Did you ever regret formula feeding from birth?

[Needsomeguidance103]

I say from birth but I’m considering ff as soon as we get home from the hospital after giving baby colostrum in the hospital.

With DS I tried, and tried, and tried to get him to latch but due to a rough start in nicu and latching issues we stopped at 9 weeks and I went onto formula. I think I have a bit of trauma from it all… I’m thinking will it be easier, especially with a toddler at home to do bottles/formula from day one?

Did you ever regret not trying breast feeding or are you happy with your choice?

please no arguments or nastiness in the comments, happy for discussions and opinions though

i was in a similar position to you when my dd was born 5lbs at 35 weeks. i never intended to do anything other than breast feed and hadnt bought bottles/formula. i tried and tried breast feeding and expressed when she just could not get the hang of it (despite having a lot of support from professionals and family,im a midwife and my family were health visitors ,pediatricians and midwives). It was exhausting .
At 8 weeks with weight dropping i decided to formula feed (best decision for me and my DD all things considered at that moment in time) I felt guilt initially, that subsided as my DD thrived.
Then came my DS 4 years later, i had decided i wasn't putting myself or my baby through the ordeal of struggling with breast feeding and had decided to formula feed from the get go. When DS was born i thought i'd give breast feeding for colostrum benefits a go,then switch to formula. My DS took to breast feeding immediately and would not take a bottle . I breast fed him for 2 years.
Bottom line do what is best for you and your baby .
My kids developed happily and healthily despite differing feeding methods.
I dont feel guilt about the decisions i made and the only people who need an explanation as to your decisions are your kids.

No. I assumed (as I had big boobs) that id have no issues. Ended up having an early c section and milk never came in: what was I supposed to do? As it turned out Baby lives a routine and loved formula. I’m not going to feel bad about that.

Nope, not for a second. I formula fed from the hospital onwards (and wasn't judged for it).

I was also bought HIPP ready-made formula (I appreciate that this isn't financially viable for everyone), so never had to worry about heating water to the right temperature, mixing powder etc.

FF all my children from birth , BF was never on my radar , and both are now adults who have never had any health issues. Don’t regret my decision at all

i think you should try and if it’s stressful then you don’t continue and there is no guilt in that. My sister had to ff her first and felt a bit bad but accepted it wasn’t working and mental health is important. She is bf her second because the second gets it and it’s not been a struggle like with the first. I had it the other way around in that my first was a natural and my second really wasn’t however because I tandem fed and knew how to do it I managed it but that was literally only because I knew what I was doing had he been my first I would have had to stop. So my opinion is try and see how you get on as you may get a baby who takes to it naturally and breastfeeding is sooo much easier middle of the night than formula and going out not having to worry about bottles etc but if your baby doesn’t take to it then fed is best and there is nothing to be guilty or ashamed of- a mother without PND is far more important xx

I wouldn’t have if It was my only option and if I didn’t want to breastfeed.

I really think regret or guilt is more likely to creep in if deep down YOU want to breastfeed (not your nurse/mum/in law and other voices) and you feel like you could have tried.

But you have experienced how hard it is, so this time round, even if you try, and it doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter. Formular exists for a reason.

Although recently I’ve been thinking the opposite. With my first I breastfed, got an infection 2 months in and went to formula. She had constipation but is fine now as a teen. My second I breastfeed exclusively for 6 months, started formula after 6 months (mix) and I have had so many issues with his vitamins - he has had to have boosters and I’m thinking “damn it, should have given him some formula) - he is only 2 so still going through it. But we do our best for our babies.

I BF my first until 15 months and my second was EBF until 4 months or thereabouts, I didn't plan to EBF but he was born 9 weeks prem , he didn't latch well so I expressed all feeds for 4 months which was horrific. The day I switched him to formula changed my life. I would genuinely recommend it for mental wellbeing especially with two.

Fed my 1st for a year. Painful start but we got there. So easy and didn’t think twice about it

My son was born 20yrs later and was v tiny. Wouldn’t latch. Gave up after 4wks of hell. Felt a failure.

My last DD was brilliant. Knew what to do. However when she was 8wks old I got sepsis and went into ITU so she had to be ff. no choice.

When I gained consciousness, I’d feed her once a day in hospital and eventually built back up to exclusively bf. Had to give up at 8 months as I wasn’t recovering quickly enough to return to work.

Every baby is different. I did find nipple shields really helped me with the initial pain as I’m v fair skinned.

Nope. I didn’t want to breastfeed. To be honest the idea of it gave me the heebie jeebies. I don’t know why. I’m sure there is some deep rooted psychological reason but meh.

My daughters are 9 and 11 now. I’ve barely given it any thought since they stopped bottle feeding.

No, not at all. I have 2 DC. With both of them I put them to the breast for the first couple of days to give colostrum and then switched to the bottle. I've had a great experience with formula. I remember watching my SIL with awe as she breastfed DN but also thinking there is just no way I could cope with that. The thought of every feed being my sole responsibility was just too overwhelming.

Nope, not in the slightest. DS had to be fed pretty urgently at one point in hospital and we tried and tried to BF. He just kept resting his head there 😂 formula fed exclusively and zero regrets. DD I managed a week and it was awful, chunks of my nipples came off, it was never ending and she was never happy. Of the two, despite never being BF I can easily say DS has a far stronger immune system.

A massive benefit is DH being able to be so involved and share the load, do all the night feeds, generally be involved in things so much more.

Yeah I genuinely think breastfeeding would have ended my marriage. It was hard enough sharing the load.

I’m not sure it would have been that bad but I guess if you BF then DH quite literally gets all the sh1tty jobs!

No, because if I hadn't done my DD would have died of starvation. Nothing wrong with FF.

Not at all. Never considered breastfeeding at all. My DH did lots of the feeding which meant I got lots of sleep!

Nope. Best decision I ever made.

What I regret is attempting to BF my first. Didn’t last long but I loathed every second and I wish I’d never bothered. FF my second from birth and never even considered BF.

Fed is the minimum, and formula has drawbacks compared to breast milk. But, some mums simply don’t want to try breastfeeding, and others (much fewer than you’d think) aren’t physically able to do so. A lot of mums give breastfeeding a go but don’t have the support in the early weeks meaning they give up sooner than they’d like. We are lucky in the UK that mums can choose which they’d prefer and all options are socially acceptable.

That’s really interesting @Livingthebestlife as in my experience the beauty of breastfeeding is the portability and convenience and complete lack of any need to be tied to schedules as you just feed on demand! I’ve fed absolutely all over the place 😄

Not, one, bit. Don’t be worrying at all about it. I’ve 3 kids, oldest breastfed, hasn’t made a blind bit of difference, and actually he’s the only one of them who gets recurrent desperate ear infections! I happy mama is much, much more important

I could have written your post. I had a very difficult Breastfeeding experience with my first and I persevered for way too long when it was quite clear that it was never gonna work out. The second time I was kinder to myself and tried on day one but when it didn’t work, I just moved to the bottle and forgot all about it. Much better all round!

So … my children are now 15-18. So it was a long time ago.
i tried to breastfeed but found it incredibly painful and just has a screaming baby first time. It really put me off for my second and couldn’t work out how to manage b/feeding a baby with a toddler. Also my friends who were b/feedong looked so knackered and resentful of the partners it just didn’t look appealing. They all had there militant regimes which involved listening to a lot of crying.

The evidence that breast of best just never goes away - and that is hard to read/hear.
I wish that I had support to combination feed early on. But I probably needed more grandma support for that. So I sort of do regret it but I think, with the support available and just me as I was at the time , I did the right thing for us at the time

I regret giving in to social media requests from my kids too but I did what I thought was right at the time! Regrets and things not being ideal are part of parenting

DS is 29 and I very much regret it. I ended up pumping for over a year, so the worst of both worlds.

No. Best decision for me. Ds is nearly 13. He is happy, healthy and doing well at school. I was formula fed too. I think I turned out OK. Honestly though can you tell which adults were breast fed and which were not

Not at all.

3 DC and all formula fed from day 1 in hospital.

It's so easy and meant DH could do his fair share of feeds and it wasn't all down to me.

FF is absolutely amazing. I dont regret it and loved the option.