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 still think life is a lottery and being bf does not guarantee you a winning ticket.

But I dont expect any bf mum to agree with me"

Nope - I agree with you. Bf doesn't guarantee you a winning ticket, it just improves a child's health and development.

I was formula fed, Out of interest,what is the ratio for feeding? I thought that most babies are FF, about 60-70%? But maybe that's just my (limited) social circle & family.
Not that it makes a difference of course, a FED baby is a happy one, no matter how?

I was bf for a couple of months, then formula fed.

I don't think it makes any difference how you were fed, so long as you were loved.

I've just remembered something re this. I read somewhere that a survey showed that anxiety levels were much higher among adults who were FF than those who were BF. I was FF and have a real problem with anxiety. I wonder if the differences might be about more than the content of the milk - there is also the feeling of closeness and safety.

Also, I've been thinking about this thread since it started and actually feeling really sad that I was FF! I'd never really considered it that way before.

bf for how long? a week, a month, once?

Don't know dinny - I assumed FF means from the start, so no BF at all (like me).

snowleopard - there was a big study done by the Telethon Institute in Australia linking breastfeeding to better mental health in childhood. Their hypothesis was that it's elements in the milk itself that support brain development, rather than the physical contact or nurturing style that might go with prolonged breastfeeding. Anyway - here's what the research says:

Our research has shown that babies that are breastfed for longer than six months have significantly better mental health in childhood, adding to the growing evidence that bioactive factors in breast milk played an important role in the rapid early brain development that occurs in the first year of life. The study found that children who were breastfed for less than six months compared with six months or longer had a 52 per cent increased risk of a mental health problem at two years of age, and a 55 per cent increased risk at age six. At age eight the increased risk was 61 per cent while at age 10 the increased risk was 37 per cent. The analysis is based on a scientifically-recognised checklist of child behaviour that assessed the study children?s behaviour at two, six, eight and 10 years of age. Children that were breastfed had particularly lower rates of delinquent, aggressive and anti-social behaviour, and overall were less depressed, anxious or withdrawn. With adjustments for factors such as the parents? socio-economic situation, their education, their happiness and family functioning, children that were breastfed for at least six months were still at lower risk of mental health problems.

snowleopard - there was a big study done by the Telethon Institute in Australia linking breastfeeding to better mental health in childhood. Their hypothesis was that it's elements in the milk itself that support brain development, rather than the physical contact or nurturing style that might go with prolonged breastfeeding. Anyway - here's what the research says:

Our research has shown that babies that are breastfed for longer than six months have significantly better mental health in childhood, adding to the growing evidence that bioactive factors in breast milk played an important role in the rapid early brain development that occurs in the first year of life. The study found that children who were breastfed for less than six months compared with six months or longer had a 52 per cent increased risk of a mental health problem at two years of age, and a 55 per cent increased risk at age six. At age eight the increased risk was 61 per cent while at age 10 the increased risk was 37 per cent. The analysis is based on a scientifically-recognised checklist of child behaviour that assessed the study children?s behaviour at two, six, eight and 10 years of age. Children that were breastfed had particularly lower rates of delinquent, aggressive and anti-social behaviour, and overall were less depressed, anxious or withdrawn. With adjustments for factors such as the parents? socio-economic situation, their education, their happiness and family functioning, children that were breastfed for at least six months were still at lower risk of mental health problems.

NO, breastfeeding doesn't give anyone a winning ticket but then again it doesn't carry any risks either.

(unless you are HIV positive)

Becaroo - CFS/ME has never been known to pass from person to person from body fluids has it? It isn't catching and therefore any health professional that has told you that there is a risk of passing ME/CFS onto your baby via your breastmilk is surely talking bollocks worrying you unecessarily?

Again this concept of a Happy Mum = a "happy" baby pops up but this assumes that the baby has a choice which they don't and it negatively asserts that breastfeeding mum is an unhappy mum which in general just isn't the case.

I recently discovered my mum only breastfed me till i was 4 mo. I was her first baby. According to her she lacked confidence to go on, I was a skinny baby who needed 'feeding up' and 4 months was recommended at the time (late 1960's). My 3 brothers and sisters were bfed for much longer. I don't know if she gave me formula, i think she gave me purees and baby rice etc.

I am the only one who has food allergies.

i was ff as was a month early and my mam had pre exclampsia. im very rarely ill and apart from chicken pox and glandular fever when i was a child didnt make a trip to the docs from the age of 7 till i went to uni at 18 and got 'freshers flu'
my little sis was breast fed for 7 mths and has excma. were both slim and fairly intelligent (apart from inability to spell!) i tried to bf my 3 dds but found it very painful so ff them.

I was formula fed from birth, suffered very badly with eczema, got absolutely every illness going bar smallpox, but still here to tell the tale. Might have also been something to do with never having any vaccinations! (Don't let's get started on that one!

Oh! Snowleopard... I have suffered with anxiety all my life, I thought it was down to my Mom always being at work and my dad away at sea - but maybe it was being FF??? Prob all three!

Was formula fed as a child. years and years of misery with asthma/eczema followed before being diagnosed with dairy allergy at age 9 (now outgrown).

Doesn't really bother me, in retrospect, but my mum regrets it (the formula) to this day.

I was BF until 1 year in the early 1970's - Mum really had to stick to her guns, she gives me the impression! - and she was v. supportive when I was feeding DS, who by the way had terrible eczema despite the breast stuff.

DH was FF (MIL still thinks BF is some kind of communist/hippy fad) and is thick as two short planks, so maybe there is something in it?! (Joke. He's a pretty high flying, non-allergic kind of guy.....)

I think there is a danger of making mums feel they haven't done the 'right thing' if they FF - maybe that's where the mental health stuff comes from, not the quality of the milk itself??

Great thread though!

I was breastfed for 9 months and have a PhD. My husband was BF for about 4 weeks and then FF and has a PhD...Neither of us have asthma or any allergies (well, he claims a mild allergy to fish, but it's really just a violent dislike for the stuff!)

Um, we don't really think it makes a lot of difference!

Was bf til about 6mnths and then went on to full cream jersey milk from the herd mum milked. No allergies,asthma etc. I do think,as others have said, that if you are going to have asthma/allergies etc you probally will regardless of bf or ff. Maybe just to a lesser or greater degree?

My mum recently told me she couldn't BF me as she couldn't produce any milk. So I was on SMA from the start.
I was never an overly sickly child. Didn't have any allergies. Developed hayfever in my teens. Fit as a fiddle now, rarely get ill and have an iron stomach (even during my first trimester).

I was bf for 3 months then weaned on rusks and formula, I have coeliac disease, and mild cows milk intolerance and was ADHD as a child. I can never say for sure if this is because of my diet in my first year, but I don't think it's just coincidence. I actually think that we are born with tendancies, so being ff will increase your chance of developing something that you had a tendancy towards it, I'm not convinced it actually causes any of these things, you know? But why take the risk????

I'm with Charlotte Church, if you can bf and you don't, it's ridiculous!

I am a Formula Baby - a child of the sixties, man ....

Mum had difficulty bf, so put on formula which was standard practice then.

I have no allergies, not overweight (though actually that's changing due to penguin bisc habit , I am healthy and last time I checked, entirely sane.

My dd was largely formula fed, my ds largely bf. Interestingly, family observers will draw any differences between the two as being down to how they were fed as babies (pro-formula in my family, pro-bf in dh's) to prove their own viewpoint. Bollocks to both.

I was FF. I don't think I'm unhealthy, but its all relative. My grandfather died of an ulcer in his 60's that would have been completely treatable now. 40 years ago it was normal to smoke. People expected to die in their 70's and TB was widespread. I am healthier than people of previous generations despite being FF. However, by BF my children I hope I am giving them a chance to be normally healthy for a child born in the 2000's.

My older sister (first child) was formula fed after 2 weeks as the monthly nurse insisted my mother didn't have enough milk. This was most likely due to the fact that she also insisted on giving top up bottles from day 1. Second time around (me) my mother was more confident and made sure no one interefered and I was fully breastfed (other extreme in fact as I refused to take a bottle!)
We all three (younger brother too, also breastfed) have allergies (eczema, asthma and hayfever) but then there is also a strong family history of these three.
My mother blames the formula feeding for my sister being an overweight toddler, child and adult. This does not run in the family particularly, and both me and my brother are 'normal' weight.
Who knows, you can never reverse the past and find out if it would have been different.
Interestingly my mother was breastfed herself which I believe was relatively unusual then (40s)
We are all intelligent (well we have degrees, whatever that's worth nowadays!) and apart from the mild allergies are pretty healthy.
I am breastfeeding my daughter in the hope of avoiding allergies, but if she inherits them anyway I'll just have to think how much worse they'd have been if she'd had formula......

I was mostly FF (BF for a few weeks) and am healthy, a normal weight (usually - still trying to shed pregnancy weight!) and no allergies at all.

My sister was mostly BF, is overweight, and has food allergies, mental health issues and other things.

I think these things are down to our genes, rather than how we were fed, IMO

Youngest sister was also BF and more like me