pro's/con's of breast and bottle feeding please?

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Due date is the 1st November. And i still havnt disided which one. My baby has Downs Syndrome and it says on my internet seach that babies with DS can some times have problams with breast feeding. So pro's and con's please? xx

There's a wealth of information giving pros of breast feeding. One that sticks out for me is no making bottles up in the middle of the night. Health benefits are massive especially in the early days. Why not start out breast feeding and see how it goes?

Congrats on your baby :) Sometimes Downs babies can have trouble with breastfeeding but breastmilk is so much better than formula. There's some information here about BF a Downs baby. You might want to contact local BF support before your baby arrives to get some extra support. Good luck with the birth and enjoy your baby!

Well I don't know about feeding a baby with downs, my post is just my personal view after feeding my own children.

Breast: Can be hard to get going if you don't have a good support network but once it is established is so easy. No need to make up bottles at night, no need to take loads of stuff out with you during the day, just there, readily available, perfectly balanced nutrition delivered on demand. You can express if you need a break so you can still go out etc without the baby. Word of warning though not all babies agree with that! BUT it can be done and in any case you probably won't want to leave your baby for the first months and they are nice and portable so can come out with you. Once they get established onto solids you can leave them and just feed when you are home so all in all it is only a short time that you are tied down for.

Bottle: None of the worries about latch, getting it right, wondering if they are haivng enough. In theory anyway but as a new parent you will always worry about how much they are drinking and so on. You can easily leave the baby and go out. But on the down side it means family will want to pass the baby round and feed him when it is best for the baby to be fed by the principal carer most of the time to help him feed bonded and secure. Also you have to get up at night and make bottles, there is more waste especially if you are demand feeding and of course you have to wash and sterilise.

Differen things work fo different people though. If you are undecided then just give bf a go. If you don't like it then you can change to ff. It is far easier to go that way round than to start off ff and then regret not trying to bf.

Feeding Down's babies is because of the tongue shape and likelihood of a tongue and/or lip tie. I would second giving BFing a go first, but ask for a specialist assessment, preferably from a BFing specialist, of his tongue before you go home from the hospital so they can deal immediately with anything, and you can give BFing the best possible shot.

PS As further arguments in favour of BFing, specifically in relation to a Down's baby - people with DS are at higher risk of obesity due to low muscle tone; BFing helps to reduce risk of obesity. Downies are also prone to gut problems, so BFing can also help to provide some protection for that. Exclusive breast feeding also helps to optimally develop the mouth and palate, so BFing may help with oro-facial development, which could potentially reduce articulation/speech problems associated with Down's in the future. Congratulations on your baby. I used to work as a therapist with school-age children with Down's Syndrome - gorgeous!!

Congratulations x

And for me I think BF is better and easier, espeically at the start as long as the latch is good.

Bottlers do seem to sleep better, in general. But my first two NT babies slept through reliably by ten weeks.

That's interesting Elphaba.

What the others have said re. BF. As well as health benefits, on a logistics level you can feed lying down and snooze yourself meaning no need to get out of bed at night!!

Thats gotta be worth it alone :)

GL with your LO, hope all goes well whatever you decide :)

I cannot recommend BFing enough - it has so many health benefits for baby and you.

It's not always easy when you start (but it's not always difficult either - my DS was a dream from the first feed, whereas DD was more challenging). But I agree with above poster that a good support network is helpful.

My best friend has a little boy with Down's Syndrome and he has had no problems feeding - he's still feeding aged 2! The strong sucking action required for breastfeeding (rather than bottle feeding) is beneficial to the development of the muscles around the mouth/jaw which are beneficial for speech too. If you would be interested in speaking to her I'm sure that she'd love to discuss feeding with you - just PM me and I can pass you/her details on.

I have put a link here to a website that I think discusses not just the benefits of breastfeeding but also the risks associated with formula feeding - something that is often underplayed IMO. There are loads of helpful websites that give info and advice about BFing. I think this one and this one are excellent. I would also see if you can find a BFing support group to attend/visit BEFORE you have your baby then you'll know where to go if you need any advice.

Good luck in whatever decision you make and congratulations in advance!

I don't know anything about feeding a downs baby, and not much about breastfeeding either. But on top of indith's bottle pros I'd also add that there's a lot of possibilities so you can find bottles and milks that work for your baby, though if bfing establishes its probably not an issue anyway. Congrats on your pregnancy and good luck for the future.

I think Indith covers pretty much everything I was thinking, but I would also add that breast milk is a complete complex food in a way that formula milk just isn't. It contains exactly what your baby needs at that particular stage in his/her development, and there are all sorts of clever little tricks that it does as well - for eg night-time breastmilk makes babies sleepy, in hot weather there is a higher water content to it so that the baby doesn't get dehydrated etc - it really is remarkable stuff.

Thank you. I will try both, but i think from this infomation that i will go for BF. Its better for the baby x

posie know you didn't mean all bottler sleep better, but just wanted to add my experience. Both me and DH were ff and, according to our DMs didn't sleep through until we were 4 and 5. dN was ff and still wakes at 7years. Dd was bf and woke every 3 hours for a 10 minute feed and has slept through since being put in her own room.

Another big plus of bfing is that it reduces the risk of SIDS.

I've no experience with a Down's syndrome baby but these are my thoughts:

A lot of the general pros and cons have been mentioned in a few posts.

I combination feed and find this suits me and my baby. I get to give my baby the benefits of breast but have the security of bottle if I'm out ( don't like bf in public) or someone can look after him for a while.

I do mainly bf though as my baby only has 1 or 2 bottles in a day sometimes none.

My only cons for bf would be I now have a baby that will only fall asleep on the boob & I do all the night feeds (night is supposed to be the best time for milk production so didn't want to replace those feeds with bottle)

Maybe start with bf but do give it 2-3 weeks to get yourself established before introducing bottle. If you decide to stop then you have given your baby a good start. If you start bf at the beginning you still have a choice. I'm not sure you can start with bottle then change your mind.

Good luck with everything x

I want to add, I have bf one child and ff the other

Try breast, its a lovely thing to be able to do if all goes well, but if you hit problems specific to your baby that prevent bf do not beat yourself up about moving to ff as many mothers do, especially if you are able to give the first few days colostrum via breast or expressing.

Ff DD is incredibly bright, articulate, healthy (god willing) and without allergies etc. If you have to ff it really really doesn't matter as long as you have a healthy happy baby.

Cannot agree with Softlysoftly more! I had to formula feed DD and will have to formula feed the one on the way (due to a particular prescription medication - and no, for the record, no safe alternatives that actually work). BF is ideal and fantastic for so many reasons, but with planning FF does not need to be an enormous faff or problematic.

My DD is bright, articulate and has a wonderful relationship with food (and no allergies).

Good luck with your baby. A friend of mine growing up had a Downs sister and I can remember their dad at the Downs's 18th birthday saying that no one can prepare you for the hard work, but neither can they prepare you for the joy, fun and totally different perspective that they give to the world.

Try bf and if it doesn't work ff with no guilt.
I felt very guilty about ff and it does no good. DS is 19 weeks now and I can see more clearly than ff is fine, he is healthy, happy, meeting all his milestones and he sleeps 8-7 every night.