EBF or partially breast fed?

[figginz]

Just read another thread and didn't want to derail with my question. But I'm wondering if I've inadvertently lied to my GP!

DD is 12 weeks and just had her jabs. I've been breastfeeding. Apart from three feeds - 3 days when I was out / away from her and she needed a feed during that time. She had formula then. Was planning to do same on rare occasions when I'm not with her in future.

Does that mean that technically she's not ebf? But partially or predominantly instead? I told the nurse at her jabs that I'm still "just bf" - her words I just said yes - without even thinking about it.

I think I'd be a bit to hear that I'm not ebf, even though I know that's a bit irrational as I made a conscious decision and this is what works for me!

I think technically and strictly speaking that means she is mixed-fed (is that a term or did I just make it up!!?). But I wouldn't agonise over it at all.

Oh well! She doesn't seem to mind in fact she apparently guzzled the bloody thing down as if she couldn't taste the difference, pfft

I had previously thought mixed feeding was when you regularly gave your baby a bottle, eg every night. But I'm not going to lose any sleep about ballsing up DoH statistics over it .

She's "predominantly" bf I think?

But don't worry about labels. In the real world you can clearly see she is pretty much just bf.

I've heard of people who quibble if you've given calpol or infacol at the extreme end.

That's silly. In terms of day to day nutrition and your/her health care you bf.

Thanks squizita - and congrats on the six months. It's quite the journey, bf, isn't it!

Squizita is right.

Technically, researchers would call your baby 'predominantly breastfed' if they were looking at her retrospectively - and she'd be a candidate for recruitment in the data collection for something like the WHO growth charts, which puts ebf and predominantly breastfed babies into the same category for these purposes.

If you were being interviewed for the Infant Feeding surveys, she'd be down as ebf, because that is what she is that the moment . You answered the nurse at your surgery correctly.

Mixed feeding is not the research term (the research term is 'partial breastfeeding') but it is generally used for babies who habitually get formula as well as breast.

Put the whole thing out of your mind :) :)

Ds was ebf until he was 11 days old and it says in his red book "ebf" up to 11 days then "ebf +f topup" . He was then, what I call mix fed and the hv called "partially bf" at 8 weeks and then "predominantly bf" at 4 months. When he went for his 9-12 month check the hv asked about his feeding and weaning etc and then he was "bf until 6 months". I'm guessing as it was all so wooly that it doesn't really matter!! They could have just put that he's a "little glutton" for all of them IMHO

Yes. The whole predominantly breastfed thing is for research purposes.

To the rest of the world and for all day to day purposes she is a bf baby.

Thank you everyone. Sometimes I think parenthood is so overwhelming I just fixate on tiny little things - like this - which are ultimately pretty damn unimportant!