Bottlefed babies happier?

[ebmummy]

Ok, quick question:

I have a DS who I'm still bfing (he's 11 months). I saw it on the news a few weeks ago (and no doubt it would have been discussed on here) that bottlefed babies cry less, adapt more to routine and may be generally happier. It may be bunkum cos it depends on the sample size they surveyed etc etc but it's been preying on my mind. My SIL has a dd whose 3 weeks younger than my DS. SHe stopped bfing at 6 months, and went to formula (she had PND and just wanted to give up). My point is her daughter has a wonderful routine now-sleeps ages and whinges a LOT less than my one. Before you all say all babies are different, I know! But she and my son were very similar prior to her switching to formula-both very light sleepers, whingey, no routine they'd follow. Am wondering now whether to stop bfing and just give formula-tbh haven't had the greatest time with bfing (you seasoned MNers will have seen several of my desperate posts!) and I'm just tired of it all now. Please please, I don't want to turn this into a bfing V formula 'debate'. Just whether anyone whose done this in the hope that their child will be happier has seen any real changes. I guess my biggest gripe that DS just seems so miserable sometimes-are my 'issues' with bfing affecting him? Should I switch for an easy life?

x

If you have doubts then just switch to formula. Though from 1yr you can simply use cows milk so I'd wait another month. You can use cows milk in a bottle if you want. It can be fairly hard to get LOs off the bottle too. My friend is still having to give her DS bottles at bed and before breakfast at 2.5yo. But she simply use cows milk in it.

Oh, it's tough when other babies sleep more and grizzle less than yours :( I am going to say it though, sorry they're all different! And they develop at different rates. It's incredibly likely that your niece would have started sleeping better with or without the change in feeding.

There's no guarantee that switching will make things any easier for you. The study was fairly flawed from what I've read, it was based on reports from parents which is not a reliable way of gathering data. This is an interesting take on the article. (incidentally, I live in Cambs and in parts of the county the BF rate is very low and general knowledge of BF is not great).

If you really do want to stop BF then you might like to wait another month or so then your DS could go straight on to cow's milk and you can skip formula altogether. Many mothers find though, that BF is a great parenting tool for coping with toddlers. You could talk to a BF counsellor about a weaning plan if you're unsure how to go about it.

HTH a bit.

I'm going to say they are all different too. My little one is EBF, sleeps through the night and rarely grizzles. Formula will make no difference. It's awesome that you've been BF for 11 months. I hope I keep going that long!

And yes like EauRogue I've seen the study from newspaper report. It's from parents self assessment. So i would say its more social science than science.

But I still maintain if you aren't happy breast feeding, and especially since you have done it for nearly a year, you can start looking at weaning to cows milk. Daytime feeds would be easy to get into cups. But I like night time you will most likely still need a bottle. But pouring cows milk into a bottle is infinitely less faff then making up formula!

my EBF baby ONLY cried in the day if she farts

and night she winges when she is hungry and ONLY cries if you dont get there.

Im sure the less illness she seems to get (presumably from my breast milk and i know many babies so poorly with chest infections / bronchitis that they have been in hospital this past month (she chews the same toys at toddlers) contribute to her being happy too.

Thanks ladies. Am feeling better about it all today (typical). I think I was annoyed yesterday cos everyone kept comparing DS and DN, and saying 'isn't she clever, having 4 teeth' (DS has 1!), 'isn't she clever crawling' (DS sits on his plump derriere and does nothing!), 'isn't it wonderful how she hardly complains, always smiles and sleeps for 13 hours solid at night' (DS erm, doesn't). DN is younger by 3 weeks, and my MIL keeps asking when I'm going to stop bfing (she didn't bf any of hers). The other day, she remarked on how 'hilarious' it was to see a child of DS's 'fatness' still being bf..

Tell your MIL to gt stuffed.

grrrr for you ebmummy

when people ask me when i plan to stop BFing i answer that "actually i dont plan to stop"

No idea why BFing a baby is "hilarious"

Glowbuggy, if only!!

Oh dear. Your MIL seriously needs a slap.

DS1 BF every fours hours, slept like a dream and was the most content baby in the world.

DS2 BF every 5 mins, slept 90 mins at a time and was a grumpy pants, now aged 16 months a very happy wee boy who sleeps 14 hours a night.

I don't particularly enjoy BF but will be doing it again with DC3 due July.