To quit breastfeeding now?

[hipsalips]

I have a three month old and have been EBF, and while a lot of the time its nice to breastfeed I am getting a bit worn down from it.

I'm debating stopping but feel very conflicted. On one hand I like it (sometimes), I know its good for my DD.

On the other hand I hate the clothes I need to wear, I find all the nursing clothes well dowdy, and would feel more like me if I stopped.

I'm planning to wean her at 6 months, would it be worth swapping to formula until then or would you stick with it, or combination feed to get the best of both worlds?

Any chance you can start wearing normal clothes that are just breastfeeding friendly? There is a great Facebook group call "can I breastfeed in it" and people post different fashion choices that aren't just nursing tops.

MillyMollyFarmer
I can't seem to turn off the @ thing so as I'm sitting in my car waiting for DS to finish football training and have peaked at some posts.
I think we disagree somewhat re the importance of Breastfeeding which is fine.
I agree with these stats:

• Increased risk of obesity Increased risk of diabetes* Increased risk of SIDS Increased risk of childhood cancers But I'm shocked at the way @ScarMatty is attacking you as you seem to agree with some of her previous posts re formula milk.

Well I did feel it was important for me and my baby so I BF 12 months and it was a bit awful here and there but it worked out. So maybe we disagree ever so slightly on it, it’s more the approach we have to sharing our opinions. You did come across insensitive I’m afraid, but as I said, you’re fully entitled to that opinion. I am not remotely bothered by any poster who gets a thrill from insulting and calling names online, it’s their issue, not mine.

Any chance you can start wearing normal clothes that are just breastfeeding friendly? There is a great Facebook group call "can I breastfeed in it" and people post different fashion choices that aren't just nursing tops.

In case the OP misses it ^ I could of done with a group like this!

I don’t know any baby, bf or ff who has been admitted to hospital. Where are the stats of number admitted and how they were fed?

@ShesMadeATwatOfMePam - I agree - you soon realise once you get past feeding stage how unimportant it is compared with all the decisions you have to make

@Parker231

I don’t know any baby, bf or ff who has been admitted to hospital. Where are the stats of number admitted and how they were fed?

Well, I'm no expert on statistics, but the NHS certainly keep a detailed record of hospital admissions. As for how the babies are fed, that is supposed to be recorded in the red health books all children have, including details of their vaccinations, growth etc. I'm not sure what other surveys they include or how the NHS come to their findings. It would be interesting to find out more details!

Link to studies showing the risks of not breastfeeding : www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2812877/

I am a huge fan of breastfeeding but the time to stop is when you want to. If you do it for 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, 3 years or not at all- all equally fine. Your body, your choice.

As I said, it's not coming from any place of judgement, I formula fed two children and they are perfectly fine, and I truly believe in choice.

However, breastfeeding is the biological norm. It is what our bodies are meant to do. Occasionally, our bodies don't work as they should. Lots of time, women don't want to breastfeed and that's absolutely fine. However, it is silly to say that breastfeeding has benefits because it doesn't. Biologically the majority of women 'should' be bf until their baby self weans, whether that's 12m or 6 years. When we formula feed; we are at higher risk of sids,!obseisty, childhood cancers, various other things because it is not the biological norm.

It is not judgemental to state facts. It also doesn't matter if the risks are small. Sometimes the mental health benefits of stopping (because bf is bloody hard work sometimes) outweigh the risks of stopping.
However, there are risks and it is important that everyone is aware of those.

I don't believe fed is best. I don't believe breast is best (because it isn't always best!) I believe informed is best. Women should have all the facts about it so that they can base their choice on information.

Lots of women stop bf before they actually want to because they don't have all the support and information they need. If they have that and still want to stop. I'm the first person to support their decision, but I'm the first person to encourage bf if that's what they want.

Coffee - thank you for sharing. Had a quick read but couldn’t see anything about the size of the studies. Will read properly later. I don’t know anyone with the negative indicators reported

The percentages are not miniscule. The NHS think that hospital admissions for babies would be reduced by 50% if all women bfed their babies for the recommended time.

Please can you provide some evidence to back that up, where exactly the NHS said that all hospital admissions for babies would be cut in half if all babies were breastfed? Id be really interested to see that, otherwise id have to assume you're talking a load of big hairy bollocks

Also this shows language is important:

"However, there are risks and it is important that everyone is aware of those."

The individual benefits of breastfeeding are absolutely tiny. Infestismal. Formula feeding a baby is not conferring a risk. Risk suggests exposure to danger. There is no evidence whatsoever that a formula fed baby is at a SIGNIFICANTLY increased danger of obesity/sids and all the other things mentioned. They might have a very slightly increased chance of those things, possibly. Of course, breastfed babies might grow up obese too. What you feed them after a year will have far more of an impact on their health than whether they were breastfed or not.

Like i said, breastfeeding isn't that important. Your baby will be fine either way.

ShesMadeATwatOfMePam, the info I shared comes from the A4 booklet that all pregnant women are given in the UK, entitled 'Mothers and others guide', and conforms with 'best practice standards' as recognised by NICE and The UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative. The exact wording is this....'research shows that if all 4 month old babies were exclusively breastfed it would reduce hospital admissions for under ones by over 50%'.

I do agree with you however, about your definition of risk. Doing one thing that is slightly less safe than something else, does not make it an unsafe option. A little like choosing to travel by plane or train, one option statistically is slightly more risky than the other, but both options are safe options. Excuse the clumsy analogy!

The hospital admissions that the book refers to, I suspect refers to reasonably minor ailments such as ear ingestions and gastroenteritis, for the most part.

@Temp123999 if breastfeeding is so nutritious then why do I have to supplement with vitamin D drops? Whereas if I just used formula I don’t have to supplement with anything?

P.s. I do try not to talk a load of big hairy bollocks, wherever possible, but I love the metaphor...

[quote amymel2016]@Temp123999 if breastfeeding is so nutritious then why do I have to supplement with vitamin D drops? Whereas if I just used formula I don’t have to supplement with anything?[/quote]
Nutritional value might really be calorific value
Breast milk is more calorific but due to its composition breastfed babies gain weight more slowly.

Nutrition aside I didn’t give any of my children vitamin drops as breastfed babies. As I weaned then I just regularly fed them foods which are rich in vitamin D and they also had exposure to natural sunlight for fifteen to twenty minutes a day without sun protection. From the age of Three they will have or had Children’s vitamins.

kellymom.com/nutrition/milk/milkcalories/

@ShesMadeATwatOfMePam

The percentages are not miniscule. The NHS think that hospital admissions for babies would be reduced by 50% if all women bfed their babies for the recommended time.

Please can you provide some evidence to back that up, where exactly the NHS said that all hospital admissions for babies would be cut in half if all babies were breastfed? Id be really interested to see that, otherwise id have to assume you're talking a load of big hairy bollocks

Also this shows language is important:

"However, there are risks and it is important that everyone is aware of those."

The individual benefits of breastfeeding are absolutely tiny. Infestismal. Formula feeding a baby is not conferring a risk. Risk suggests exposure to danger. There is no evidence whatsoever that a formula fed baby is at a SIGNIFICANTLY increased danger of obesity/sids and all the other things mentioned. They might have a very slightly increased chance of those things, possibly. Of course, breastfed babies might grow up obese too. What you feed them after a year will have far more of an impact on their health than whether they were breastfed or not.

Like i said, breastfeeding isn't that important. Your baby will be fine either way.

This took me second on google

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022347614010658

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/mcn.12263

Reasonable contemporaneous and it shows that there is this sort of research being carried out

I don’t want to add into the online war being waged here between a certain individual and many of you but this sort of thing makes for interesting reading

I don’t wear anything special. Happily feeding my 17 month old. One day your boob is bigger than your baby’s head and it takes two hands to do a feed. The next they do it pretty much by themselves, you can feed hands free lying down and nod off. It gets quicker and easier. Your milk is naturally sterile, the perfect temperature and always available. You can go out for the day and decide to stay as long as you like as you’ve got milk on tap. You can eat what you like and the weight will probably continue to come off. It’s the best of helping them with teething, grumpiness, night time wake ups, bumps and scrapes, the hormones help them and you get back to sleep quickly. No equipment, only special items are feeding bras which you already have.

Stop when you feel ready. Carry on as long as you want to. You’re doing brilliantly. Your baby is very lucky.

@amymel2016

@Temp123999 if breastfeeding is so nutritious then why do I have to supplement with vitamin D drops? Whereas if I just used formula I don’t have to supplement with anything I’m not replying to posts with information and statistics due to the insults because I choose to breastfeed and know it’s the best thing for babies.
If you need info on Vitamin D you can PM me or google it

I do get what op means about the clothes and it became a real bugbear of mine. I have large breasts anyway and used the breastfeeding bras which I hate then you have to do the best and top thing one loose enough to pull up and the best easy enough to pull down. I think if your very thin it works well, if you're not then there are issues. And I hated all specific breastfeeding tops with flaps. The whole thing is deffo a faff in that respect and I actually enjoyed lockdown because I could just wear one crappy top no one else would see

I would carry on bf. Formula is a hassle all the sterilising bottlesand mixing bottles. I've done both and honestly bf is so much easier.

@ShesMadeATwatOfMePam
"The individual benefits of breastfeeding are absolutely tiny"
Can you share a link to this info please?
I was always made to believe the benefits of breast feeding are significant.

I’ve read the material but lots is not relevant as it’s not comparing like for like. On an individual basis there appears to be little difference. Everyone can only look at their own family and friends for what happened there. My DC’s, 100% ff haven’t had any of the negatives mentioned. Would they have done equally well if they were bf, probably .

My personal experience was that the first twelve weeks were utterly gruelling and I was wasted from lack of sleep. After that it was a doddle. (I EBF, and continued for 18 months).

I don't know how often mums manage to combination feed successfully for any duration, but in the experience of some mums in my BF peer support group this was where BF started to go wrong. As it's done on demand and your body provides exactly the quantity your baby needs, top-up feeds can start to interfere with your supply. This is anecdotal, though, and might not be any indication of a general experience.

Another thing that tends to worry BF mums is the cluster-feeding, which is exhausting while it's happening but is nature's way of getting your body to make more milk. It doesn't go on forever. The problem here is that it's often interpreted as the baby being constantly hungry, therefore your supply must be insufficient. Hence top-up feeds are introduced and the same problem happens. This stuff all tends to iron itself out a few months in and all is fine as long as the baby keeps gaining weight.

It's great that you've BF for the first months and, whatever you choose to do now, your baby has had a great start. IMO once you've considered the options you should now move on in whatever way you see fit 💐

The individual benefits of breastfeeding are absolutely tiny.

This is not true. By all means feed your own baby as you see fit; it's no one else's business but yours. I couldn't care less how other mums feed their kids; what does stick in the craw is when people peddle demonstrable untruths as justification of that choice.