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

[LucyJu]

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.

I decided to predominantly bottlefeed because I cannot breastfeed due a breast reduction 15 years ago.

It was murder because I most certainly would have breastfed exclusively if I could of.

Started off breast feeding but DS continually lost weight after we'd been discharged from hospital and HV basically scared me into stopping at 3 and a half weeks "Your body's obviously not cut out for breast-feeding, your baby needs more nutrition so stop this nonsense and get some cow and gate premium" -bloody cow-

As a result I felt (and still do sometimes) sooooooooo guilty as I was made feel like a failure. Having said that DS is now a happy SMA baby (Cow and Gate didn't agree with him) but I do feel really, really scared about bfing as and when we try for baby number two. Silly I know but when you've gone through what we did....

I never consider ff either. I had grown up with my whole family bf and couldn't imagine any other way to feed or settle a baby.
I remmeber watching my sisters feed their babieswhen I was a tenager and being envious. watching the baby's eyes roll back in their heads with the pleasure of it, and envying the contentment.
and hearing my sisters talk about how they enjoyed it, and how convenient it is.
my sister fed premature DS twins in special care with double expressing so really my bf troubles were a walk in the park.
I got lots of support from my family.
I am a throwback, I know...

I just didnt consider bottles

never have htem 'just in case' despite not much support from family

dh supported my decision as there was no chance of him having to get up in the night and do a feed

DD1 was tube fed, then EBM mixed with various powders to thicken it, add vitamins whatever, finally gave up expressing and bottlefed. I did tryto BF, but she was never strong enough to suck.

DD2 was breastfed from the start, never occured to me not to. BUT I also knew I was going to mix feed, so dh got a chance to feed, so I could have a life (!) So from about 5 weeks dd2 got a bottle a day mid/late morning which meant I could leave her sometimes.

I was and still am happy with my choices there, never felt I needed to justify myself and TBH I never do give a monkeys what others think of me anyway

Overwhelming evidence that breast feeding is better. Didn't want to do it, but felt I would be denying my babies the best stuff if I didn't. Didn't really enjoy it, but at least they got the right stuff and I'll never be torturing myself if they get asthma in the future whether they wouldn't have got it if I'd breast-fed.

health benefits - I've got asthma and allergies and was totally determined to breastfeed dd1.
Then dd2 - who was born with SN - it was for the protection against infection as well as the oral exercise breastfeeding provides. It worked as far as I can tell, dd2 has Down's syndrome but we've never had a problem with her tongue sticking out.
With ds - well, it's just the normal way of feeding a baby . Bottlefeeding him would have seemed completely weird, like only touching him with mittens on or something.

The main factor was the message I got from everything I read that "breast is best".

It was kind of a radical departure for me as my mother and all my aunts and cousins had bottlefed their babies from birth. My mother and her siblings were also bottlefed from birth on pure cow's milk!

I was totally convinced that it was best for my babies. So I was determined to give it my best shot. Breast feeding that is. I was also aware of the health benefits and definitely found it more convenient than bottle feeding. Also little family support so hardly likely to be off without baby much.

Just assumed I would, because of the health benefits for the babies and for me too
Also found it hard, especially with ds, but had good MW and HV support to get through the worst of it
Small element of yah-boo to my own mother though - loud in her views of it being impossible because it was like being gnawed by a little animal etc

Ds1 - breastfed because 'breast is best', thought if I could do it it would be easy and convenient and cheaper than formula feeding. Actually had a terrible time of it and hated every moment - painful beyond belief even after 4 weeks with everyone telling me they didn't know why as he was latched perfectly. Added to this, I just felt very uncomfortable breastfeeding in front of anyone other than dh and my mum - my problem I know, but I just wasn't ever going to be doing it in a cafe. I had tears rolling down my face, was fast approaching PND and the experience was ruining the first weeks with my new baby. Felt absolutely terrible switching to formula - guilty and sick - even though everyone around me told me there was no need. As he grew and developed beautifully and, importantly, illness free I realised that formula really wasn't 'the devil's food' after all!! Have to stress that I had support from all angles when breastfeeding - it just wasn't for me.

Ds2 and ds3 - formula fed from birth becuase just so frightened of going through the same nightmare again - had blissful early weeks with them compared to with ds1. Nobody questioned my decision - it was clearly entirely mine. I suppose you could argue that midwives could have tried to persuade me it could be different - perhaps it would have been - but they didn't. ds2 and ds3 are happy, healthy and bright individuals so I don't regret my decision.

Tbh, I'm not convinced that the health benefits of breastfeeding outweigh the contribution of other factors (such as genetics) anyway. I think if we had allergies or other diseases in our family, I might have tried harder to carry on in an attempt to avoid them or make them less severe - but it just wasn't an issue for us given our family history.

Message withdrawn

I never thought about it before I fell pregnant but when I did, i just assumed I would as you are told "its best" and it just seemed the right thing to do for my baby and luckily I managed to get through the first painful weeks. I had lots of great support from my dh and family which I think really helped.

My friends were shocked at first when they saw me breastfeed as I guess most people in the area I lived did not breastfeed. People tend to follow the norm. They all commented on how lovely and easy it looked. They could see the enjoyment I got from it.

Now as my friends are starting to have babies themselves they are all breastfeeding too.

This time I also want to breastfeed for health reasons as well as enjoyment reasons.

You see normsnockers the lack of help would be one reason for breastfeeding for me. If I was going to be the one getting up in the middle of the night to feed the baby I might as well just grab it from the cot and latch it on as be faffing around going downstairs and warming milk up etc.

I started breast feeding (in no particular order) because my mum and mil both did, I am a tightwad and lazy, and for health benefits (mw & hv told me it lowered risk of sids among other things). It was never really in my mind to ff anyway.

My mental health. Had PND w/both but much more severely w/DD1. Also w/DD1, had a long labour followed by assisted delivery and poor bf support, so I bottlefed her from the get go.

GDG - aubergines are the devils food.

'Tbh, I'm not convinced that the health benefits of breastfeeding outweigh the contribution of other factors (such as genetics) anyway. I think if we had allergies or other diseases in our family, I might have tried harder to carry on in an attempt to avoid them or make them less severe - but it just wasn't an issue for us given our family history.'

I'd have to say my situation parallels GDG's almost exactly.

because I am generally anal about doing things 'right' and then the hormones to persevere to continue come what may - not that i had half as rough a time as some of the stories I have heard on here.

I never really thought about it - just assumed I would breastfeed - my mum and sister both did it with no problems. Was very surprised when a friend (also pregnant) asked me whether I had decided how to feed. I was very lucky that my DD latched on straight away and it was easy for the first few weeks. I was shocked when I got painful lumps when DD was 4 weeks old, came very close to stopping but I stuck with it and fortunately everything sorted itself out by week 6. Carried on feeding for 9 months and definitely plan to do it again for the next one. Looking forward to it in fact! As someone else said, the health benefits of breastfeeding are a nice added bonus. I don't have a problem with formula though - I just find it annoying making up cups of formula for DD now just three times a day - I hate the thought of having to do it 8 times day and night for a newborn!!

Health benefits was my main reason for giving breastfeeding a go

My mom was big into LLL when I was little and I saw her breastfeeding both my brothers so it never even occured to me to bottle feed.
Also i'm incredibly lazy. I'm dreading putting ds on solids. i'll actually have to prepare stuff for him!!!
Oh yeah the health stuff too...