To think breastfeeding is a hassle?

[choolaboola]

Apologies in advanced if this is offensive as I know some BF people feel really passionate about it - BUT - can I please ask, why do people breastfeed?

First time pregnancy here - all I read is "my BF baby won't sleep" "I can't leave them down" "I can't go to XYZ months in because Im exclusively BF" etc.

I'm genuinely wondering is it a much harder path to go down? My friends, sisters, mum and MIL have all formula fed and as far as I can see, the outcome is the same. So I'm just wondering what other people's thoughts are?

Posters aren’t ever allowed to query the strengths and weaknesses of various methods of infant feeding? Is this a parenting forum, or have I landed on a tennis forum by accident?

I bf 5 kids and it was fine.
I had to bottle-feed my youngest as he lost more than his 10% weight.
But I found it a hassle.
As soon as I was home I bf him.

I think if you want to ff that's your decision,but the reasons you are giving for not bf are not necessarily true
It depends more on the baby than what you feed them with.

• middle of the night.

I bf but also give one to three bottles of formula in a day depending on what we are up to and how hungry she is. She is a very hungry baby who jumped from 5th to 30th centile in first 6 weeks so feeding her was round the clock and I opted for a combo of expressed milk and aptamil in a bottle to save my sanity, so shoot me lol.

I have to say it feels like all my formula fed friends babies are sleeping through and mine isn’t !!

Aside from the health benefits of BF, my experience is:

Pros:

• really nice bonding experience with baby
• is a quick method of just popping baby on breast
• if out and about it avoids the need for taking bottles and formula
• don't have to keep sterilising bottles
• Cheaper than buying formula
• My baby finds comfort in BF'ing versus bottle and so will fall asleep quicker
• sometimes babies don't take to bottles and will only take breast or settle on breast

Cons:

• doesn't always come easily to some
• not always practical to BF when out in public due to clothing/seating/privacy
• can sometimes take longer to feed baby than formula due to amount of milk producing
• if you're not expressing then feeding duties is put solely on the woman
• BF babies tend to wake up more in the night

I did combo feeding as my baby was not too fussy and didn't have a preference over one and I also didn't want to do solely BF'ing or formula due to the reasons above. However, it is completely down to individuals what they do and why and it is for nobody to judge.

I have a 5 week old and breastfeeding. Yes it can be difficult at first but actually it's much easier than bottle feeding in my opinion. I can feed anywhere at any time, don't have to faff with sterilising bottles or worrying about making bottles up when we are out. I don't need to move from my bed in the night to feed which is great. In terms of sleep she has slept very well from the start, currently doing 6 hours at night followed by a feed and another 2.5 hours. Everyone's different and I guess it's what suits the individuals lifestyle etc but breastfeeding is much easier for me.

If a mother is able to breastfeed and has no triggering reasons not to then I honestly cannot understand why anyone would choose formula over breast milk for their baby.
Why pay for formula when you can give your baby better nourishment for free.
It's the mum's choice though and if she is happy then that's good for the baby too.

If you are concerned about hassle, well kids are quite a hassle in general.

bf can be a pain as you either need to express or take baby with you (I like my babies so I take them but will have to leave them for work).
bottle feeding is a faff as you have to buy stuff, clean stuff, carry stuff, make stuff.

Babies are a faff!

I also believe in the health benefits. I think there's a lot we still don't know about breast milk and the relationship between baby and mother in terms of what each gets from it, and I think that human milk for human babies is the best option if it's at all possible.

My friend has a perfect prep on her bedside table with bottles with formula powder measured into. It takes hardly much more time than for me to prop myself up and take my t shirt off than for her to make a bottle tbh. But they’re very expensive to buy and she has THREE!

I'v just been out at the beach all day and didn't have to worry at all about how many bottles to take.
She also sleeps 10 hours solid a night at 4 months

There's pros and cons for both. I wanted to breastfeed, probably because of the ease! From what I saw of my friends who breastfed it was literally put baby's mouth on breast and then feed!! Much easier than making bottles, preparation, sterilising bottles, trying to prepare feed for when you're out all day.

I've breastfed my 2 kids. Both for around 13 months.

Yes, it's hard work. Especially in the early weeks/months. It definitely gets easier. And considerably so with my second. I didn't have any of the struggles the second time round.

I found the benefits outweighed the down side.
Building such a beautiful bond/connection. Breastfeeding gave me a real freedom to do what I wanted without being restricted. No need to sterilise bottles etc. meant going away for the weekend or out at the last minute was easy. Camping and getting flights with a baby.

If you are concerned about hassle, well kids are quite a hassle in general.

Well quite. If you think feeding and cuddling a tiny baby is hard, wait until they're an arsehole teenager.

From Cancer Research
Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding lowers the risk of developing breast cancer, particularly if you have your children when you are younger. The longer you breastfeed the more the risk is reduced.

It is not completely clear why this is. But the reduced risk might be because the ovaries don't produce eggs so often during breastfeeding. Or it might be because breastfeeding changes the cells in the breast so they might be more resistant to changes that lead to cancer.

BF is hard to start with formmany people but often gets easier. I personally hated it and never took to it with either of my children so did only a few months each which was fine for me
My best friend didn't do any as it made her feel I'll just thinking about it and ta-da everyone is fine and growing teens now

I breast fed, I found it easier and quicker but both my DS took to it well and I had no issues. DS1 would take a bottle if I wasn't there. DS2 wouldn't but we worked round it.
My personal experience with friends who have tried to BF is that they were not prepared for how often/how long feeds are. I don't think this information is as readily available as the 'breast is best' slogan.
I would wait to have your baby and decide what is best for you then.

Have you seen the price of formula? I told a double take in the supermarket the other day.

Forgot to add however when I bf dd in middle of night she falls asleep on boob in about ten mins and that’s her. Friends formula fed babies need winding and then settling back so it takes longer

That's good! I never thought of it like this

Hey OP, I am a FTM too and my daughter is now 19mo we are still breastfeeding now

When I was pregnant I wasn't much bothered, I was formula fed myself, I just thought I'd do my best and if I wanted to formula feed I would. Didn't much think about it, I was too focused on the birth.

I wasn't prepared for how much I would want to breastfeed her once she was here. We were lucky in that in terms of latch, everything was fine. Emotionally, it was a huge transition to be so tied to another person and so relied on. The first 3/4 months were incredibly hard for me emotionally. But despite often being told to give her formula I don't know, I felt passionately that I didn't want to.

Once we started weaning at 6 months, it slowly became easier and easier and easier. After 12 months it's been a breeze.

People do say breastfed babies wake more, but studies have show that breastfeeding parents actually get more sleep over all. I presume because they don't have to get up and go make up a bottle. I fed my baby to sleep every night for the first year of her life, now sometimes her dad cuddles her to sleep.

A lot of women actually give up breastfeeding before they are ready because they aren't given the proper support.

I can only give my own experience because we're all different, but I found it incredibly difficult for the first few months but now I am glad that we persevered, it has always brought a great deal of comfort to my daughter and has been an utter blessing when she has been poorly. I suppose I did it even though it was hard because I love her so much.

Next time I will definitely be trying to go to breastfeeding groups for more support, but my daughter was born during covid and the support just wasn't there. I think this would have made a big difference.

Both is best !

seriously if you can combi feed then do that !! Benefits of breastmilk and No getting up to make bottles at night but if you introduce 1-2 bottles a day from early on you also then have a bit more freedom and options if you need to go out etc . Best of both worlds and I’m not sure why it isnt presented more often as an option as it’s great

I found BF more work than bottles for the first few weeks - that’s assuming that you have friends / relatives / a partner around who actually Helps with feeding baby.

But then Bf is less work for the next few years.

If you are a single mum / have a bone idle useless partner then it’s probably 50:50 at first and then BF is easier.

I found bottles pretty easy tbh. Run them through the diswasher and then the microwave. Barely more work than any other type of drinking cup. Perfect prep machine at home does a drinking temp bottle in minutes, used ready made out of the house which you just throw in your bag with a bottle and pour when a feed is due. Feed times were always predictable at every 4 hours during the day so I could plan according. Both of mine slept well- never more than 1 night feed from birth and an 8 hour stretch from 4-6 weeks. I don’t think I can credit that to formula, more a combo of a good routine and an awful lot of luck. But even of yours isn’t a great sleeper then as long as you have a partner and they’re not completely out useless then it’s not all on you and you can do proper overnight shifts and have a night off when you need it.

It’s about what works best for you and your family but for me that was definitely formula.

It's cheaper It's always the right temperature and you can't knock it over and spill it. My auntie used to add "and the cat can't get it". I breast fed both mu kids and I enjoyed it and they were happy.

When I went back to work at 8 mo and 13 mo I expressed once a day at work and used that to send to nursery for them to have expressed milk during the day until they could get to me. The downside was I got mastitis due to a badly fitting feeding bra and that I developed an insatiable appetite for Mini Twirls which has stayed with me