Is it not normal to breastfeed and never give expressed milk in a bottle?

[KatyBeau]

I am exclusively breastfeeding my 4 month old. I tried expressing and giving her a bottle a few tomes, bit found it too stressful, time consuming and emotional. Partly because baby hated the bottle when we tried a few times. Partly because I found expressing difficult, incomfortable, unnatural and time consuming. I was doing it I think because everyone else seems to be using bottles. Also, I'm constantly seeing advice about bottles so that you can go out without baby. Is it really not normal to not use bottles?

At the moment the need to go somewhere for longer than an hour without baby is far outweighed by my desire not to have to get to grips with bottle feeding. I can't help but feel like I'm doing something wrong! And I sometimes think people think I'm not using bottles out of some ideological pro-breastfeeding reason like I'm criticising them in the process.

Udderly, nobody is giving offence. If you're taking it, it's of your own making.

Because one person does something differently that does not mean others are doing it wrong. Which is the answer to you and the op.

And I guess in some ways it is 'abnormal' to give a bottle to a baby in the same way that a cs is an abnormal delivery. But nobody's couching it in those terms. I think you're being a bit sensitive tbh.

FWIW, no I never gave bottles as I'm lazy.

i have done lots of expressing and storing of bm, but very, very little of it has ever been drunk. all 3 dc have hated bottles and even when i have returned to work with the older 2 they just did all their bf in the morning, evenings, and drank water from a beaker even though they were both only 8mo old at the time. am returning to work again in mid march whendc3 will be this age and will not be expressing, as i know he will survive. must say though with dc2 and 3, their refusal to take a bottle has not stopped me going out in the evenings, after they r in bed, with dh or friends for 3/4 hrs, providing it is someone the baby knows v. well who is babysitting. luckily all my kids have been pretty good sleepers from an early age and if they wake up and im not there they don't go frantic for milk. i was totally different with pfb .

If you don't need to express why create lots of hassle. You are bf in the way that suits you & your little one best.

If it's not normal then I am not normal - not one of my 3 lovely girls have consented to take a bottle and have become so distressed when I have tried that I never pushed it. Then I didn't need to :)

DD never took a bottle so I only expressed once she was weaning to make up baby rice etc.

Never liked it.

I used a bottle about twice when DD was very young. I'd read so much about it as a back up, of if I wanted to go out etc. Frankly it was more hassle than it was worth though she did take it OK once from me (uber sore boobs) and once from her Dad (I went out at about 2 weeks to our work Xmas do).

Once I returned to work at 8 months DD used a sippy cup & I expressed so she could use that - much much easier than a bottle. (I BF until about 14 months).

At 2 months I flew to NZ & arrived at family home with boobs about to explode & a crying DD who was struggling to feed from them. My step-Mum (midwife & BF counsellor) got me to hand express a little milk, then she fed DD with a glass - just a normal glass!!! That calmed DD & the boobs down a little and we got back to usual feeding.

I did a couple of weeks of expressing for my DC1 but only because I had been seperated from her and admitted to hospital and needed to do so. :(

With DC2 I expressed a couple of bottles for the first couple of timed grandma babysat fro a couple of hours. It was never needed.

DC3 I am happy to leave her for a couple of hours and am confident that she won't need a feed whilst daddy is in charge.

Depending on your child, some babies can go a while between feeds and some children prefer to wait until they are back with mum, if they know that is an option. Nothing wrong with not using a bottle. Through I keep meaning to put some milk in the freezer just in case but as DC3 is 5 months, I guess it is not that essential now.

I hate expressing. I do a bit so DH can feed DS when I'm at work, but from a Doidy cup, not a bottle. Apart from 3 bottles of EBM when he was tiny, DS didn't have any and he's 12 months now.

If it weren't for that, I'd not bother at all. The hassle of expressing far outweighs the advantage of going somewhere without DS.