Did you breast or formula feed?

[ThatstuffCray]

That’s it really. Really curious as to what most mums did with regards to feeding

Breast! All 4, 2 years each.

Formula fed from day 1

Formula

Breast fed all 3 of mine for around 3-4 weeks then went on the formula. Found I could get a better routine with the bottle.

Breast all the way. Love it and found it much easier than formula.

Breast for all of my 3 for differing but lengthy periods of time. So much easier than bottle apart from anything else. Don't regret a second of it.

Mix fed ... rarely talked about but best of both worlds ! Mostly breast fed - cheap and easy (after the first two weeks) but DS would also have the occasional bottle with ready made formula. Meant DH was involved in the feeding, I could go out without DS or just have a break from feeding if I wanted.

Pump breastmilk

Both - combi-fed DD out of necessity to start with, then carried on as it gave me a break. Did the same with DS.

Breastfed both DC until 2.5. I found it easy and convenient

DS was mix fed, breast, formula and pumped milk. Really struggled with breast feeding to begin with but overall I'm glad he was happy to be fed on different ways as it gave me more freedom and options.

DD I plan to do the same. She is only a week old so currently just breastfed to get established but I am catching milk and freezing it in anticipation of introducing a bottle sometime around 4-6 weeks.

Formula- couldn’t bf. If I could’ve I would have only done it for a few weeks.

Breast! You’ve to put the work in to prep/learn before to try and prevent pain etc.. but the bond we have is everything! I absolutely love it

Breastfed.

How about you?

Bf all 4 children but the vast majority of mums in this country ff. the statistics are out there if you are genuinely interested.

Bf to 16 m and to 3 y.

There's surely a million threads on this! It doesn't matter what anyone else does, you do what's right for you and your baby.

Breast for first few weeks, then mix of breast/bottle from then. Stopped nursing with both around 9 months each.

Glad I introduced a bottle early, as I went back to work when they were 4 months so they had bottles during the day and I nursed them when home.

Whatever works, whatever’s easiest!

I breastfed both DC for three months and then switched to formula.

@Wingingitsince2018

DS was mix fed, breast, formula and pumped milk. Really struggled with breast feeding to begin with but overall I'm glad he was happy to be fed on different ways as it gave me more freedom and options.

DD I plan to do the same. She is only a week old so currently just breastfed to get established but I am catching milk and freezing it in anticipation of introducing a bottle sometime around 4-6 weeks.

This is our story too. I'm also pregnant again and will be introducing a bottle early as it made life so much easier that DD would take both right from the start.

Proudly formula fed.

Ds, tried to bf but he lost too much weight so bf and topped up with formula. He very quickly stopped bf altogether so he was ff.

Dd, took to bf straight away and bf for 26m.

Easiest by a country mile was bf dd.

I did both, but have to say found formula, quicker and easier (especially when going out as it was winter so took a while to get all the layers off). I didn’t find formula expensive as I already had the bottles as wanted to express milk too. Gave my husband a great opportunity to bond with the baby and allowed me to have a lie in and the occasional night out. Looking back, I don’t think either was vastly better or worse than the other. Just do what’s best for you, sometimes we are own worst enemy when it comes to things like this - the amount of guilt I felt with both options was silly looking back now as nobody else was bothered!

Also combi fed - breast and formula, did try pumping for a while but really didn’t get on with it. DD still has 1-2 BFs per day, as well as solids now and a bottle, but at 11mo it only takes her a few minutes to polish off a whole boob so it’s nothing like as time-consuming as it was in the early days.

I’m definitely an advocate for combi feeding for those who want to, as I really feel it’s been the best of both worlds, and it wasn’t really spoken about as an option before she got here (e.g. in antenatal groups or with midwife). It seemed like an either/or binary, but actually both was an option for us.

Boobs all the way - a year for eldest and a year/ 14 months for my twins.