Breast Feed or Bottle Feed

[confusedat23]

Hi,

I am looking for info on both really... It is so hard to find unbiased information and I have always been a believer that it doesn't matter which way you feed!

However now I am preganant (almost 24 weeks) I feel like it is such a major decision and cannot make my mind up! I bought all the stuff for both really cheap in the sales so I am prepared either way (I will just sell or donate stuff I do not use).

Also to add to matters I have low Papp-A which means I have growth scans to check on baby and there is a chance we might have a premmie... I have heard that you need to hand express and then breastfeed with a premmie as they cannot process formula (this might be the biggest BS ever, but adds to the feeling of being forced to breastfeed).

I am just really not sure what to decide!

userblahblah no dear a real feminist would have outsourced it to a surrogate to maintain equality in her relationship. Amateur!

LOL! Titty! Classic disgruntled breastfeeder. "My baby doesn't sleep. This is a good thing!" Brainwashed!

Newbian...okaaaay...cool...you go ahead a do that...

My personal experience is that I tried and failed to bf both my babies. Won't go into details as that is not what you are asking.

I found making bottles up very very hard- it is time consuming and needs planning to leave the house. I think looking back I had mild pnd and the making up of bottles exacerbated this, I was convinced I was going to put too much formula in and harm dd ( didn't have this issue with the second baby)

There are conveniences in ff in that other people can feed, but the whole process is bloody inconvenient

I did not seek help ( 15 years ago- I wasn't aware of what help there was ) that is the only thing I regret, if I had correct support maybe could have carried on

Anyone else think some commenters on this post sound a bit "Handmaid's Tale-y"?

"We respect women because they can breastfeed and give birth. That is their place."

That's some screwed up conservative idea of women!

@user1498166085 whilst you are googling whatever "research" you'd like to share please familiarise yourself with the notion that wakefulness is hard wired into a newborn baby brain in order to strengthen their survival instinct and prevent SIDS. That is a fact.

Having some that one of my "tragically" breastfed children slept for hours from day one.

Carry on being a ignorant wind up merchant.

LOL! Titty! Classic disgruntled breastfeeder. "My baby doesn't sleep. This is a good thing!" Brainwashed!

It's you that's peddling myths. That's a university study I've posted. Where's your evidence?

@user1498166085 I think Margaret Atwood would have a chuckle there

Come back when you actually have a child, eh user. See how well you map that theory onto a living being.

Titty! The post says that babies wake during the night! Very true. But breastfed babies need to be fed when they wake, a lot of ff babies don't. They're happy to settle themselves. Adults also wake up several times a night. We just go back to sleep.

Breastmilk just can't fill a baby up to the same extent as formula - I don't think that's really disputed...

Look, go ahead and bf if you want! Be a tired martyr! It's no probs! But don't start saying that's feminism!

Titty, I have two children...

user absolutely is a wind-up merchant.

Did you miss those of us saying we worked, BF, expressed, had husbands give bottle feeds, etc? You seem to think BF means only baby's mouth to breast not moving not having a life outside of the home. Bizarre. I'd love to hear Margaret Atwood's thoughts on me having a conference call with a Medela double pump strapped to my chest and pumping in business class on a work trip. Be a bit more insightful than yours!

Good for you newbian! I did all those work things without breastfeeding a baby/expressing. Let me tell you, it was a lot easier!

I would always try bf first because it's easy to switch from bf to ff but not so easy switch the other way.
I switched to formula at 19 weeks with dc1 bf until 27 months and 15 months with dc2 and 3 and switched to ff at 10 weeks with dc4.

OP, bottom line is, a lot of bf mothers need to feel that their sacrafice was worth something, so they will vastly overstate the benefits of breastfeeding. Otherwise, what was the point of their tiredness and misery? Just stick to looking at the happy, quiet, non-complainy mums. Do what they do!

@user1498166085 I think you are just trolling now. Or you are in denial.

Breastmilk is more calorific and nutritionally satiating than formula it's just not full of bulking up ingredients.
kellymom.com/nutrition/milk/milkcalories/

I'm not a tied martyr. Breastfeeding is free and incredibly easy once you've got it established.
No faffing about with bottles and spending a fortune on powder.

Bless you, there's something bigger than formula and breast feeding going on for you isn't there?
Maybe it's all that feminism 😆😆😆😆

@user1498166085 .... you are the gift that keeps on giving
"happy quiet and non complainy" (sic) mums.
Now that really is Handmaids Tale stuff.

user that's your experience. Mine is, I am a light sleeper and woke at every chirp and noise my child made. Had I outsourced nighttime bottle feeds to DH I'd still have woken up. It wouldn't have made a difference in the amount of sleep I got. I prefered to have a 15 min cuddle and feed with her and then drop back into bed. So for me it was easier.

Either way, my choice has nothing to do with not being a feminist or having an equal marriage so to claim that, you're asking for an argument and you knew it when you wrote it. Hope you got what you wanted. Perhaps you've "liberated" OP from the prison of BF, but then again others have a different story to tell about the experience, don't we.

Gin how much do you think formula costs?

We spent £8 a week on formula up to six months, then about £4 a week by a year. Not exactly breaking the bank. Bf mothers need to buy special clothes and bras and nipple creams and perhaps even a pump. Never understood the "cheaper" argument.

@user1498166085 I spent nothing on breastfeeding apart from one tube of lansinoh for the very beginning. I've still got some left for when the next baby arrives in November.
No specialist bras, just a couple of cheap nursing ones and no fancy cushions or an expensive pump, nothing. Most of that stuff is peripheral all you really need is yourself. Most successful breastfeeding mothers don't rely on expressing at least not when they are on maternity leave or stay at home mothers.
It's much easier to sit down with a nice cup of tea and just let them beaver away.

Formula costs at LEAST £8 a tub some of them are more like £15 for specialist or advanced ones.

Sorry but another load of tosh.

I think it's bullshit to say the bf mothers get as much rest as their partners/formula fed mothers.

Based on what, user? I'm EBFing my 6 month old and I honestly don't remember being this well rested. I know 5 other mums with similar aged babies, all FF. Both parents are so exhausted in those couples they are seriously struggling to cope. They do everything 50/50. They aren't struggling because they use formula though - only an idiot would suggest that, right?

@Ginger782 .... quite.

Hello! Big congratulations on the pregnancy. Hope you're feeling well. I didn't have any dead-set plans to BF as with my job I've seen so many mums struggle, so I thought if it works great, if not no bother. 8 months on and I'm still BF :-) it wasn't easy in the beginning as my milk didn't come in for a full week and my son had a tongue tie which needed snipping twice. I did try him with formula the first couple of nights as he was starving and losing weight but he flatly refused. I'm so glad he did as he is thriving now and I love BF. Take it as it comes, it doesn't matter how a baby is fed as long as they're fed, remember. Best of luck xx

I'm sorry. I'm really not getting into an argument and I honestly don't want this to sounds funny and nasty. However even though I formula feed it's done my son no harm. He only had breastmilk for about a week (before I dried up)

While I agree breast is best. It carries anti-bodies and special tailored milk to your baby, formula is a perfectly good substitute.

He's been formula fed pretty much his whole 8 months and it's done him no harm. He's still just as cleaver (if not smarter) than some breastfed babies. He's just as healthy. At 8 months he crawls - very fast. Can stand by himself and can walk around the furniture. He understands when I tell him no and ask him to come back. He can say mama and dada and know who mama and dada are and addresses us specific. He points as if to ask what something is called. He waves and claps when I ask him to (not a demand - he just understands the action associated with the word). He has continued to gain weight well. 8lbs 9oz born and and has followed his centile without problems. He has always slept well etc. Works for us.

I'm sorry if it was easier for me I would have probably breastfed or expressed for longer but they all have their advantages and disadvantages. As I said I won't get into an argument about such a controversial subject as everyone will have very strong views on either side!

As I've said it works for us and it will forever be personal choice how people choose to feed their baby. As long as baby is fed though right?!

I gave birth a month ago and planned to breastfeed.

I ended up having an emergency c section and prolonged stay in hospital.

Baby wouldn't latch and caused me to bleed a lot and blood sugars were dropping so had to use formula in hospital to be able to leave.

Found out baby had sever tongue tie which has recently been snipped.

But ever since getting home from hospital I have been express breast feeding with one formula top up in the night, and have tried for baby to relay but but he wont and gets very distressed each time we try.

I still cry every day at the thought that I have failed at breastfeeding my baby despite him still getting my breast milk on 7 out of 8 feeds a day.

I still feel like I get judged when out and about and I pull out a bottle to feed him from.
No one knows its full of breast milk rather than formula.

No one knows I'm strapped up to a pump on the sofa hardly being able hold my baby during pump sessions for hours of the day.

By the time dp gets home in the evening I'm so warm out and frustrated that I don't want to give a bottle and so he takes baby and feeds him for the rest of the evening, while is spend most of the time pumping more.

I honestly don't know where to go from here.

I've tried lactation consultants and all the help from midwives and health visitors, but this is still where we are.