Why I love bottlefeeding............

[Gwenick]

with all of these debates about why people 'love' breastfeeding, why it's best and why people 'don't' want to Bf I reckon it's time for a "Why I love bottlefeeding" thread.

Before anyone starts I've had one of each - a BF for 14 months and a bottlefed from birth (BF was my first baby)

1. I can continue my 'life' - ie I can keep doing my director of music job without worrying about trying to express and (in the case of DS1) worrying about whether DS take milk from the bottle
   
   
2. DH can feed him
   
   
3. He's a happy healthy baby and I'm a healthy (not always so happy at the moment but that's different story) mummy
   
   
4. If I leave him with someone and forget to leave enough milk all they have to do is go to the shop
   
   I'll do more in a minute - DS2 needs to sleep now

[suzywong]

well you'll be meeting one when you get to Perth NP

[kymbo]

Yes it is bloody expensive,but sometime's it has to be done,I really hate all this bitchiness about breast/bottle feeding!
Why can't people except other people's way of parenting. And that goes for both sides of the arguement. There are good and bad things about both.

[Beansmum]

Why are you so keen to encourage bottle feeding?

1. I have a 'life' thank you very much! It's a different life to the one I had pre bean but I am still at uni and bean takes one bottle of EBM a day. I express for 5 mins every morning, not exactly a huge strain.
   
   
2. not applicable in my case but I love feeding bean and wouldn't want anyone else to do it.
   
   
3. I'm sure your ds would have been happy and healthy if he had been breast fed, so that's not a reason to love bottles
   
   
4. I wouldn't forget to leave milk for bean, but if I did he could have water quite happily
   
   you CAN drink while breastfeeding, but I don't think I would want to go out and get pissed anyway, I would want to be sober(ish) when I got home no matter how I was feeding bean.
   
   At the moment I am surviving on mini eggs and raspberry trifle and so far no ill effects, you can eat what you want.

[nailpolish]

meeting one what? a non expressing bf mother?

thats dedication for you suzy

[Beansmum]

glad you are happy though, and you have such a happy healthy ds

[milward]

Now you know a mum who has never expressed!! Breastpads can be bits of cloth reused from something. Just interested to know how much people pay to feed formula to their child?

[MummytoSteven]

I believe that most people can get subsidised formula from their HV> if you are on a very low income you can get free formula. otherwise I would say roughly £6 per week for a tub of formula, more if you use cartons.

[suzywong]

yep

never expressed and I'll show my lovley pert bosoms and all

[nailpolish]

THANK GOD FOR FORMULA
IT HAS SAVED MANY BABIES LIVES

not to mention my sanity, if anyone cares

i loved bf but had to change to bottles, i loved that as much, blah blah blah

[wobblyknicks]

The major FACT to remember is each baby/mother is different and you can do research until hell freezes over but it will NEVER apply 100% to each person, so they have to do they best they can in THEIR situation, regardless of what is officially right or wrong. I think that gets forgotten far too much.

And that leads on to my one and only real reason for bottlefeeding, which in my own case easily outweighs all 101 bfing reasons

1. It stopped me going insane and putting my dd out for the bin men.
   
   ...and that's good enough for me
   
   PS, all this 'cow's milk is for calves' stuff makes me queasy - meat is for lions, flying is for birds.... we all do stuff we weren't 'meant' to....your point is!!!

[Gwenick]

well bean - I'm very happy that you can express so much so easily - I found it much more of struggle - managed ok with BF DS1 - but when I tried to express for DS2 got NOTHING.

I have a 'life' too - if you wish to misinterprate what I'm saying that's fine.

[nailpolish]

suzy, i have discovered the joys of wonderbra to give me that non-spaniel ears look after bf! lol

[HappyMumof2]

Message withdrawn

[nailpolish]

agree with wobblyknicks 100%

[nailpolish]

well said wk

[kymbo]

When having trouble with breastfeeding ds and dd I often wondered what DID they do back in the day,before formula milk? If you couldn't breastfeed? Get your mates to do it for you? What did they do?

[CountessDracula]

Well i am grateful for it because I wasn't allowed to breast feed.

[Toothache]

Milward - Why do women that bottlefeed have to justify the environmental impact???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESUS!

Do you have a fridge? A freezer? Use aerosals? Breathe out CO2? Have gas central heating? Turn lights on? Wash clothes in a washing machine? Drive a car!!?

FFS this is getting ridiculous.

[motherinferior]

Actually, HMo2, I don't know about the studies on women around the world on inadequate diets but I do remember that a couple of years ago a medieval village was excavated in the UK - it was covered in the mainstream news media - and the interesting thing was that while everyone over the age of about five was horribly malnourished, children up to that age were of a comparable level of nutrition to kids in the UK today; presumably because of breastfeeding. Which suggests you can eat a pretty crap and still produce pretty good breastmilk.

[wobblyknicks]

Thanks np

kymbo, they either had a friend or wet nurse do it or they had to watch their baby die, thank god we have more options!!!

[Gwenick]

wk - well said - I guess you summed up what I was trying to say with 'life' thing - if I'd have BF Ds2 I now know (looking back) I'd have had to give up my director of music at church role - I've already developed PND as it is (completely unrelated to my choices on feeding DS2) and that would have completely destroyed me.

[nailpolish]

kymbo, wet nurses were used even during the WW1, midwives who had had children of their own would feed babies whose mothers werent capable.

sounds a bit wierd, but what other chance did the baby have? sort of nice in a way.

otherwise, your mum, babies granny would do it!

[tiktok]

" if you want a real binge drink it's not really a good idea. And some of us DID need to express like 'maniacs' to be able to get enough milk out"

Oh, we are talking 'real binge drink' now I suppose it isn't really a good idea for anyone at any time, whatever their feeding method....I can't argue in favour of 'binge drinking', now, can I, though honestly, with a healthy term baby, a one-off p* up is not something that would have a lasting impact.

The maniacal expressing is going to vary between people. If it needs maniacal activity to express, I would say 'don't bother'

"Sorry and all that, but it's pregnancy that changes the shape of your breasts, not bf."

I had dreadful boobs by the time I'd finished BF DS1, the 'perked up' a bit in between pg's and never really went 'downhill' half as much with DS2

There's not a lot of research on this, as far as I know, but there is a massive range of personal experience. The major changes in the breast occur in pregnancy. That's biology.

"And pur-lease....not that old rubbish about having to eat the 'right' foods and 'right' calories."

You say: FACT - BF burns more calories - therefore you have to eat enough -

I say FACT - no you don't. Read posts on diet with my name for the links.

"that was stressed to me time and time again when I was BF "

well, you've been listening to the myth makers

"Ever had a strong curry or strong black coffee and see the effect on baby/babies nappy????? - not nice"

Actually, no, but it wouldn't bother me!

[Gobbledigook]

Not read anyone elses list so this is just what comes to mind for me:

1. I could see how much the baby was getting - breastfed ds1 and it was a nightmare as he was a poor feeder and I could never tell if he was crying cos he was hungry or not as I couldn't make out if he'd had a full feed before iyswim
   
   
2. I could have help with feeding from Mum and DH - quite a bonus when on ds3 and had 2 toddlers under 3.5 as well.
   
   
3. I could feed anywhere without feeling self conscious - I know some people are happy with it and that's fine but I really didn't like feeding in public or in front of my Dad or brothers.
   
   
4. I got my normal boobs and figure back quickly - hated having big ones and hated maternity/nursing bras.
   
   
5. Although knowing that 'breast is best' based on my family history (no allergies, no obesity, no specific diseases and rarely ill, all of quite high IQ....) I didn't think that formula feeding was going to make any difference to the outcome of my own individual children than if I'd breast fed.
   
   Think that's it.

[Gwenick]

tiktok - caffeine can get into the milk - it affected DS1's sleeping quite badly - he was still a horrific sleeper once I'd cut it out - but much better

And DON'T try the hot curry or spicy food (unless it's regular diet for you) as the nappies really are NOT very nice..........