Bottle feeding, why are we looked down on (sorry its long)

[jofeb04]

Hiya all,
My ds is now 10 months, but since he was born we fed him with a bottle. However, this wasnt by choice.
However, i noticed that other mums always looked down at me because of this.
The reason why we bottle fed him was because once he was born, a pediatrition had to look over him (for quite a while), we he didnt go stright to the beast. Due to the method that he was born under, he had a severe head ache, so bad that he wouldnt let you pick him up.
He then went to neonatel for 6 days, and i expressed for him, but it was extreamly hard, as he needed to be fed every hour on the hour to low blood suger, infection and possibly hyperthumia. The doctor asked if it was ok to bottle feed him, we said yes, as it was the best thing to do for him.
We carried on bottle feeding once we got him home, and he loved it.
However, once we were home, the midwife that visited always tried to latch him on, even though ny ds didnt want to. He got stressed, i got stressed. When my hv came, she was alot more understanding. However, I noticed that other mums were the wrost, saying all sorts of things, from "you should breast feed him, not bottle" to "you'r gonna injure your son, making him use a bottle".
Please breastfeeding mums (I dont mean any of you though!!), when you see a bottle fed baby, dont always assume its just because mum doesnt want to.

piffle, I think the refs to horses heads and so on make it clear people (at least some of them!) knew you meant it as a joke

Jokes can be tricky things, though.....I'm sure you can think of unacceptable or hurtful comments which were meant as a joke by the user but not the receiver.

The use of the term breastfeeding mafia has been used not as a joke on several occasions on mumsnet - often being used as a derogatory comment towards mothers who help other mothers to breastfeed, or who just happen to breastfeed and like it!

You can't blame people for being sensitive to the phrase when it has a history like that....even though you didn't mean it as anything other than a tease.

Hope that explains it. It's not people being over-sensitive, just asking for a bit of courtesy.

Piffle, the thing is that the phrase was picked up by someone not using it as a joke but as a derogatory term. There's nothing ridiculous about asking (politely ) for an offensive phrase not to be used.

You're not alone! I couldn't breastfeed b/c I had a severe case of PND and had to take some serious medication.

But, I, too have experienced what you have. I left one board in part b/c I was the only one there who didn't breastfeed.

My daughter is healthy and happy and so is her mum. That's enough for me - I don't need judgemental people in my life, a/way!

Don't know Caligula - is strange. I think they thought I'd rather have birthed DS in the woods with beads, windchimes, chanting and incense. I bloody wouldn't though!

Dinny, I hated the water initially (was too hot for my liking, though was just the right temperature), but I got used to it and enjoyed the weightless feeling!

Piffle hun, I knew you meant it as a joke. Bobbiem didn't though

Piffle, yes, your comments were obviously a joke but bobbiem didnt seem tol be joking.