person I know who had even the most tenuous link to my baby.

Frost you keep that attitude. It bodes well for you.