Not a rant, genuinely curious - breastfeeding

[DidYeAye22]

I combi fed my baby who’s just turning 1, and I’m so confused by some of the attitudes towards bottle feeding that I’ve come across now she’s turning 1…

1. Why is a woman who breastfeeds her baby until 2 or older praised and encouraged, but I have to take my baby off formula ASAP now she’s 1? I am cutting down to once a day before bed but I’m just genuinely really confused. If it’s supposed to be an alternative to breast milk, why is it so so bad that she still gets some milk past age 1?

2. The whole thing about the bottles and their teeth. Surely if the majority of modern bottles are designed off a woman’s nipple (“closer to nature” etc) then the kids getting breastfed would be having this big panic about getting buck teeth. As they’re supposed to be designed to be as close to the real thing as possible?? I just truly don’t get the panic about transitioning from bottles to sippy cup so soon. She will only go to bed on a bottle so I’m not giving that up yet.

Genuinely curious, have come across a lot of weird attitudes towards this!

1)It’s been 6 years since I breast fed but 1 certainly wasn’t true for me. I got no end of comments about “Still breast feeding”
and pretty much for them from 4months ish.

2. no idea what the bottle issue is. My little one had a baby bottle with milk from age 1-2 ish (didn’t take a bottle as all as a small baby). I was going to say maybe it is to do with milk stay on their teeth if sucking on a bottle for a long time…but I guess breast milk os quite sugary too isn’t it?

It's probably not a huge issue to continue with formula slightly past age one, but I would look to wean off. You can still give cow's milk if you want to. Breastmilk is a living fluid and has advantages past a year, but there is no benefit in continuing to give formula as they do not need the nutritional aspects, and should be getting this from food.

Bottle teats don't work anything like a nipple, the stuff about being designed that way is really just marketing. The physiological action of drinking from a breast vs a bottle is totally different.

Buck teeth is not the worry if I understand correctly, it's milk bottle caries, which aren't nice. However it's more likely to get these if you're giving your toddler highly sugared drinks in their bottle to sup from all day and night. It's not ideal to bottle feed to sleep though and the bottle caries are so horrible that I wouldn't want to risk it if possible.

I have no idea about the teats, but I've been asked when I'll stop breastfeeding with both DC since around 6mo, I can't remember being praised or encouraged for breastfeeding my second DC at all.

1. I breastfed DS 1 until 14 months. From 6 months onwards I was constantly being asked when I was going to stop, far from being praised. I agree though that there is a bit of a strange obsession with stopping formula bang on 1. I wonder if it’s more to do with bottles not being great for teeth as opposed to the formula itself? There certainly isn’t any harm in giving formula after 1. Expensive, but not harmful. I suppose the benefit of breastfeeding past 1 is for the immunity it confers, although I think the evidence is relatively slim for that.
2. Wrote the above before reading your second paragraph! I was more under the impression that milk from a bottle spends more time in contact with teeth as opposed to milk from the breast. I don’t think a bottle a day will cause tooth misalignment, I think it’s more the potential for decay. As long as you brush her teeth well after the bottle it shouldn’t be a problem.

1. I don't think formula is seen as bad after 1 as such, more that it's better for them nutritionally to move onto cow's milk so formula becomes a bit defunct in that sense. Whereas breast milk changes and always will have nutrional benefits past age 1. I didn't really plan when to stop bf, was aiming for around 1 year but had no plan of how- but she basically started preferring cows milk herself and rejecting boob just before 14 months so that was that!

1. Buck teeth isn't the main concern, it's tooth decay (caries). As someone said, feeding to sleep with a bottle can cause this. But if you're brushing your little ones teeth after their last bottle then it's no big deal really.

As far as I know, formula is cows milk plus other stuff and over one they don’t need the other stuff so can have cows milk.

Bottles aren’t at all like breasts whatever they say about the design. Feeding from the breast is good for baby’s mouths and jaws, bottles aren’t and ideally they’re off bottles and dummies by a year. DD still had a dummy long after that and the dentist said to get her off it before 3, which I did, and no problems.

Milk from bottles pools behind their lower teeth and milk is sugary. Milk from the breast goes further back and doesn’t pool in the same way.

I swapped over to cows milk as soon as he turned one because formula was an unnecessary expense at that stage.

I don't think many women get praised or encouraged breastfeeding, especially after 1 years old. I was constantly asked when I was stopping.

It's an alternative for breast milk for the nutritional value, after 1 it's not really needed the same as they have food and cows milk. Breastfeeding has other benefits.

I'm not sure about the teats but I doubt a plastic teat is the same as a nipple, no matter how much they've tried to replicate it. I think people just know how hard it is to take away bottles, dummy's etc after a certain age.

Yup same as above. People think breastfeeding is great when they're newborn & 6 months ish but closer to a year plus people also asked me - was I still breastfeeding? When would I stop? Etc.
I think it's more the coming off bottles for their teeth etc rather than coming off formula.
Bottle wise yes the teats aren't really like nipples realistically.

Got distracted while writing that and seems it’s all been covered!

You don't need to stop giving formula aged 1. Most people just want to because they no longer actually need it and it's a shit load more expensive and inconvenient than cows' milk. Nobody is about to report you to your doctor or SS if you continue giving formula instead.

The action of breastfeeding is completely different to bottle-feeding and doesn't have the significant negative effects on dental health that longer-term bottle-feeding does. A bottle and a silicone teat is modelled on a breast, but it is not the same as a breast.

1. If it’s supposed to be an alternative to breast milk, why is it so so bad that she still gets some milk past age 1?

It is a synthetic replacement and therefore not a true alternative as it can't genuinely give all the health benefits such as reduced cancer rates.

1. Good question also re bottles!

Nipples require a lapping motion and bottles a sucking so however well designed it's totally different load on teeth.

On the support of not from others, only one person was every rude about me feeding long term but she was weird about breastfeeding at all so I didn’t give her opinion a second thought.

I fed DD till she was 3 and no one batted an eyelid but I live in quite a crunchy area and everyone here seems to bf and for at least a year often much longer.

You know-I have never felt more out of step with the world than when I was breast feeding post 6 months.

Really? How do you mean?

I don't think many women get praised or encouraged breastfeeding, especially after 1 years old. I was constantly asked when I was stopping.

^ I second this. Once my babies started solids even if just a carrot a week went in it was like suddenly the world wanted to know when I'd wean them off the boob. It got pretty boring trotting out all the benefits of natural term weaning.

😭 so sad isn't it.

Me too! Had a small group of friends from a breastfeeding club with my first who encouraged me but no one in my life outside of other bf mums seemed to get it.

Seriously? With the world?

I know lots & lots of women who b/f beyond 6 months as I did myself.

Many don't of course but it's hard to believe it was that unusual

Another one here to say that everyone I've ever met thought it was weird and creepy that I breastfed past a year! Even if they didn't say it, I could tell. People think breastfeeding is great until the baby reaches an arbitrary age they decide in their minds!

A bottle teat superficially looks like a breast but the mechanism for extracting milk from the human breast is different to sucking from the bottle.

Breastmilk gathers in the mouth a certain was that formula from a bottle doesn't.

Cows milk is much cheaper and easier to prepare than formula!

I’m breastfeeding my 3rd DC past the age of two right now, and I have never felt so judged. I don’t really care, but it does get a little bit tiring, especially when it comes from healthcare professionals. I haven’t bottle fed any of them (not for want of trying, they just wouldn’t take bottles) so I guess I’m not best placed to comment, but how does anyone know if it’s cow’s milk of formula in a bottle? Or is it the bottle that people are judging?

I BF my toddler while pregnant and once the new baby was here. Even the nurses were shocked. I remember a nurse at hospital stood and stared when I was BF my toddler when I went in for a check-up! Shitty attitudes exist on both sides.

My almost 1 year old has been bottle fed from the beginning and you're right that people seem to really push for them to only have milk not formula from a cup. However my little one point blank refuses to take milk from a sippy cup so I started giving formula at 10.5 months in a sip n grip cup so it's the same material as a teat but the shape is more sippy cup like iyswim. If he hadn't took to that I would have carried on with bottles as he only has one at night now anyway. Have also tried him on toddler soya as he's allergic to cows milk and he takes that from sip n grip too.

1. I think you are unusual in hearing people being praised for bf a 2 year old. Many find that way over the top and are not afraid to say so.

I dont think people think its bad you use milk its more after age 1 you can use cows milk and its a lot cheaper you can get a healthy diet with the cowsmilk.

2 many bottle teat manufacturers will claim its "close to nature" but honestly I've never seen a nipple that looks anything like a bottle teat (and I worked as a breastfeeding counsellor for 8 years I've seen a LOT of nipples)

Nipples a soft and extendable and can get squeezed and flattened. Most plastic will remain within their shape with minimum change. Or need a loy of muscle to change their shape. This is part of what the link to teeth issues are too as the bottle. Encourages milk near the teeth in a way a nipple doesn't.

We all have to make choices we feel are right for our babies. Some of them we perhaps will know we didn't make the best choices over but it worked for that time being. Just if we overall do what's best for us and our children and educate ourselves not just go with the flow, we are likely to raise well adjusted adults.

I have 4 children the way I parented my 4th is wastly different to how no 1 was parented. Because I learned and I read and educated myself. Not because I cared less about 1 than the other..

My kids' paediatrician (I don't live in the UK so my children have their own doctor) told me to stop breastfeeding at 18 months old, as after that they're just using you as a dummy.