fed up of being told to wean ds onto formula

[YellowCanary1]

NOT A BF VS FF DEBATE!
I am not against ff at all but after developing a good bf relationship with ds2 I'm happy and in no rush to stop. As a student I'm away from him 2 days a week so express whilst at university for the next time. Ds2 still feeds through the night every 2 hours. He's 5 months and obviously doing well bf as he weighs over 25lbs. I know family, friends etc are just trying to be helpful but I'm fed up of being advised to put him on formula because he's ' such a hungry baby' and needs more. I'm not a martyr to feeding but I do wish people would say well done for keeping up with him, not almost seeming to criticise me for my efforts. I know i am very tired, and working hard to keep up with phd but i am managing it. They keep trying to convince me to stop bf due to lack of sleep and having to rush round university to express, etc but I really enjoy bf. I know its all meant kindly but I want to very politely tell them to back off and its my choice.

I can understand why you find the comments annoying. If I were you I would just be straight with them and say you are fine continuing to bf and have no intention of weaning him onto formula atm.

I had loads of similar comments from my PIL which coincided with my SIL weaning onto formula. It seemed that just because she did, I had to. I told them straight that I had no intention of stopping bf and meant to carry on until DS was 2 and beyond if he wanted to continue. I didn't get any comments after that!

It's a long time since I bf'd but I totally feel your indignation here. I got that kind of comment from my mother who seemed to think that Bfing was a kind of martyrdom. She didn't bf at all. She and my aunt treated it as something likely to spoil the baby and ruin one's figure.

Feeding every 2 hours sounds exhausting

but would be even more exhausting if you swapped to FF and he still wanted it and you had to faff with bottles.

You may be introducing some solids in a month or so, that may make things a bit easier so seems sensible to stick with what's working for you and see how that goes rather than changing anything now.

Pfft allergies, virgin gut issues. FGS. It's formula, not poison. He's 5 months old. He's putting toys and other filthy shit into his mouth all the time.

I'm a BF advocate but I think expecting those mums who are clearly struggling to keep up with demand to exclusively bf is nuts. There are cases when mixed feeding (1 bottle a day) is a really good compromise. I don't see why it has to be so black and white. It's shades of grey.
And unless you plan to feed your child organic, fresh, handmade food for the rest of his childhood then you may as well accept that sometimes feeding him less-than-perfect substitutes to save yourself some angst is fine.

but it isnt entirely the choice of the op is it? She is away from the baby for two days and during that time, I think the main carer for the baby should have some input into what to feed the child should the expressed milk run out.
IF not, then, it doesnt matter what other people say. The op is doing a fab job and should just iignore others opiion

The op clearly doestn have a supply issue as her son is 25lb!

Babies nurse for reasons other than food. If she co-sleeps then she will be getting more sleep then if she was getting up to make bottles etc.

The op is haply doing this.

BTW it may well be that the baby is reverse cycling a bit as he can't feed as much in the days the op is at uni, this is very normal and is a phase that will pass.

Solids and formula often make no difference to how babies sleep. Two do mine had formula it didtn make them sleep any better than the three who were solely bfed.

You're doing great OP, smile and nod.

Hopefully they'll all shut up about it soon. Once you get past these arbitrary cut off points for bf that some people seem so attached to they tend to give up on nagging you and just think you're a bit odd.

Sound the klaxon! The P word has been mentioned.

kiwi you're not a great bfing advocate though suggesting that a mum who clearly wants to bf exclusively and has a son who is thriving that she should give formula because she has a supply problem. Her son is 25lbs! FWIW I know people who have created supply problems by offering one bottle of formula at bedtime and ended up stopping bfing completely before they were ready.

I got the martyr comments too and nasty asides about certain mums treating their babies as a project because they have given up high powered jobs.

Lots of ff babies have sleep issues at 4/5 months too.

For what it's worth I see the shades if grey with mixed feeding too, if that is what the mother actually wants to do.

Thanks all. Fwiw I definately don't have supply issues, almost the opposite in fact, I really struggle with over supply. I'm really happy feeding ds, my initial point was I wish people would leave me to it, thats all. I know everyone thinks I mad dashing off every few hours at uni to express and feeding through the night but it only impacts on me and dh, so just think if we're all happy others can leave us alone. Thanks for all the supportive comments, nice to know others have coped and gone on when feeding demanding babies. [Smile]