Bit of advice please :(

[vikki75]

Hi, i'm due baby mumber 4 in 6 weeks and i'm having a big dilema about how to feed him.

I started all my others on breastfeeding but switched to bottle at about 2 months, however with my last baby I only fed him for a week as despite him being latched on correctly I was in agony and dreaded feeding times.

I switched to formula when he was a week old but he was so ill with them and no matter what we did it didnt make any differance.

My boobs have been sooo painful throughout this pregnancy and to be honest the thought of feeding terrifies me so i'm just wondering if I should go straight onto bottles and not even offer him the breast.

Sorry for the rambling post i'm just loosing sleep due to the worry

Vikki xx

If you don't want to b-f then don't.
Breast milk is better than formula but given that we have acces to clean water in this country the difference is not life or death. There are so many other ways in which you can give your dc a good start in life. If she is loved and stimulted, how she is fed is only of secondary importance

thanks, I just dont want him to be the only one that wasn't fed even if its only for a bit.

I'm just worried about switching from breast to formula as with DS it made him so unsettled.

Please don't lose sleep over it! I bottle fed both mine from day one despite the guilt tripping and snobbery and we are a happy bunch all the same!

vikki - I do understand your dilemma. Your immediate memories of both breast and bottle feeding are bad ones, and switching actually made your baby ill, and did not make any difference in terms of coping with problems.

But you want to give baby no. 4 the same excellent start, and tbat's fine.

Your painful breasts may not be an issue at all after the baby is born.

can you call one of the bf helplines and really have a good chat about it?

I breastfed my 2nd dd to 6 months. At 3 weeks my nipples were so sore that they were bleeding and puss coming out!!! nice !!! I was in such agony that I had to take painkillers (prescription) an hour before feeding to numb the pain of feeding. Health visitors were useless.
THEN a friend told me to try nipple shields esp the boots ones as they are thinner. In between each feed to use lansinoh cream £10 a tube but you can get it on free repeat prescription as GP's don't want to be seen to prevent breastfeeding.
ANYWAY the nipple shields were a godsend and the lansinoh worked wonders and after another 3 weeks my nipples were as tough as anything.
I don't know how I got through it and wanted to give up on so many occasions. My dd has a kidney prob so I wanted to BF for as long as I could.
Looking back if only I had known about nipple shields from the start of the pain I could have prevented it from getting worse. Goo luck.