Breast v Bottle for DC2 - are you more likely to do what you did the first time around?

[wombatinwaiting]

Just curious- are there any stats out there, or if not, plenty of mn views, on whether you are more likely to follow the same route with regard to breast or bottle feeding with subsequent DCs as you did with DC1? I was fortunate enough to breastfeed DS until 15 months (despite a rocky start) and would love to do the same with DC2. (n.b. DC2 is still an apple in our eyes, but a friend is due imminently and it's just got me thinking....)

The most recent Infant Feeding Survey in 2010 has statistics on exactly this:

Chapter 2 Infant Feeding Survey

Page 6 has the bit you might be interested in

The whole survey, spreadsheets and all is here:

www.data.gov.uk/dataset/infant-feeding-survey-2010

That's really interesting. I'm expecting #2 and BFed DD for a year. I really hope to do the same this time around.

I am worried I'll never get to take DD anywhere on her own if I get another bottle refuser though!

dd is 16m. i have just stopped feeding her. she was ebf, bottle refuser etc etc. i am 12 wks pg with dc2 and thinking about this the other day. i think in hindsight whilst i remember tough bits re being a bottle refuser and feeding to sleep etc i mainly remember how easy i found it and how it fit round us perfectly. and then i think how i couldnt be arsed with bottles and ff so i will do what i know with dc2!
did cross my mind tho!

Yes, I think so. Surely the whole point of having a second child is so you feel like you know what you're doing of course you'd gravitate to what is familiar.

I fed DC2 for less time than DC1, because I just couldn't manage feeding a baby and dealing with a toddler. I would of loved to feed longer but felt it was compromising my parenting of dc1

I will do with DS2 exactly what I did with DS1 - I will do my absolute best to bf, but will switch to ff if it doesn't work out. What I will do differently this time is not torture myself if history repeats itself, I'm not having any more DCs and want to actually enjoy one of them in the early weeks rather than allowing becoming obsessed with feeding to spoil things!

That's my concern chopsypie. Also, I had to use shields for 5 months last time which was really inconvenient and massively slowed feeds. I don't know I can do that again as I don't know it would be the right decision for our family as opposed to the right decision for DC2.

Sometimes you have to do what's best for both children. As much as I am pro bf, ff didn't hurt my baby. Do what you can, but don't kill yourself trying to be perfect. I can honestly say I did my best and sometimes that's not as good as I aimed for but I can't do more.
I'm happy with my choice and I hope you can be happy with whatever choices you make

DC1 is ff due to medical issues that led to me failing to lactate. I was (and still am) truly gutted that bf didn't work out.

I hope that if I have a DC2 there won't be a repeat of these issues and hopefully I'll at least produce some milk, then will try very hard to bf. However, if it doesn't work I won't beat myself up about it - DC1 is thriving on formula so I've made peace with the fact that it does them no harm!

well, I FF my 3 DS's after 'failing' to be able to BF them. I am still breastfeeding my DD at 2 years old and will BF her until natural term.

I will breastfeed DS4 (29 weeks pregnant) until natural term the same as DD. It's hugely important to me as well as them.

Very interesting exBB - thanks for the link. Good to hear the other responses too.