So who chose to bottlefeed or did so after finding breastfeeding hard?

[aragon]

Just wondered after seeing the thread regarding "The Ecologist" article.

I wanted to breastfeed, I didn't plan to bottlefeed but struggled and struggled with breastfeeding. I never found it easy and in fact it was bloody painful. When the pain got too much I ended up expressing. I did this on and off for 8 weeks or so and bottlefed the EBM. The first time I put a bottle in DS mouth I understood why I struggled so much with latching on. He was just not a natural at the sucking thing. Huge amounts of milk would spill out of his mouth and down his neck - even with slow flow teats. In all my years as a midwife I had never seen such a messy baby for feeding. I used to swaddle him up in towels which would be soaked by the end of a feed.

I personally found bottlefeeding a real pain in the arse and time consuming - but I have no regrets that I called it a day after 8 weeks of struggling and went onto formula. In fact all I felt was relief once I had finally made the decision. He is now a happy and healthy 3.5 year old who eats me out of house and home. He's still a messy eater though.

I tried for 3 days to breastfeed dd1 but when she had formula after having almost nothing from me she downed 4 oz in less than a few minutes so that was that.

Then I had the twins and dt1 wouldn't feed so she had botle from the start (they were prem) dt2 I breastfed for 10 weeks but life was so hard with pnd, twins and a 4 year old I just started mixing then eventually fully bottlefed.

Dd4 I breastfed for a year and never wanted to give up

This one I intend to breastfeed until they self wean but life doesn't always go the way we want so we shall see.

I breast fed in part both of mine, but put in suplimentary bottles as I never managed to produce enough milk. Everything was checks, good latch on etc, was resting, drank loads of fliud, but the poor little buggers were starving, not helped by the fact that they would feed for 45 minutes every 2 hours round the clock and protly vomit for britain.

Both had eczema as youngers children which has now cleared up totaly (I had it much worse and it took longer to resolve with me)

Both are now fine aged 9 and 6, ds has mild asthma (peak flow right where it should be and we hardly ever need his reliver)

Having bottlefed DD1 and BF DD2 till 6 months, if I had another, I'd bottlefeed from the get go.

Simply b/c I'd find it too difficult - for me at any rate - to run after two young kids and BF.

I like a clean house. Our home is small and crowded and I've had PND w/both, coupled w/high levels of anxiety.

The level of mess when you have to let everything go to BF seriously hampered me mentally. I wound up back on ADs.

Can't afford to hire outside help and don't have family nearby to support me for months and months.

I personally don't see what's so bad about bottlefeeding myself.

If it's an informed choice a mother has made, then more power to her!

I was formula fed myself and haven't suffered any ill effects. I inherited bad teeth from my mother and a tendancy towards hypertension from my dad. That was in my genes.

my sister bottlefed after day one

she just hated breastfeeding, didnt like the idea of it and her dh preferred bottles - he said he could help her give them (of course he never did [angry[ but thats another story)

My neice is a very happy bright 2 year old

DTDs 13wks prem. Hadn?t even thought seriously about the birth let alone feeding. Knew I wanted to try & that breast milk was going to be so important to them. Expressed solidly for 11 wks. When the time came to feed them directly I was offered a screen given my baby & left to get on with it with little more support. DTD1 just wouldn?t wake up enough to even latch on, let alone suck - despite some radical measures (withdrawing tube feeds for 6 hrs to try and ?starve? her into feeding). DTD2 was more promising & then got put on ?nil by mouth? for 14 days for medical reasons - by which time I had given up trying. Establishing feeds was the only thing keeping them in hospital & I wanted them home. I thought bottles would be an easier route when DTD1 wouldn?t feed. Turns out she wouldn?t take a bottle & was borderline anaemic. Blood transfusion solved that & she was home 3 days later. I felt terribly guilty that I stopped but the problem (DTD1) wasn?t solved & that I didn?t give DTD2 a fair chance. But didn?t regret it. I wanted them home. They have been very healthy children - rarely at the doctors.

DD3. Set myself a goal of 3-4 months. Wasn?t going to faff about when I went back to work.
First 2 weeks were great. Couldn?t work out why BF was described as being so hard. No pain, limited discomfort. Could imagine myself still doing it at 7,8,9... Months.
2-11 wks. I hit the first growth spurt, didn?t know what the hell was going on & then she started feeding hourly. Kept waiting for the 6 wk ?miracle?. Struggled with the amount of time BF took up, and BFC couldn?t ?solve? it. Wanted to spend more time with DTDs & a family bereavement was the final straw. Gave up at 11-12wks. Wish I could have done it for longer as I had put in so much hard work - but just spent so much time knowing that it would get better but just didn?t know when. If she was an only child I would still be doing it now.
Only been fully FF for a week, so still feeling guilty - but again don?t regret it. I am glad a fed for nearly 3 months. But I am glad that I have given up & the whole family is benefiting. My experience with DD3 also makes me feel less guilty about DTDs I know I couldn?t have committed twins & admire anyone that does.

I wholeheartedly agree that breastmilk is best - but breastfeeding doesn?t suit everyone.

I breastfed my ds for 6 days and really struggled with it. He was constnatly feeding for 40 min's at a time every 90 minutes. No one told me if this was normal or not. I had horrendous cracked, sore nipples and after one feed ds was saick and it had blood in it. I was horrified and called the midwife. It was my blood from my bleeding nipples.

No one suggessted changing positions, nipple shields and no midwife came to support me even after numerous calls saying I was struggling.

On day 6 I had tears streaming down my face as I was making up formula but I felt I was going round the bend.

In my situation bottle feeding helped me and ds, he fed properly, he slept better which led to a much happier Mummy. In hidsight, maybe with the correct support I would have stuck with the breast feeding, but hey, I hadn't found MN then!