Breast Fed babies....more clingy than bottle fed (expressed breast milk or formula).????

[sparklycheerymummy]

My ds is 6 weeks old and bf..... I am with him all the time so I know what makes him tick but a comment today upset me..... a friend commented that if he was ff or given ebm he would not be so 'clingy' round me. I like to think its just that we have bonded well, he feels safe with me and I know exactly how he likes to be held but I am interested in what other people feel. I can cope with him being 'clingy' so that in itself doesnt bother me!

i think you are right.
some babies are clingier than others, and how they're fed really has nothing at all to do with it (apart from that a bf maybe may feed more frquently, and as such spend a bit more time with you in that way)

enjoy him while you can, it's all too soon that they don't want cuddles any more and want to go off and do their own thing

What rubbish. And why wouldn't you want him to be 'clingy' at 6 weeks? He's hardly ready to run off and look after himself. Your friend has a very odd attitude.

thanks that really helps.... my dd never wanted cuddles so i think i am getting more now to make up for that!!!

Ds (bf) has never been particularly clinging with me, except in the perfectly normal significant attachment to main carers way (ie when he was tiny he would prefer to be with me or dh rather than someone else).

All babies are different (cliche but true)

I would have been very offended too! Of course a 6 week old baby wants to be held and cuddled by his mummy - that's not clingy, that's a totally normal tiny baby! What a negative thing for your friend to say. What a load of nonsense to make a spurious link to how you give him his milk too - how would that have anything to do with it? And as you say, since when was a "clingy" 6 week old a problem? It's lovely to cuddle and hold your tiny baby.

i am chuckling at the word tiny.... he is 6 weeks and 13lb 6ozs..... 10lb 11ozs at birth..... i spend a lot of time keeping him fed!!!

sparkly, my 14 week old is very clingy and is ff so your friend is talking total rubbish!

Btw, I'm impressed at his weight - mine is only a teeny tiny 11 lbs and is twice your son's age!

Enjoy the cuddles .

I am impressed with his weight too though i am told by the hv that his weight gain is 'steady' and in fact totally in proportion with his birth weight. NOt sure how long I can keep bf but keeping going for now..... the hv also said she didnt expect me to wait till ds was 6 months to wean him but to TRY get to 17 weeks if i can!!!...... another discussion thread there though!!!!

Lol! Hmm, very controversial about the hungry baby/early weaning thing - DS1 was a hungry boy and 75th centile, but we weaned at 26 weeks. He just consumed alot of milk!

oh good another HV talking out of her arse then! lol
trust me, big babies don't need solids earlier than any other baby. just cos their big doesn't mean they're ready for food.
milk milk milk is all they need until around 6 months

bear in mind women feed twins/triplets/even more! am sure us mere mortals can manage a few big babies (mine have all been large too!)

breastfed babies tend to plateau around 4-5 months, so you may see his weight start to slow down quite a lot then

10lb!!! Ok, so I take back "tiny". Tiny in terms of age therefore and def allowed to be "clingy".

Keep going with the BF - your body is an amazing thing and will keep up with the demand and just produce more milk. You've already been the reason he's put on almost 3lb - good on you. Probably a good excuse for extra chocolate cake to keep your supplies up though !!

Your ds is 6 weeks old and likes to be cuddled cos he is a v young baby and you are his lovely mummy. Your friend is a numpty. Is there perhaps a touch of jealousy which leads her to want to undermine you?

she has a young baby too who likes to play pass the baby and she likes this fact and says it is cos she is bottle fed. I am very proud of my bf!!!

Sounds like she is jealous, doesn't it?

i think she has issues over not bf but she was expressing and to be honest she is having nights out and dates etc already so ff is easier for her. I am not an anit ff person at all.... my dd was ff for personal reasons. I know bf is best if possible but ff is absolutely fine too and have never rammed it down her throat that i am bf .... in fact the opposite and when i see her i try to time it so i am not bf..... i am still shy about bf a bit and have HUGE boobs and a big baby so find i tricky when out!!!

There is an argument that bf babies may be less clingy as the 'comfort' factor of being bf means that they grow up feel secure (for want of a better word) and thus less likely to be 'clingy' as an alder child.

I like to imagine myself as a monkey or cave woman and if my dd2 (3 weeks) is wanting cuddles I imagine what a mummy monkey would do - and they would feed and carry the baby round all the time.
With dd1 I listened to people telling me that she would be clingy, must get used to going to sleep on her own etc and it just stressed me out. DD 1 is very independent despite having fed herself to sleep on the boob till she was one, no sleep probs either.

dp now kicking off cos he cant settle ds like i can..... admittedly i find it hard to watch him trying to as my boobs generally start twitching!

Clinginess is mainly driven by personality.

not sure i agree..... my dd was clingy as a baby but certainly is not now.....

My dd 6 is less clingy that she used to be. My ds 3 was less clingy as a baby but deeply intense in his love for me now in a way that dd never was. Dd stoutly refused all bottles despite all my efforts. Ds was happy to take a bottle if offered.

All personality driven IMO and nothing to do with their method of feeding.

One parent told me her dcs were never cuddly as babies. If she cuddled them, they did not melt into her body. Now I cannot possibly understand that because both my dcs physically ached for my touch. Again, different babies.

Blueshoes - I read that as you having six dds and three ds's - I was impressed!

Nope.

There are clingy bf babies, there are unclingy bf babies. Ditto formula.

I am more inclined to agree with the point Bambi raises, that they are less likely to be clingy as they are more secure in the knowledge that comfort, in the form of a breastfeed, will be there "on tap" (fnar) and they won't have to wait while a bottle is warmed etc.

Please don't start buying into the "breastfeeding makes children clingy/rod for your own back/they'll be after you getting your boobs out when they're in high school/after 6 mths it's all sexual/done for the mother's needs" school of thought.

bambi lovely monkey mama thought, I will remember that one .

I see what you mean now blueshoes.... my dd ws bottle fed and tough is not 'clingy' now def adores me totally and enjoys time together aND DEF STILL ENJOYS A CUDDLE. i SUPPOSE CLINGY AS A BABY MAYBE TRANSFERS TO LOVING and close as a child so its a good thing. I do think he is incredibly hungry..... hence the need for me a lot!!!!

tough.... i meant though!

i dont care what he is like anyway as i am soooooo lucky to have a healthy child!! non clingy 'easy' 'placid' babies do not always msake the same in children..... another friends 'dream baby' is now a very unpleasant madam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!