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.

I was FF as a baby and Mum smoked through her pregnancy. I'm vv clever with a lovely job. My husband had a smoke-free pregnancy, was BF, and is fick.

ahh I got my kicks now

Good post Tiktok

I was FF.

I was the youngest of 4 children , I was born in the mid 60's , my eldest brother used to feed me whilst my Mum ran around looking after the other children , housework, cooking , shopping etc .

My Mum didn't drive so a walk to the shops each day , no microwaves , freezers or convience food, or automatic washing machine . Bloody hell how did she manage .

I am and have been very healthy and intelligent .

When i put the previous examples I did not mean to say bf is on a par to moving to a rural paradise. But what if I said, well, why don't the other studies on health impact provoke the same reaction as the BF ones? Surely some people drive their kids around more than they need to, or give them mobile phones, or feed them overprocessed food on a daily basis? Driving less, cooking at home and not using mobile phones are not ideals either. People use to survive very happily not many generations ago.

"Many BF advocates say that support is very low in general"

Wouldn't disagree with that.

"At the same time, mothers who move to FF are frowned upon because they don't try hard enough."

By who? Not by me, or any of the other bf advocates I know. Nor by any of the bf counsellors - or at least not the ones I know. Not by the regular posters on this site who'd probably describe themselves as 'lactivists'.

"So what is it then? Are mums not trying enough or is there a lack of support? I don't get it"

There's a lack of support and women's motivation to continue in the face of early breastfeeding difficulties is also undermined by inaccurate information about the value to them and their baby of continuing. That's not the same as saying they don't try hard enough.

"BF is the ideal type of feeding, when it works for the mother. If it doesn't work for her, it is not. Full stop"

I suppose it's an issue of semantics here.

A balanced diet of homecooked foods is best for children. If their mother finds the pressure of preparing fresh food on a daily basis is something she can't cope with and finds stressful to the point where it's making her snappy and angry with her family and affecting her relationships, and the only alternative open to her is to give her children processed foods then - well that's what she has to do. But fresh food is still best for her children. Ditto with breastmilk.

Ah, but we agree after all Sabire! I subscribe your last paragraph to the letter.

I was FF after my mums milk went, she did breastfeed me for a couple of weeks I think. I suffered from endless ear infections as a young child, have bad allergies and struggle with my weight. My two younger siblings were both breastfed and shared my upbringing in every other way including healthy diet etc, do not have these issues.

I believe I would of had less ear infections (which a consultant later told me was properly responsible for my hearing loss, deaf in one ear and partially hearing in the other)and maybe less allergies.

I also threw up a hell of a lot...several times after every formula feed, which I didnt do whilst I was breastfed. I reckon I was sensitive to cow's milk, like my daughter is.

My mother had trouble bonding with me, she feels very guilty for losing her milk and with my constant ear infections and sickness apparantly I was not as easy child to raise....That makes me feel sad and a little unwanted. Which is stupid as I was/am loved and wanted, but I feel I caused by mum a lot of trouble.

Of course I might of been prone to everything anyway.

"At the same time, mothers who move to FF are frowned upon because they don't try hard enough."

actually, ime the people least likely to say things like that are bf advocates and those involve with actually supporting women to bf. because, actually, they are the ones who see the lack of support and struggle to plug the gaps.

BUT (and it is a big but) those involved with supporting women who want to bf can and do get extremely frustrated with statements about how it isn't all that important, that we shouldn't mention the risks of using formula, that all we do is make women feel guilty. actually, the method of feeding a newborn does matter. it isn't the only thing, it is one factor but it is an important one. just because the support isn't there, dones't mean we shouldn't try to support women, nor does it mean we should gloss over the risks of ff.

sorry waaaaaaaay too many actuallies in that post

Flight - that's so . You make a good point about bonding rather than the quality of the milk per se

Really interesting thread!

I was AF from birth. My brother was BF for 6wks.

My mam had little imput with BF other than being told 'it is best'. My mam really regrets not having more support. She says that if she knew then what she knows now then she would have BF us until we were at least 2.

I am allergic to dairy, have eczema, messed up gut flora, and ME.

My brother has skin problems too.

I am BF my 2.5 yr old, has never had any other milk other than BM as yet. No health problems so far, other than a couple of colds. Hope I'm not tempting fate saying that!

Actually, was ill last week, first real illness, not nice. Just wanted to nurse all the time. I swear that the BF helped her get better.

I was breastfed. Can't prove that it prevented me getting allergies etc, but I presume it did.

DP was entirely formula fed. He has hayfever and lots of skin rashes. He obtained a first class degree and has a doctorate.

I think this thread shows that there is far too much worry being piled on mothers re breast feeding as we obviously all turned out just fine. Most of us wouldn't have been fed the quality formulas we use today or had such great sterilising equipment and were given little extras too eg raw egg, Carnation milk etc.

When you become a mother you are swamped with so many "you should be"s. You should be

feeding them 5 a day
not shouting
breast feeding
letting them watch no TV
working
not working
giving them more attention
giving them less attention

etc,etc,etc

Breast feeding is just one of many "should be"s, you can't do everything perfectly.

So my mother didn't bfeed me, well so what. She did plenty of other things brilliantly eg fed me fab food, brought me up to love books, gave me plenty of fresh air etc etc . The result of which I'm a healthy, happy, intelligent person today. Breast feeding isn't the one and only factor that is involved with bring up a happy, healthy child.

So lets just put breast feeding in the list of "should be"s where it belongs and quit banging on about it then maybe mums everywhere can just enjoy their babies and feel good about their feeding choices.

I feel sorry for the op she only wanted some reassurance and as usual it gets turned into a breast feeding crusade by a couple of members.

It seems the majority weren't breastfed - I know I was bottle fed from the off and, worse still, but on solids at six days old.

To shut me up my mum used to dunk a dummy in golden syrup and put it in my mouth. She wasn't a bad mother she just did what her own mother told her to do. That was the way in those days. She absolutely did not know that breastfeeding was the best option. During the period that she was reproducing (1964-1971)formula feeding was a bit like having a colour telly - you did it to show the neighbours you had a bit of money.

I was bottle fed from day 1, as was my sister. Neither of us have ever suffered eczema etc, my sister is very bright, but I am dead thick!

"So lets just put breast feeding in the list of "should be"s where it belongs"

No - lets not do that.

Let's not tell mums they 'should' breastfeed at all.

Let's just tell them about what medical evidence says about the benefits of breastfeeding to their babies, and of the risks of not doing it. In other words - give them the facts. The anecdotal stuff they can access for themselves.

Then let them make up their own minds about whether they think it's important.

My mum also admits to mixing crushed rusks into our bottles from 6 weeks old, to make us sleep better!!

Oh Sabire(sigh) there is medical evidence for everything if you look hard enough.

"I think this thread shows that there is far too much worry being piled on mothers re breast feeding as we obviously all turned out just fine"

Right then, as the majority of the population under the age of 50 is predominantly formula fed and as we're all obviously 'fine', ie completely unaffected by any health issues, would it be ok to suggest the government hugely scale down NHS provision as we clearly don't need it?

I can beat that Pinkchampagne - by gran was told to take up smoking when she was pregnant....by her doctor!

Apparently that was common practice in the 1940s when the woman found herself pregnant and the husband was away fighting in the war - it was seen as a way of helping with nerves !

Blimey, Nancy, how times have changed!!

My Nan admitted to putting brandy on my dummy to make me sleep, when I was a couple of months old! Maybe that explains my unhealthy love of alcohol!!