After five years of breastfeeding I feel for the first time slightly tempted to bottlefeed

[emkana]

I've been (nearly) continuously breastfeeding since dd1 was born five years ago - only break was from when dd2 stopped this Feb to when ds was born in June. So I'm an old hand at this.
But now for the first time I can see the temptation to bottlefeed - because I'm always worrying about ds feeding enough, and if I was bottlefeeding him I could see how much he is having. He is doing well and putting on lots of weight, but if he has Jeune's there is a possibility that things might change as his body outgrows his thorax and his lungs, and so I keep worrying. For example this morning he wasn't keen to feed for "breakfast" even though he hadn't fed in the night either, and then I immediately start to worry and think what's wrong etc.

you know I read your post but all I could read was "hadn't fed in the night" and then I got all and the rest of the words blurred

Keep at it emkana, yes you could see how much he was getting if you were bottlefeeding but then you'd be consumed with guilt the first time he got ill because you'd be worrying that he wasn't getting the immuno-benefits of your milk

wouldn't you?

Don't you think you would worry just as much if you were bottlefeeding, but displace that worry to other things (like not breastfeeding!). It sounds as if you have had a very worrying time and worry is natural, understandable, and, I'd guess, pretty unavoidable response. If you really don't want to breastfeed, then you do what you want, but if you just don't want to worry any more about your baby, I suspect this won't do the trick. After all, he might refuse his bottle and then you'd worry about that.
Huge congratulations on the weight gain and the happy baby! All your own work, too. Fantastic. You know in your heart that weight gain & general thriving is the only way to tell if a baby is getting enough food - whether breast or bottle fed.

I would.

The thing is he is ill already, has been continuously since he was born really (colds, chest problems.

yes my second one is like that

but if I wasn't breastfeeding then I'd be consumed with guilt that it was THAT

at least breastfeeding means he has lots of probiotics to replace the gut flora he is losing with the antibiotics

that's what I tell myself

why dont you express? best of both worlds? might calm your paranoia about amounts

Oh, poor mite. It sounds as if bottle feeding wouldn't help that really, tbh. Wishing you well, and hoping for a positive diagnosis for you.

I think you'd be consumed with other sorts of worries if you bottlefed, as MP says.

He sounds like he's doing really well - and I'd say that you can see now he's gaining weight and smiling - whereas the rest of it is ifs and maybes (not that they're not very real worries and I totally understand why it's concerning you) - but try to deal in the here and now (I really hope that doesn't sound patronising - it's really not meant to!).

Thinking of you - I wish you could get a definitive answer (and that the answer was "Sebastian's fine") x x x x

for me (having done both, one with each dd) there are a few things to consider

it is really fecking annoying pouring left formula down the sink; you never have to do this with bf. if they refuse it you just put your norks away.

There's nothing to suggest he would drink more milk if it came from a bottle, is there? And then you'd get the joy of obsessing about fluid ounces.

Also it is really fecking annoying getting to the end of the day and then realising you have to wash bottles and put the steriliser on and leave the kettle to cool down for 45 minutes in order to make up formula and then when you get there you find that dh has reboiled your cooled water to 'helpfully' make you a cup of tea

you do what you want, love. but the grass isn't always greener

Oh, and no guarantee he'd feed more if you were bottlefeeding - he may still not have fed in the night and he may still not have wanted much first thing today...but then you'd have known how much he wasn't getting - that's the flipside of the "knowing how much they're getting" with bottlefeeding.

when I was feeding dd2 and wailing on, I did a thread saying that with bf you didn't know how much they had had.

And a wise MN said 'yes, but you also know what they haven't had if you bottle feed, which can be just as worrying' and it made a good point.

same as Hunker!

were you my wise Mumsnetter???

Ooh, no idea! I have said it a lot though

Once I think about the amount of work involved in bottlefeeding the temptation quickly fades really.

Morgen em
You know my history with ds - mixed feeding for the first 4 weeks, then exclusive bf to 6.5 months - many a time during those months I thought gratefully how glad I was to be rid of all that faffing around with bottles and sterilisers.
You sound like you've got a fab supply - well done on his weight gain! I really, really hope you get some certainty about his health soon, but in the meantime you're doing a wonderful job getting and keeping him strong and healthy!

good news, emkana, bottlefeeding is a colossal pain in the arse, and you'd have to be especially careful with sterilising etc if he has a tendency to catch bugs and things.
re the colds, though, have you thought about getting a humidifier for his room? i only just got one from argos this week and it's made a big difference to dd's blocked nose. good luck with everything, and i think oliveoil and hunker's advice is spot on, you do worry that you are throwing an awful lot of unused milk away...