What did you find easier. Breast or bottle?

[sharond101]

Dd 7 wks had tongue tie and now struggling with latch. Feeds for over an hour and can look for more soon after. I have a toddler and feel I have no time to spend with him. Have had help with blatch problem, apparently just needs practice. Right now ff seems attractive but will it be eben harder?? Dd has reflux too which may be a problem with formula?

Neither mine had tongue tie so it's hard to compare. They were both a doodle to breast feed. Feeds were like 10-20min max from day 1. (DD1 faster at 10min and DD2 rarely gets to 20). They don't get wind, they don't posset milk. And they both latch perfectly without pain. Obviously I'm going to say breastfeeding is so easy. Night feeds are back to bed within 20min. We flew to East Asia with DD1 and Australia with DD2 as babies. And it's so easy without having to take bottles or worry about formula. Not sure how you would do a 3 week holiday and an 24 hour flight without milk on tap! And going out was so easy as I never have to worry about packing enough milk.

I didn't have a problem feeding DD2 with DD1. But then she is 3.5 when DD2 came along. There are a lot of feeds but Netflix is a life saver. She loves her hudl.

Once it is established, breastfeeding is far easier and quicker. Double it up with a sling and you are able to move around and do other things whilst breastfeeding.

conifers that's not true for everyone though, you can only talk about your own experiences. I bf for 7 months and even at the end it was still waaaay more of a ball ache than ff has ever been.

I'm still a relative BF novice (four months in) but am really baffled by the idea of feeding in a sling! Most of the time it's all I can do to keep my miniature gymnast still for long enough to get a decent feed on the sofa, let alone whilst multi-tasking!

It's the duration of the feeds that's troublesome. 10-20 minutes would be a dream but then how frequent are the shorter feeds HeadDreamer? Netflix is my saviour but Iam sat there for over an hour several times per day. I have also noticed her feed before bedtime is way different to every other feed. It's a calm, continuous feed of a shorter duration (45minutes or so) and seems much more efficient. Her other feeds are more stop start and less efficient.

sharond101 I experienced the same with that last evening feed. It was always like an 'efficient' feed that last one, whereas the others took hours. That's one of the reasons I've found ff much easier. For the first week or so there was a bit of figuring out in terms of bottle times and temperatures, but after that it's a doddle, like making a cup of tea.

Obviously if you want to keep bf then stick at it but if you're struggling with time and being chained to feeding then bf is probably not the best longer-term option. However, you've done really well to get this far!

sharond every 2-3 hours from birth, and 3-4 hours now as a 9mo. It's not really frequent. I'm feeding mainly after food currently during the day.

Neither ever feed for hours. I would say they aren't that interested in feeding really! DD2 (9mo) barely break 10min per feed now.

For reflux I believe bf is best as the milk is absorbed quicker and there is less time for it to stay in the stomach and cause discomfort

Yes that's true stubbed I just feel frustrated with the time it is taking. Limited her to 40mins this am then my mum gave her bottle of expressed milk.

The expressed milk was 3 hrs later.

I found formula with DD1 far easier. 11 months into bf with DD2. It's just so relentless. I think with bottles and formula you know it ends at 12 months whereas it's 2 years for bf. I long for a whole night away,

You can choose to stop breastfeeding after 12 months, and just give whole cows milk, if you want.

Also, night feeds are very likely to reduce or disappear at this age, and once they are well established on solid food they can go without breastfeeding if you want to go away for a night or two.

Another thing to consider is that your child might also self wean before 2 yrs as well. My DS self weaned at 16 to 17 months ish.

My DD is 2 weeks old. Tried breastfeeding and it has ruined me. I'm so tired and emotional. Had a real impact on my relationship with my fiancé and baby didn't seem to enjoy being on the breast. Started to express yesterday and formula on a night. And baby seems a lot happier and so do I. Complete change in my mood and managed to have sleep too and I have actually managed to have a meal!! Baby seems a lot happier too and is keeping formula feeds down better than breastfeeding. Tried to express this morning and failed. Got 1oz out of both breasts!! Normally can get a lot more. So think I will just stick to formula. I feel like a failure for not sticking at breastfeeding but I had to do what was best for me and baby.

My 3 were all tongue tied, due to absolutely useless midwives I only found out on my 3rd I could get the tie relaeased. My 1st I ended up ff , my 2nd would breast feed every would breast feed every 20 minutes for 20 minutes, and nod off from exhaustion for 10 minutes due to tongue tie, all day all night, u was a wreck. My 3rd I found an amazing midwife, knew her stuff about breastfeeding and showed me how DC was tongue tied and pointed me in the direction of a fantastic doctor who released it. Straightway she breastfed better, for longer and fell asleep from for hours at a time instead of minutes and my nipples rejoiced ,finally pain free. Wish I had known about it earlier. There was a great tongue tie group on the dreaded face book,
. that was years ago so don't know if still there. But consider getting tie released before ff.

Sorry long post!!

Brusselsproutwarning she has had it snipped already. Lyndsay1992 you need to do what is best for all of you. Happy mummy is happy baby. I bought another carton formula to try again.

Lyndsay Aw don't feel like a failure, a happy mum means a happy baby and any bf gets you off to a great start!!!

Culture, unfortunately DD2 is CMPI so no cow's milk or dairy full stop. It's a bit more difficult to stop. I know that 2 years is the guideline. I have never before failed to reach a life goal but bf with DD1 was a disaster and it's just such a tie with DD2. It's not what I imagined at all. I thought it was 6 weeks of crazy and then plain sailing. Nooooooo...7 months of stupid oversupply and then the 8-10 month sleep regression.

Ah, yes, CMPI does make it much more tricky, apologies.

I wanted to get to 2 years as it was recommended, and also because I had a difficult start to breastfeeding and it almost felt like making up for the bad start. But DS had other plans and as I mentioned before he self weaned at around 17 months. So many things about babies and children don't go to plan, and it's not helpful to beat ourselves up about these things.