To still be breastfeeding?

[FirstBaby886]

I have a 6.5 month old baby. Everyone (my parents, partner etc) were very supportive of me breastfeeding in the beginning. Now it's completely turned and I keep being told it's my fault if my life is hard. I just can't see how introducing formula would help?! Yes, grandma could look after him once a year (they live abroad!!!) and DH could give a bottle at the weekend, but I'm making the other 99% of bottles? I'm being told I should go on shopping days, nights out etc and I just don't want to.

I found breastfeeding incredibly hard in the beginning. But around 5 months it got so much easier and I feel like I've done the hard part, I may as well continue.

Baby has CMPA so choosing the right formula would be a pain in the arse anyway.

My parents are visiting and I've just been sat down for a lecture about how I'm too tied to this child and I should go out with my husband. I explained baby will be hungry in an hour and my mother's answer: let him go hungry a bit, he'll be fine.

I don't know if I'm a martyr or what?.

Of course then my husband could give a bottle every once in a while and would have an excuse to do fuck all around the house, that's my suspicion anyway.

My mum had severe PND with me and she's projecting a bit, I think. She keeps talking about what an ordeal having a baby is and how i should be taking care of myself.

Anyway, for those of you who started formula feeding, did everything really get so much better?

Does dh want to give a bottle?

What the heck does a breast surgeon know about it, that's not their area of expertise!

What a stupid thing to say!

Good grief, breastfeeding a small baby, whatever next 😉 I clicked on this thread expecting your child to be 3 or something, but at 6 months of course YANBU

Ignore them. Do what feels right for YOU - and it sounds like you’re doing great. ✨

FWIW, I’m still BF at nearly two years. You’re right, it starts off hard, but then so much easier. Thinking of stopping soon, but only because the time feels right for me and my family.

Don’t feel bad about immediately shutting down any conversations. Your decision, and you know you and your baby best. X

Whether DH wants to give a bottle is immaterial. It's really OPs choice.

My baby had lots of allergies so couldn't take normal formula, understandably spit allergy formula straight back out, and if I pumped I got lots of blocked ducts and engorgement issues. Pumping fucked with my supply and my breasts didn't like it, didn't have a single blocked duct before trying to pump and didn't have another after I stopped. Totally understand everyone is different and may not have that issue but if OP doesn't want the faff of expressing her DH wanting to give a bottle doesn't override that.

Your baby is still very young so please know that if you want to continue to bf then you are making the best choice for them. Aim for 12 months and anything after that is a bonus.
I fed my youngest until 4 plus but I know that stemmed from having a micro premmie who I never got to bf. Try to ignore the comments and read up on the benefits of bf.
I did express to donate to a milk bank initially but it meant my husband could give a bottle in the middle of the night which helped with the physical exhaustion that comes with bf.

I breastfed until my youngest was 4

Was expecting you to say your child was 8yo or something 😂

6.5m is tiny. I'm all for breastfeeding.intonthe toddler years - I don't know how to resolve toddler tantrums without! It totally makes all our lives easier. Toddler wakes at night and falls straight back to sleep with breastfeeding. Toddler has a tantrum - breastfeeding helps them regulate. Toddler is ill or teething - breastfeeding provides comfort and pain relief. I've never understood the argument about making life harder for yourself!

Don’t. It’s a complete nightmare. Sterilising. Making bottles. Not being able to fed on demand the same or test quick with a nip whether food is the answer to a meltdown. Feeding in night having to actually get out of bed. Dealing with bottles, and Flasks, sterilisers and remnants of slowly going off milk carrying round in your changing bag. Eww.

I did eventually switch when we did the sleep training. That worked well for us at 9/10 months. But there’s no way I am getting out of bed in middle of night a bottle. That’s a hill I will die on.

Me too. Mine was 4 and about 16 ish months 😆

I breastfed for 14 months and it does feel like at a certain point people switch from thinking it's great to asking when you're going to stop.

From memory I couldn't really leave my baby in the evening till he was quite old but from 6 months someone else could give him solid food for lunch and water to drink and I could be without him in the day for a little bit. He would feed to sleep but if I wasn't there someone else could take him for a walk in the pram and he'd go to sleep that way. Evenings he would need me though.

So you might find that baby eating solid food could give you a bit more freedom, but you absolutely shouldn't feel pressure to leave your baby or stop breastfeeding.

It’s weird that they have an issue with it. Formula feeding is more stressful with sterilising, finding the right flow rate, remembering to pack bottles, prep stuff, potential allergies and cost. If you are happy breastfeeding then there’s really no need to switch.

Stick with it, it’s so much easier than faffing with bottles. I bf my 4. No 1 until 6m, no 2 until 6m. Really regret stopping them then. Bf no 3 until 2.5 and no 4 until she was 4!

I bf ds 1 for a year then twins till around 14 mths & got a lot of ‘advice’ to move to formula! DH did loads of housework etc when he wasn’t at work but FF would have been a faff with twins as I was on my own with them a lot. There was no-one offering to have them on a regular basis to give me a break so Imo I was best to just carry on bf as long as I wanted to. It was easier in a lot of ways though more difficult when out & about!

Do what suits you & your baby not what family & friends think you should do! Some mums desperately need s break/ night out etc others are happy to wait till baby is older/ eating other foods than just milk!

You poor thing - how annoying that people think they have any say over your choices. I’m another one in support of doing what you feel is best for you and your baby.

I thought you were going to say you were breastfeeding a 5 year old!

I'm not sure why you'd switch to formula at 6 months, I found breastfeeding much easier by then.

With ds1 I worried so much about him not taking a bottle and feeling like I need to go out etc etc. When I had ds2 I just accepted that I would be tied to him for the best part of a year and my life was much easier as a result.

And yes like you said - your dh and relatives can give a bottle but you'd still be doing the majority of the feeds.

As a dietitian and mum to babies with CMPA.
Dont listen to them, you are doing what is right for you and your baby.
For CMPA babies under 12 months you would need a prescribed formula from the GP which won’t be easy to get sorted. I’d recommend keep BF until at least 12 months. Then if you feel different you can go to shop bought oat milk.

6.5 months! I thought you were going to say 6.5 YEARS for this kind of reaction. Ignore and continue.
If you don’t already then I would recommend pumping and giving bottles of expressed milk because if you are going back to work you don’t want the stress of a bottle refuser. Plus then you have the best of both worlds of being able to leave baby for a few hours if you want to, but not having to.
But otherwise, god no! You haven’t made it this far to stop now you’re finding it easier.

You're doing great, go you!!

Breastfeeding, if it works well and you don't have to bugger about with pumping and formula tops ups, must be easier than bottles. They're a faff.

Your baby is so young. Of course they should still be breastfeeding if you're still happy with it.

I'm breastfeeding my 9mo and would love to make it to 2!

I best fed mine until nearly 4. You do, you :)

My baby never had a bottle, to the point he went from breast straight to open top/sippy cup at maybe 7 months old when he'd been weaned onto food, and he still has breastfeeding at almost 2. He had formula once or twice but for some reason it didn't come together for us and it was breast all the way. It was never a planned or conscious choice, just what worked for me.

Time with your husband will come back, all the rest will. For now, just go with what feels right for you and baby because you know best. To everyone who's trying to "help" just say "thank you very much, I'll think about it"...then forget it.

Carry on breastfeeding! So good for baby. Bottles sound like a faff if you dont need to do it.

I had BFed CMPA bottle refuser. Much simpler to keep them BFed and gradually wean on to food & water.

With both my bottle refusers, I went back to work at 10m and they had enough solids to last through nursery all day and caught up on milk in the evenings.

I BFed until 13 & 20 months.

I doubt any of these opinionated idiots fancy funding hypoallergenic formula that costs more than standard formula...