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?

WHY do people breastfeed? Are you taking the piss @choolaboola ???

Very good point and I am hoping to travel with them! Thank you!

No, but you do seem to think people don’t have the right to query breastfeeding on a parenting forum, which seems very counterintuitive…

@Blueeyedgirl21 I don't think that's a myth, I think giving a bottle early can damage the latch when breastfeeding, also if the bottle isn't pace fed babies can develop a preference for the bottle as the flow is faster

I didn't even consider it as I don't hear much about it - off to research that one. Thank you!

I think there's so many pros and cons. I BF two babies for short periods of time, both for the first few weeks. Having then FF for several months, I can't imagine the absolute faff of making a bottle of formula from the get go, as babies' stomachs are so tiny, and they feed so often they must have about an ounce a time at the most? And then want another ounce an hour later? For that stage, BF definitely felt way more convenient for me.

But lots of the things you mentioned are definitely true, and lots of friends and family have had nightmares with bottle refusers, sleep, the non-feeding parent not able to comfort the baby ever. Sleep isn't a given of course and my two babies have slept differently, but they have generally been decent sleepers and the bad sleepers I've known have almost always been BF, certainly in the first 6 months before teething plays a part.

I think the bond of BF is a biggie. Neither of my DC have ever been "mummy's boys/girls" and actually tended to favor DH when they were younger, and the ones I know amongst friends and family who are very much "all for mum" tend to be those who are BF. That could be a pro or a con depending on how you see it!

I bf all mine, including twins. Mainly because I'm lazy and stingy, so the thought of free breastfeeding, involving no washing up and minimal movement in the night (and day!) appealed to me.

I was very lucky that I had no problems feeding any of mine, bar the twins being in SCBU to begin with.

I'm not a sociable person, so not being able to go out didn't really affect me. I think missed one party because of not being able to take a baby.

I was happy to feed them in public, so it didn't affect me going out for the day etc.

And no washing up! Hooray for less housework!

I'm not sure why I'm getting all the grief, did you see the first reply to the thread?

they did a follow up piece, Tele:
amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jun/20/is-breast-really-best-i-looked-at-all-the-data-to-find-out

This study was able to do that, by looking at a sample of siblings where one sibling was breastfed and one was not. This analysis – sometimes called a “sibling fixed effects” analysis – is able to fully control for all characteristics of the mother and is a more convincing way to isolate the impacts of breastfeeding. When the authors did this, they found that the effect of breastfeeding on IQ was 0.02 points – basically, zero.

Hassle??? It's literally the opposite.

It's easy, free, and comforts the kid almost every time.

You only hear the bad stuff because people aren't going to be writing mad ranty profound posts about something going well, and feeling natural to them.

If you can then I think combi feeding is best that way you get the best of both worlds. If it doesn't work out though then I'd take the inconveniences of breastfeeding over the inconveniences of formula any day. When my breastfed baby wakes in the night I just roll over and feed him - I'd hate to have to get up and make a bottle or rock him. I don't have a very active social life though so don't feel like I'm missing out on much!

Oops

I combi fed one and EBF the other. The EBF was soooooooooo much easier.

She latched at 45 mins old and never had an issue. Put on weight easily and was a super chunky thing.

She slept like a dream 10-5 90% of the time from 8 weeks old. Napped easily in her cot or in the pram.

She had a great routine once the newborn cluster feeds were past. I could easily leave her between feeds if I needed. She was in such a routine I just had to plan things around that.

Ok I had to turn down a kid free wedding but it was only for 1 year that I couldn't be away over night. Actually had my first night away from her at 13 months old.

No bottles to make either. I just picked up baby and put her on the boob. Easy peasy.

My combi fed baby slept badly, has CMPA, weight issues, was in a good routine after newborn months but I had to plan his bottles into our day. I couldn't just grab baby and go. From my experience I cannot recommend formula feeding at all. I'm so glad I only had 2 bottles a day to do.

So for me breastfeeding was a lot less hassle.

Hi all - ok thank you. I genuinely didn't mean to start a big debate or cross words.

You have given me plenty of info there which is much appreciated and I'll read this eve!

I didn't expect this to blow up - maybe that shows my MN newness also 😬

I have ff one and bf three and I found bfing much harder work to be honest. My formula fed baby slept better and I could easily leave him with his dad to get a break etc. My bf babies needed me to be around pretty much all the time for a long long time and I found that I became just...mum and milk bar. The breaks and evenings out I could have with dc1 were a distant memory. But I bf them each until 2 so I made a rod for my own back really. Probably could have cut down sooner.

I combi fed for convenience but I would rather I was giving my babies, the majority of the time, the most nutritious food made perfectly for them than a processed food. I try to avoid prosessed foods for myself so I don't want my babies main food source to be.

I did both and I can say breast feeling was a lot less hassle than constantly sterilising bottles, making up feeds when out and about. Neither of mine slept better when bottle fed.

I wanted to BF for the (small I know) health benefits to baby and me. I also knew it would be a lot cheaper than FF and I was poor on mat leave! Breast feeding is so much easier than FF once you get past those initial few weeks of hell! My second was bottle fed for 3 weeks as she was prem, jaundiced and wouldn’t latch and I found the constant making and sterilising of bottles (even shared with DH) to be a massive faff.

Establishing BF is the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I’m glad I persevered. But I can’t ever say that IRL obviously, it’s an emotive topic.

I breast fed one and bottle fed one and they both had pros and cons.

The bottle fed baby was a dream, slept all night and I was really chilled with her because it wasn’t all on me all the time. Less stressful in terms of pressure on myself and easier to get into a routine.
Breast fed baby was easy because I never had to worry about bottles/sterilising/no waking up in the night to make a bottle, just attached to the boob and was nice and easy. But he was a nightmare about taking the bottle, didn’t sleep and it was a much harder parenting experience and I felt I was under lots of pressure.

I would do a combo of both if I had another. Everyone told me not to mix when I was bf’ing as my supply would stop, so I left it too late and he would never accept a bottle. So I’d mix from the start pretty much.

This.

Bf isn’t always difficult or inconvenient. I found it an absolute doddle but I ignored all of the nipple confusion nonsense (The Baby Whisperer book has lots of helpful advice about this). My two both had a dummy and I expressed from quite early on so dh could feed them if I needed a sleep or to pop out. They never had any issues with doing both, although my horrible first health visitor was dead against it and said that if I couldn’t be bothered I should just switch to formula.

Bf was actually far easier than pumping and sterilising but I did all that just to give myself a short break every now and then which I found invaluable.

I love breastfeeding and think it’s an awful lot easier. I couldn’t imagine having to prepare and sterilise bottles all the time. I was lucky that my DS latched quite easily and I didn’t have trouble with supply. I did have trouble with blocked ducts but taking lecithin stopped that. I’ve also been able to go out plenty and even left DS for a night with his nana when he was 4 1/2 months (luckily he takes the bottle fine also). Only problem is having to pump when out without him.
I love it and think it’s an awful lot easier personally.

This is why I loved breastfeeding:

• I had a an overwhelming physical urge to do it - felt to me like the “right” thing ti do for my babies and natural continuation of pregnancy
• proven health benefits for me and them
• amazing tool to comfort them whenever hungry/tired/sick/grumpy/bored
• free
• always available with no planning/organisation needed (but see below).

This is what I didn’t like:

• was hard to establish with baby 1 who had a tongue tie, so was painful for early days
• meant that babies were very reliant on me as opposed to DH/anyone else. Sometimes I felt touched out. (I couldn’t pump and mine never took a bottle - this issue could be solved by expressing/combi feeding)

For the me the pros overwhelmingly outweighed the cons but it’s a personal decision. Fed my kids for 13 months and 18 months.

Did both for reasons I won’t bother to get into and BF really has its advantages - easy, quick, health, bonding, no messing about with sterilisation. But formula also means you can get someone else to mind your child for a bit (this is not why we did both!). I don’t think sleep really factored into it much.

@Wouldloveanother
Everything I read at the time pointed to significant health advantages to mother and baby through breast feeding. Most of my friends breast fed for that reason. It seemed to be a way of giving your baby a good start in life. I have noticed that breast cancer is more common in women who didn't breastfeed.
The rates for breast feeding are low in this country compared to other similar countries. THere are so many good reasons for breast feeding to be encouraged

I've formula fed one (initially bf but gave up early on), mixed fed twins and exclusively bf one.
My exclusively bf one slept better than the ff one.
I really can't remember really wanting to go out much without them in the 0-6 months phase.
With the twins I was doing well to get out of my PJs.

Oh it really isn't. It was a PITA for me. My son has CMPA so tbf it might be easier if no allergies present. That prescription formula though ... omg it stinks on the way in and stinks on the way out.