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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:
amothersplaceisinthewrong · 15/02/2011 13:05

I was formula fed and grew up a normal, healthy and intelligent.

I chose to formula feed mine who have grown up the same.

It bothers me not one jot how I was fed nor how anyone else feeds their baby. It DOES bother me when people get judged for their choices though. Each to their own.

ShatnersBassoon · 15/02/2011 13:05

I was breastfed, and I have no feelings about it.

onepieceoflollipop · 15/02/2011 13:06

My mum bf in the early 70s until 6 months (although solid food given alongside that from about 3 months I think)

As several others have said, the best thing about this is that she has been able to be more empathic and supportive as I have been able to bf my own dds.

dd1 fed all the time and my mum "confessed" that when my db was born (at home) she used to disregard advice at the time i.e. 4 hourly feeds and used to feed every 2-3 if he wanted it (and he did!) She felt sad that she hadn't challenged it with me, and that she thought I had probably been a bit hungry as a baby.

wannaBe · 15/02/2011 13:07

can't imagine why anyone would care really tbh. How a baby is fed is such a tiny tiny part of their life as to be almost insignifficant IMO. As long as they are actually fed the manner in which it happened is just irelevant really.

Although ironically there were far fewer alergies back then and far more babies were ff and weaned from about twelve weeks. coincidence much?

FortunateHamster · 15/02/2011 13:08

I was breastfed but I don't think I would care whether I was or not - perhaps if I had been ff I would blame my allergies on that, but I was bf and have them anyway! However, I am grateful that she has been very supportive of me breastfeeding and I think some of that comes from her own experiences. I also appreciate that she bf during a time when it was more common to bottlefeed.

At the same time, she bf my brother but for a much shorter period before putting him onto formula/solids as he was a 'hungry baby' and whenever I have trouble with DS lately she suggests formula. I understand why she did it and don't judge at all (I have in fact tried formula recently but DS screamed his head off) but sometimes her advice comes across a bit more like pressure.

tinierclanger · 15/02/2011 13:09

I was ff, and while I don't have any problem with that, I'm sad for my mum that the reason was that she tried to bf my brother and gave up because it was difficult and she didn't have any help or support.

MonkeysPunk · 15/02/2011 13:09

I was BF until 9m - never had any formulae.
I have asthma
I am overweight (a bit - though not obese - yet!)
Otherwise I'm fine though. I think it's fine whatever way my mum decided to feed me.

My older sibling was formulae fed (after the midwives told my mum it was less primitive to bottlefeed - and that she wasn't very good at BF - because her baby was too lazy - baby was induced and probably still pethedine drugged initially making baby quite sleepy...1960's) - older sibling has same weight issues as myself - but no asthma.

All my kids are BF - all have asthma. They're all different shapes and sizes weight wise too.

I mostly BF because I couldn't be faffed to get up in the night fiddling about with bottles/water/powder stuff - much easier to shove the baby's head up your T-shirt and let it help itself! Grin

melrose · 15/02/2011 13:11

I was Bf for 9 months (1976), my brother for 12 (1979)and my Mum was always v pro bf (neither of us ever had a bottle) I am pleased as tbh it meant that I never considered bottle feeding my babies and I ahve loved bf them!

MoonUnitAlpha · 15/02/2011 13:11

I think if you had health problems and were formula fed, then you would have that to blame it one - whereas if you were breastfed then any health issues are just how you're meant to be.

PatriciaHolm · 15/02/2011 13:11

I've got absolutely no idea, and don't care either way! Knowing my mum, she did her best either way, and that's what's important.

Alouiseg · 15/02/2011 13:12

I was breastfed for a year in 1969, my mum had the support of one midwife and had to fight tooth and nail against the others who were insistent about 4 hourly formula feeding. They used to put screens round her when she was feeding and she would pull them open. I'm proud of her for that.

When me and my brothers were young our dentist used to comment on how well developed our palate was. I wonder if has anything to do with breastfeeding?

Likesshinythings · 15/02/2011 13:14

I was FF, as was the norm in the 70s. I certainly don't have any issues about it but, interestingly, my Mum does.
She didn't think much of it until I had my DS, but seeing what a lovely experience bf was for both me and him, she became quite angry that she had been discouraged from doing that herself (she did ask the midwife about about bf when I was born but was told "Why on earth would you want to do that? We're not in the third world, you know!).

Of course, this was the same hospital that told her she would be too old to have anymore children after me (she was 26), so offered to tie her tubes "while they were in there" in the event of me being a c-section delivery. But that's a whole other thread..!

IngridFletcher · 15/02/2011 13:15

I was formula fed as was my sister. My mum died of breast cancer at 57 and I have wondered whether she would have been more protected if she had breastfed but then she smoked too so who knows.

HappyAsIAm · 15/02/2011 13:15

I was formula fed from the start. It doesn't bother me in the slightest. My mum has always doen what she thought best for me at the time, and she has been a great mum. I can't summon up an adverse opinion on it as it just isn't important to me as it has passed and wasn't in my control (even though I am very pro BF).

DownyEmerald · 15/02/2011 13:15

I do appreciate it, especially as it was against the norm at the time, so she had to actively opt out of the drying up injection at a time when she wasn't really terribly with it. And I still had excema.

But, there are other things they did then - babies in the nursery all night, brought to you for 4 hourly feeds that she did go along with.

But I'm not deeply bothered really. That was then, it was all very different. If being a parent has taught me one thing it is not to judge other's parenting choices, especially ones from 40-odd years ago.

If you want to breastfeed do it for you, not for your partner, or for a hypothetical conversion you may or may not have with your child twenty, thirty, forty years in the future.

NightLark · 15/02/2011 13:16

I was FF. I'm slim and revoltingly healthy. I BF my own babies because, as MrsDimitri said above, it just seemed the most obvious choice. Not any kind of 'stand' to make.

But... if I stop and dwell on it (which I rarely do), I do see my mum's FF of me as another way in which we did not bond either when I was an infant or a child (or come to that, a teen or an adult).

notnowbernard · 15/02/2011 13:17

1970's baby, FF from about 2 weeks "You weren't getting enough"

Have no strong feelings about how I was fed

Would have strong feelings if my Mum was unsupportive about my choice to bf my DC though

As it happens she's never said anything negative and says she thinks it's "lovely"

rollittherecollette · 15/02/2011 13:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

wannaBe · 15/02/2011 13:21

I really wish people didn't have such issues surrounding how they fed their babies. Tbh I think that being sad for someone else or even yourself about how a baby who frankly is unlikely to care in the future, is fed for the first six months of its life is a far bigger deal than the feeding choice itself.

DorisIsAPinkDragon · 15/02/2011 13:22

My mum Bf me ( and my two dsis's) It didn't bother me in the slightest until I came to bf dd1. I had real problems latching on etc and having her there to sit with me, reassure and generally support with understanding made a huge difference to me.

cardamomginger · 15/02/2011 13:22

was ff and makes no difference to me. was does make me angry though, is that my mother smoked throughout pregnancy and throughout my childhood, knowing full well the risks it posed. and that my father didn't force her to stop - although am well aware that you can't really force someone to give up snd i have no way of knowing how hard he might have tried.

OfflineFor30Seconds · 15/02/2011 13:22

1970s - FF from birth.

I didn't know until we were discussing BF-ing my DC, and it clearly wasn't an issue before I knew and definitely not since.

Ultimately my mother did what she felt best at the time, and that's all you can ask for.

Shodan · 15/02/2011 13:24

I have honestly never, ever thought about it. I was fed, I am here, I am healthy.

FWIW I was formula fed, 1968. The only one of six sibs to be FF, apparently.

crapbarry · 15/02/2011 13:24

I'm glad I managed to breastfeed DS because my mother and grandmothers breast fed all of their children. However, I don't have any particular feelings about how I was fed, if that makes sense?

FreddyTeddy · 15/02/2011 13:25

I don't know how I was fed and have no way of finding out, can't say it bothers me tbh, I don't see it as important because its not as if I can change anything.

I'm pleased with how I have fed my babies (well, mostly) and that's all I care about.