My mil popped in this morning while I was feeding ds and when I told her we'd had a rough night because ds seemed to want to eat about every two hours she went off on one (not for the first time) telling me that I need to get it into my head that my milk is not enough for him and he needs 'milk from the chemist' as well. When I replied that sometimes if babies are having a growth spurt they ask to be fed more often but after a bit your body catches up she replied 'nonsense! take it from someone who knows what they're talking about - it's time you stopped breastfeeding him anyway, he needs to start eating solids, he's nearly 4 months old'. Now, it's true that pediatricians here generally start introducing solids at 5 months (still earlier than WHO recommends), but definitely not 4 months and in any case I fully intend to continue exclusively breastfeeding until 6 months if I can. So I told her this too: 'rubbish! You'll see who's right when you take that baby to the doctor and maybe you'll listen to him'. At this point her husband chipped in (he is painting our spare room) and to his credit told her to leave off, at which point: 'Well it's all very well you saying it's their baby and they should do things their way but I can't bear to see that baby suffer!'. By this point ds of course rather upset by the screaming match which has interrupted his previously peaceful feed and crying, but to my delight then let out a massive burp as if to confirm what a good meal he had had.
The background to this is that I really struggled to get bf started as ds didn't latch on properly at first and lost a lot of his birthweight so the hospital had me top him up with formula. I wish I had never agreed to this as it took me two months of expressing milk after each feed to get my supply established enough to cut it out, and I feel SO PROUD of myself for having managed to as it was really hard work at a time when my reserves were at their absolute lowest. As a result I am determined to give him my milk for as long as I possibly can and it really upsets me that she is so unsupportive. The problem is I'm starting back at work in two weeks (just 2 days) and while I am away mil will have ds - and if she gives him formula I will kill her!!!