Were you formula fed as a baby?

[Janni]

Do you believe you would be healthier or more intelligent had you been breastfed?

Do you believe you were disadvantaged in any other way by being formula fed?

I was not breastfed.

I breastfed my own children for 20 months.

I realise though that I do not feel in any way disadvantaged for not having been breastfed myself.

I just wondered how others felt.

erm the only way I feel is that this is going to kick off. .

was breastfed for a few weeks, then onto carnation milk ( I kid you not, formula was waaaaay too expensive, and breastfeeding wasn't the done thing when mum was a new mum.....)

am incredibly healthy and intelligent (ahem)
don't feel disadvantaged At ALL

i wa sbreastfed and am clearly highly intelligent and beautiful

this may or may not be the result of being breastfed.

my 'mother' claimed she b/f me but in reality it was for a couple of weeks only

I was bottle fed.

I had no serious childhood ilnesses.

Was a healthy bright child.

No exzema/asthma etc

Though did develop hayfever as an adult

nope was adopted soon after birth so never b/f, certainly hasn't stunted my growth and managed to scrape a degree

brother wasn't b/f either, even though he is biological child of parents, my mother was too ill and he's 6ft8 and a raving genuis, can do allsorts of exceptionally intelligent things but couldn't find his way home out of a paper bag - wonder if b/f might have helped that

i had apalling childhood eczema

Bottlefed from the off apparently my Mum was given tablets to get rid of her milk which she didn't get with my brother as they were linked to breast cancer.

I had endless chest infections when young including one where I ended up in hospital not breathing.

Could be FF but more likely to be the fact that my Mum and Dad smoked around me as did all my relatives and I used to be asleep in a room with 6 adults smoking

Yes I was formula fed after a few (a couple maybe?) weeks.

I haven't even thught about it until you asked tbh!

FF from the off

Was very healthy as a child and academically intellignet (although my common sense got lost somewhere along the way...!!!)

i was bottlefed and i do not feel dis-advantaged in any way, but i do feel a pang of sadness that my mum was told she couldn't breastfeed me because she had no milk. she still believes that to this day and in fact was convinced i wouldn't be able to breastfeed my own children because i wouldn't have any milk either

i did breastfeed them both for several years in fact. i don't feel dis-advantage or resentful, but i do feel sad that my mum effectively had the opportunity to breastfeed me taken away from her, and that she never got to experience such a wonderful thing.

I was FF, my older brother, the golden child, was BF. He can still do no wrong. My mother jokingly says that's why we didn't bond. I bit my tongue.

oh yes, and while my brother has allergies, I have none.

My siblings were BF for much longer than me, as far as I can tell.

I'm the only one who has suffered from excema, have not achieved so well academicaly, and was fatter as a toddler.

Hmm - the smoking thing sounds familiar!

This is not intended to be a 'kick off' topic. I'm way past the breastfeeding stage and have never been on one of these threads before.

I have an adopted daughter who was not breastfed and it helps me to just accept that by thinking that I wasn't and I'm OK.

For those who would like to breastfeed but can't for whatever reason, this thread might also be some comfort.

Anyway, got to go to bed now xx

I was ff, which might be why I had lots of chest infections as a baby, and why I'm a lardarse now.

Message withdrawn

I was breastfed for 2 weeks. Then my mum had to return to work, and breastfeeding was no longer an option. I was not fed formula, I was fed diluted heated cows milk.

I subscribe to respiratory infections. I had hayfeever as a teenager constant bouts of tonsillitis, ear infections and bronchitis. I have allergic rhinnitus, chronic sinusities which means I am on antibiotics monthly as I get really ill. I have chest infection fairly regularly, and docs are now thinking I may have asthma.

I dont know if this is related to the milk, or the fact that my father was chain smoking rollertobacco around me daily, together with my uncle who lived with us. I think this is more likely. My mum cleaned the ceilings every spring as they were yellow from tobacco.

We dont smoke. I breastfed both my sons for over a year, my oldest weaned himself off it at 14 months, and my youngest at 16. They both suffer respiratory conditions.

My Mum was one of many (maybe most) women of her generation who was told she 'didn't have enough milk' and 'didn't know how much baby was getting'. So no, I wasn't BF for long but I'm fine. Think she felt a bit when I was feeding DS and going on and on and on about the benefits of it.

I was BF till 6 months, my siblings were BF till 12 months.
From the sounds of things my mum was quite unusual BFing for so long in the 1970s???

I was fed on formula with raw egg and rusk thrown in for good measure. Most of my mothers side was formula fed we're all v healthy, slim, many of us have degrees, my uncle is a medical scientist etc, etc so nope don't feel disadvantaged at all.

I was BF for 14 months. I suffered from eczema as a child. My immune system is ok but I get colds/coughs every year and I've got hay fever. My DH was formula fed and never gets colds or flu or chest infections despite both parents smoking round him as a child.

Yes, i do feel like i have missed out in some major brain cell developement. Or is that just what happens when you become a mum??

I think my mum done the best she could with the info she was given at the time. I didn't and dont have any real physical emotional bond with her which i think i would have had given i had been bfed.

I bfed dd1 for 25 months and i will continue to bfed dd2 until she self weans.