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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

How do you feel about how you were fed as a baby?

143 replies

LoisLame · 15/02/2011 12:36

As the title says really.

When I was trying to get bf going with DD, we had a pretty bad time of it. She was crying for a feed. I was crying in anticipation of the pain when she would latch on. DH was crying because everyone else was crying. And he would always say to me "DD will appreciate you going through all this to give her the best start you can". DD is 6mths old now and still breastfeeding (mix fed with Infatrini) and I keep thinking about what he used to say.

So if you were breastfed, do you appreciate what your mum did for you? Are you grateful? If you were formula fed, do you resent it? Or does it really not make a blind bit of difference now you're all grown up?

I was formula fed in the early 80s. I'm thankful my mum fed me full stop - no matter what method she used. The only gripe I have about it is that she doesn't understand why I've gone through so much to carry on breastfeeding. I don't know what the bf/ff debate situation was like back then. I just really wish she could see it through my eyes.

OP posts:
Mammie81 · 15/02/2011 12:39

I wasnt breast fed. Apparently my mum tried and I wouldnt latch so 'I didnt want her'.

Im sure she feels terrible, esp as Ive got terrible ezcema now and my brother doesnt (he was breast fed for 12 months)

Im also tubby and he isnt.

Mammie81 · 15/02/2011 12:41

Also, like you, my mum doesnt understand what Ive been through trying to breast feed either (we are mixed feeding until DS has reached a stable weight and then Im going to try and go back to breast alone)

But I wont give up something just because its too hard [determined face]

MrsDmitriTippensKrushnic · 15/02/2011 12:46

I was bottlefed (my Mum apparently didn't produce enough milk, personally I think she just didn't get enough support but whatever)

I have no feelings one way or another. I breastfed because it was logical and convenient, and she supported me in my choices. I pretty sure she would have done the same if I'd exclusively formula fed too.

MrsDmitriTippensKrushnic · 15/02/2011 12:47

Actually that sounds a bit abrupt - bfing felt logical and convenient for me. I meant was making no ideological stand in choosing to feed my DC that way.

ShowOfHands · 15/02/2011 12:48

My Mum bfed. I'm pleased and proud that her feeding choice worked out for her. Beyond that I have very few feelings about it.

EauRouge · 15/02/2011 12:50

I'm another 1981 baby. My mum BF me for 7 months which I think is pretty impressive given that at the time it was way more common to FF.

Everyone in my extended family BF their children so I think she would have got support from her mother and sister rather than from HCPs.

She has always been very supportive of me BF. I think she's a bit surprised that I'm still BF DD who is 2.4 yo and that I've BF throughout this pregnancy and plan to tandem feed but then that is pretty unusual and most people are surprised by it.

Bramshott · 15/02/2011 12:50

When I was bf, I liked the thought that my mum had bf me, and her mum had bf her, so they could both offer advice and opinions from a position of knowledge.

coldtits · 15/02/2011 12:50

I was bottlefed and I don't care.

MoonUnitAlpha · 15/02/2011 12:51

I was breastfed for 7 months I think - I don't have any particular feelings about it though to be honest! I was glad that breastfeeding is the norm in my family/extended family though, as I think that made it a lot easier for me to breastfeed.

BarbieLovesKen · 15/02/2011 12:51

Ooh very interesting thread! will be watching with interest Smile

Im pretty sure I was ff. I have absolutely no feelings whatsoever about it. Im in the "doesnt make a blind bit of difference to me" camp.

Restrainedrabbit · 15/02/2011 12:52

I was BF for 9mths in the 70s which was almost unheard of :) I like the fact that I can ask my mother for advice and that it is seen as normal in our family so lots of support all round (my MIL BF both her sons for 9mths too).

But if I had been FF I wouldn't have thought any worse of my mother, she did her best for me and that is all that matters regardless of how I was fed.

pommedeterre · 15/02/2011 12:53

My mum mixed fed me for a bit and then went straight to ff. She ff my db from the start.
She fed me, cuddled me, kept me healthy. Why the hell would I resent anything she did for gawd sakes? What an odd idea. Both db and I slim and generally healthy.
She said bottles were bought round on trays in the post natal ward in those days. She thinks bf is great if it comes easily I think. She does however think that the idea of all the girls who fail/struggle to bf being made to feel so guilty is really, really shocking.
I agree with her. The 'natural' birth ideal followed by bfing does feel like another way to knock women down in today's society. Just to make sure we have every opportunity going to feel either smug vs other women or as shit as we can.
Rant over :)

ruddynorah · 15/02/2011 12:54

I was bf for a year. Spurred me on to do the same for my two.

JetSetWilly · 15/02/2011 12:55

I was bottle fed but would rather I was breastfed but I wasn't so [shrugs]

suzikettles · 15/02/2011 12:56

I was bf and it meant a lot when I was bf ds as my mum knew what I was going through and was very encouraging. I had friends whose ff mothers were very dismissive of them bf/almost seemed to feel threatned and slighted by their daughters' bf and that was an extra strain for them (obviously not all mothers who ff their babies feel like that).

Having said that, it was interesting to find out how early my mum switched to formula (early weaning in those days of course, and I was fed it from a cup which my mum doesn't seem to count), and that I was obviously formula fed at night in hospital as they basically drugged the mothers and kept all the babies overnight in the nursery. She did a good job to manage to bf me at all with that start.

It was a real bonding experience between me, my mum & my grandmother sharing our bf experiences - and finding out we all had the same problems with oversupply - but from a nutritional point of view? It had never crossed my mind to think about how I was fed as a baby tbh.

hmc · 15/02/2011 12:57

I don't give a damn how my mother fed me (I believe it was formula)

I am however cross with her for making me a fat kid and stuffing me with cakes and sweets

camerondiazepam · 15/02/2011 12:59

hmc I'm with you, whether bf of ff makes not a jot of difference to me, but I'd sooner not have had all those findus crispy pancakes thank you very much.

BarbieLovesKen · 15/02/2011 12:59

Ooh yes, just about the resenting thing (after reading pommedeterres post) God no! of course not. The fact that I was ff - well Ive never even thought about it/ dont care etc.. definately dont resent it.

Actually, its always been very clear that I was loved by her - she told me this daily, was very affectionate and even now we are unusually close. I dont know what Id do without her.

MIL breastfed youngest BIL. I hate to say it but she is not a good mother if Im honest, shes not a bad person but none of her 5 children ever remember her once saying she loved them/ cuddling them etc.. and now, they dont particulary like her. Shes very hard to talk to and none of them are at all close to her (including BIL).

Not that im turning this into a bf/ ff arguement - I think bf is fantastic but is a small drop in the ocean really. I just meant the above in relation to the resenting thing.

When I was bfing dd, my mother was very supportive, as she was when I formula fed ds.

ThePosieParker · 15/02/2011 13:00

Gosh I don't remember how I was fedGrin. FF but it was 1974 and my Mum was 21.

strawberrycake · 15/02/2011 13:00

I really am not bothered. She was a great mum (still is) and struggled with breast feeding so turned to bottles. I understand why and don't think it had any impact on me. In fact until I had my own child I never even knew how she fed me.

JaneS · 15/02/2011 13:01

Well, it's not as if I remember it! Grin

I was breast-fed for about 18 months and my little brother for over 2 years. TBA, I've heard so much about it that although I am really grateful to my mum, I am dreading what she'd say if I can't do it/don't do it for as long!

spongefingerssavedmylife · 15/02/2011 13:01

My mother ffd us, she tried bf for a week or so but 'couldn't get the hang of it'. I don't think she's thought of it since, but now that she has me bf my dds and how lovely it is she wishes she'd tried harder. I personaly don't mind how she fed me - she had no support, babies taken away all night, told to bf 4 hourly etc, she didn't have much chance to make it work.
It does annoy me that DH and SIl were weaned so early though as neither are great digestivley (IYKWIM).

Panzee · 15/02/2011 13:01

My mum formula fed. Don't know why. Don't care. I have no ear/asthma etc problems and didn't as a child.

BaggedandTagged · 15/02/2011 13:04

I was bf for 6 weeks, then mixed fed to 6 months as mum went back to work at 6 weeks.

I feel weird saying I'm glad she did as I really wouldn't mind if she hadn't. DH was ff. He's less bothered either way. Neither of us asked until we had DS and then really only out of interest.

FWIW I have one child and mixed feed (1 ff per day, bf the rest). Going to cut down to 2 bf per day from 6 mths.

EdgarAleNPie · 15/02/2011 13:04

my mum bfd all of us for a year.

i'm not sure i think much of it, though i am obscenely healthy...i'm impressed with her gumption - it did require a 'fuck-you' attitude to HCPs. but mother demonstrates that in other ways too.

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