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Infant feeding

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

Original poster

What was the main factor in deciding how to feed your baby?

152 replies

LucyJu · 31/01/2006 12:45

Someone said on the Channel 4 program thread that she didn't think that people decided to breastfeed or not on the basis of perceived health benefits. I did. But what was the main influence on other people's decisons? I'd be really interested to know.... I really don't want this thread to digress into a bottle vs breast debate (plenty of those elsewhere), or to have any arguments about whether anyone's reasons are good or valid. I would simply be interested to know, if anyone has the time.....
The main factor in my case was that my dh has Crohn's disease and I wanted to minimise the chance of my dds developing the same condition in later life.

OP posts:
Original poster
LucyJu · 31/01/2006 12:47

I meant to add that I breast fed my two dds.

OP posts:
Auntymandy · 31/01/2006 12:51

my main reason/s
Breast feeding is easier in terms of..its always ready and you dont run out!
I am so disorganised I would have a crying baby and no formula!! So for me it was convenience!

mumfor1standfinaltime · 31/01/2006 12:51

I bottle fed. Not sure why, just did. I often thought about breast feeding whilst pg.
Had an emergency c section and wasnt given much support to breast feed. Suppose it seemed easier to let the nurse bottle feed ds at the time. If I had my time again however, I probably would have given bf a try.

WigWamBam · 31/01/2006 12:51

I know and respect the fact that some people wouldn't feel this way, but I breast fed mainly because I didn't see any reason not to - the milk was there, my body was making it just for my baby, and for me there wasn't any valid reason that I could see not to give it to her. I also knew about the potential health benefits and wanted to give her the best start I could, but for me that was just a nice extra. If I hadn't been able to do it I wouldn't have beaten myself up about it, but as I could do it, it would have seemed odd to me not to do so.

tarantula · 31/01/2006 12:54

Never really considered bottle feeding as brestfeeding just seems the natural thing to do even before I got pg.

snufflepuss · 31/01/2006 13:05

BF dd1.

Started to bf dd2 but after a retained piece of placenta, blood transfusion and very bad mastitis all before she was 3 weeks old, gave up and switched to bottles. I had to bottle feed her while I was on antibiotics and just didn't have the strength to express for that week to keep my milk supply up.

Agree with WWB, if I hadn't had the problems, I would have continued to bf dd2.

RedZuleika · 31/01/2006 13:06

I'm with WWB - I couldn't see a valid reason not to.

It seems logical to me that a young mammal will do best on the milk of its own species. I knew about the antibody thing - and the suggestion that bottlefeeding can be a cause of obesity later. Also - my husband has fairly strong reaction to cow's milk in quantity, so I'll be playing it cautious on the milk front, even when she's weaned.

fuzzywuzzy · 31/01/2006 13:07

I chose to bf, because of the health benefits, and also because really it's expected in my culture. Nobody is going to get hysterical if you don't but everyone bf's or at least gives it a go, so I didn't really think much of it, just that that is what I would do as everyone does it.

Am I making any sense??

prettybird · 31/01/2006 13:13

I just assumed I would breast feed - never thought about bottle feeding. Didn't think in terms of doing it for a whle year though - think I just thought about getting to 3 months and as I'd cracked it (finally) by then, just kept going. Was more aware of the health benefits by then too.

I also had an irrational fear that if I gave even one bottle of forumla, my milk owuld immediately dry up (I Ihasten to add - my breast feeding counsellros did not instill that fear).

My mum had breast fed me and my brother, but we had never really talked about it (although I did take her along to the "Mums & Grans" Ante natla breast feeding Workshop)

And as I was 39 when I had ds, without any close family in this country, I had never even really been in an envornament where people breast fed. My best freind, however, had breast fed all 4 of hers - and had also expressed from an early stage, so I suspect some of that rubbed off on me - even if she's in North wales and I only see/saw her ocasionally. She also mixed fed from, I ithink, about 3 months (prbably varied between kids) - but it's not really a subject we talked about. Maybe becasue we thought it was "normal" and therefore not a subject we needed to debate?

Laura032004 · 31/01/2006 13:13

It was never a decision I conciously made. I was always going to try to bf. Luckily for me, ds took to it really well, and we've never had any major problems.

My MW asked me how I was going to feed him whilst I was in labour. I said I was going to try to bf. She said there was no try about it - if I wanted to I could. We need more MW's with that attitude

motherinferior · 31/01/2006 13:15

Social pressure to breastfeed.

sandyballs · 31/01/2006 13:16

Because I had twins. I know it is possible to bf two but it scared me, and I also wanted DH to help out.

mszebra · 31/01/2006 13:16

Health reasons for the baby were biggest motivating factor for me to br'feed. Next reasons down were the convenience, low waste factor, lower cost of it , health benefits to me (probably in that order). With experience I can add to those the fact that each time it delayed my periods for a year post-partum, too.

fisil · 31/01/2006 13:17

I wanted to try and breastfeed because of the immunity benefits, especially in the first couple of weeks. But the real influence on how I fed both my sons was my comfort and happiness and convenience. For me that meant bottle feeding them.

With ds2 we'd booked a holiday for when he was 8 weeks old so I carried on breast feeding until then to make luggage lighter. But as soon as the plane touched down he was bottle fed, because for me bottle feeding is just so much more convenient.

Piffle · 31/01/2006 13:18

I breastfed because my mother did, and every relation I ever had did. Also felt an almost primal urge to do it.
To the point where if I knew in advance that I could not breastfeed my 3rd child (currently being tried for) I might reconsider having another altogether.
Also am far too lazy and disorganised to sort out bottles and spoons of milk and measuring and boiling and cooling and sterilising.

Original poster
LucyJu · 31/01/2006 13:19

MotherInferior - are you saying you bowed to social pressure? Or the opposite?

OP posts:
FairyMum · 31/01/2006 13:21

Health benefits

LilacBump · 31/01/2006 13:24

i wanted to breastfeed. got this awful nurse in the hospital forcing me to do it in the middle of the night, shouting "your baby needs to eat" and shoving my boob into DD's mouth. needless to say, i was put off. the next few days i really tried to breastfeed DD but had real trouble and i was getting very miserable about it. so we switched to bottle.
next one, due in june, will be bottlefed from the start.

motherinferior · 31/01/2006 13:25

I bowed to social pressure. Never assumed I'd do anything else, but certainly the odd appalled 'you wouldn't consider stopping?' kept me going with DD1.

I'm quite glad the social pressure's there, mind you.

I breastfed DD2 exclusively for six months, including expressing, and continued breastfeeding her for another year, by the way.

mrspitt · 31/01/2006 13:29

I also felt some pressure from family to breastfeed. I wanted to regardless but it was expected of me from them.
I am also too lazy to be arsed with bottles at 2am and 5 am when you don't really have to move from bed!

Miaou · 31/01/2006 13:33

Never crossed my mind to consider bottlefeeding as an option. Fortunately I never had any problem with latching on/milk production and didn't need any help (good job because I wouldn't have got it!).

Blu · 31/01/2006 13:38

Ditto.
health, bonding, lack of faff, health, ease of travelling about and not sterilising, health, me losing weight, health, it's what you do, educationa nd enbcouragement from NCT and King's breaastfeeding workshop and mws, health...Can't separate them out, really.

hornbag · 31/01/2006 13:40

Breast fed both my two for the same reasons:

health benefits
bonding, closeness
convenience (no bottles to wash/sterilise/make up/cart around with you)
friends who had already had babies breastfed

fennel · 31/01/2006 13:41

health reasons. don't think i'd have managed to keep it up through the many times i really hated it if i hadn't been fairly convinced it was better.

convenience, huh, very convenient if it doesn't leave you screaming in pain every time . yes it can be convenient but can be extremely inconvenient too.

Nbg · 31/01/2006 13:42

I didn't Breast Feed but it was my intention too.

I wanted too because I think it is the natural thing to do. I never considered bottle feeding at all.
I ended up bottle feeding as I couldn't get dd to feed and I had no support at all.

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