Breastfeeding or Formula; why?

[Midwife23]

Hi everyone!
I’m interested in everyone’s thoughts and opinions on infant feeding. Why did you choose to breastfeed it use formula? Did anything influence your decision?
Currently indecisive!

and sterilised! I hope not! That would defeat the point of breast milk!

Personally I never even considered moving straight to formula feeding - it is definitely second best in my opinion. Bf has a huge variety of benefits for the baby such as a lower risk of SIDS, provides antibodies, healthy gut bacteria, protection against allergies and is sterile to name but a few. It’s also good for the mother in terms of protection against certain cancers and helping to lose any baby weight (didn’t entirely work for me but I did lose the bulk fairly easily).

Just in case people think I’m atracking people who move straight to FF - I’m not, there’s a number of reasons that they make this choice. But it’s not one I made or even considered.

Regarding fathers feeding, it's recommended that only the primary caregiver feeds baby at first before the secondary caregiver begins to give feeds. Unfortunately what is biologically best for babies is not equality.

Also I saw the ability for others to feed dc a con rather than a pro as I didn't want to leave them and breastfeeding was a great answer to why not. On the two or three 30 minutes away I've had from them both it felt like I'd chopped off a limb until they were around 10 months old!

Breastfeeding was the only option for me.

Free - no equipment, no cost of formula
Readily available on demand without hassle
Served at exactly right temperature; no faffing heating or chilling bottles
Nutritionally perfect
Reduced later obesity, asthma, eczema, allergy and infection risk,
Better for mothers body, contracts uterus postnatally, uses more calories, reduces breast cancer risk.
Better bonding.
Less risk of gastroenteritis in baby from dirty bottles.
Breastfeeding promotes safer sleeping.
Breastfeeding reduces SIDS risk.

No contest

it's recommended that only the primary caregiver feeds baby at first before the secondary caregiver begins to give feeds

Why? I have never heard that recommendation. Plus dd doesn’t have a primary caregiver as we both do 50:50, but I assume you mean mother.

I BF DD1 for 3/4 months. I’m glad I did it but I found it really, really hard. She never seemed satisfied and would whinge and whinge. I felt as though she was on my boob constantly! Everyone was putting pressure on me to continue on with it but to be honest I wasn’t enjoying her or the experience of BF. I gradually switched to formula and she was like a different baby, I was actually enjoying being her mummy and not dreading every day with a hungry, unhappy and unsettled baby.

I’m currently 20 weeks with DD2 and will try to BF again but I won’t allow any body to make me feel bad for switching to formula like I did last time!

Nothisispatrick even if you do 50:50 there's always a primary care giver, and always should be. Lots of attachment research shows 50:50 isn't best for baby. It doesn't matter much who primary care giver is, though it is usually the mother (due to natural leave). Primary care giver as far as baby is concerned is the one who touches them most- scent transfer etc. Babies with multiple equal care givers generally (population level, not individual level) do less well in attachment and emotional development/ resilience. babies naturally seek out a primary care giver, they dont always choose the right one.

That's not a criticism of your parenting, just an explanation of the research.

I never wanted to bf so ff from day one. Babies did well and DH and I shared the night feeds so everyone happy.

I’m pregnant with my first baby and plan to breastfeed, however I wont feel disappointed with myself if I struggle and decide to formula feed. Some may say that’s the wrong attitude for successful breastfeeding but at the end of the day, fed is best. As for bonding, from what I’ve heard from friends/family who have little ones, it can go either way. Some have said they had a beautiful bond with baby through breastfeeding and others who were struggling with breastfeeding said they felt more of a bond when formula feeding because it was causing baby and mum too much stress. At the end of the day I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer, it’s completely down to individual choice and you have to do what’s right for both baby and yourself

I breastfed because well it felt normal to me i didnt see a problem with it my mother fed all of us that way .I breastfed till she teethed then i bottle fed

Unfortunately though it does my reduce risk of allergies my daughter has allergies and eczema.But she is otherwise healthy

i will breastfeed the next one but will formula feed when i go back to work

I breastfed because I couldn't fathom feeding my baby artificial milk, derived from cow's milk, when I had access to milk designed specifically for the human infant. It just didn't compute to me to do anything else but feed my baby the milk it was biologically designed to be raised on.

I was also aware of the risks associated with formula feeding and personally wanted to avoid those.
That being said I'm not against formula when necessary, and my baby ended up having some formula top ups as we had quite a few issues feeding at first (and I'm very grateful that formula was accessible!), but we went on to EBF as soon as possible because it was important to me to do so.

The key words there are I and my baby - I don't give a toss how anyone else feeds their baby, or why. That was just how I thought about it based on my own personal feelings and circumstances.

Chose BF both times, so much easier for me than dealing with bottles and of course much cheaper (did spend money on pump stuff though I stopped using it after a few months but it was worth it so I could leave baby with dad for a few hours). Never really considered FF, my mum BF me so I suppose that influenced me, and where I live most mums start off BFing so it's just expected.

I really wanted to breastfeed my first daughter after learning about all the benefits at my NCT course and doing my own research.

Unfortunately my first had tongue and lip tie and it was agony (worst than contractions!) my nipples were covered in scabs. Health visitors couldn’t work out the problem. I quickly started to pump to keep up my supply and to relieve the pain. Meanwhile they found out about the posterior tongue tie (after 6 weeks and lots of visits to various experts!)

We had it snipped, but it didn’t seem to help (she had a very small mouth/shallow palette like me)

I pumped for every feed for 7 months (the odd formula top up in the early days)

I was wrecked. Someone should have said to me formula was fine. But so much pressure made me preserveer.

DD2 was a breeze. No pain, very content. Easy. I stopped when I went back to work.

I think it’s the mums decision but I don’t understand why people (who know the health benefits) don’t even try. But it’s none of mine or anyone else’s beeswax

@Cheekylittlenumber I have often said I'd rather go through childbirth every single day than have the pain of establishing breastfeeding. It's horrible. DC2 wasn't mix fed because I knew it was going to be horrible in advance, and I knew that the pain would stop and it would become as easy as breathing when I persevered.

As for not wanting to try, my reasons were that the idea of it was repulsive to me. That's why I never planned on it and why I bought the prep machine before even TTC. Somewhere along the line I've had a change of heart and I enjoy it.

I wanted to breastfeed both of my children, because it's natural and it's what's best for baby. It didn't work out with my first, I had no support and couldn't get the hang of it. We switched to formula after a few weeks. I breastfed my second for 3 years- it was really hard to start with, just like first time round, but I was more educated and pushed for more support. Even with recurring mastitis and thrush, it was still loads easier than bottle feeding. Much more convenient and of course free!

I'm still breastfeeding my 13 month old. It's mostly down to laziness. I cannot be fucked washing up bottles and shit.

I FF DS from birth. I have never wanted to bf the idea of it makes me feel weird. I don’t know why, I just actively do not want to do it, and I wasn’t going to risk PND by making myself feel guilty about it so we FF and he is fabulous. I will be doing the same thing this time.

There are obvious benefits to BF and everyone else I know has bf even if only for a few weeks some still going well over 2 years. So for me it isn’t the whole default idea, there is just something about the thought of myself bf that I just do not like.

Obviously there was a bonus that DH could do night feeds and we all got a bit more sleep. But that wasn’t the reason I didn’t bf.

I breastfed DD until almost 2 years. I went in wanting to for all the reasons above, but said I wouldn't beat myself up I couldn't.

The first weeks were hard. I got mastitis, after that I was still in pain, but nipples intact, we were both treated for thrush, it didn't help, I got mastitis again, still in pain after.

Just before six weeks, on the last day 'allowed' I saw a bf advisor. She said she couldn't see why there was a problem, but then said she'd once read something about vascular issues, and asked if I suffered any sort of circulation issues. I always have had cold hands and feet. She said she wasn't an expert but to maybe ask the NCT. I did (they never got back to me) and Google'd like mad.

Turns out you can suffer Raynauds in your nips, I just needed to stay warmer! All the bastard thrush gel had probably made it worse too. A couple of months later I had my first proper Raynauds attack, with the classic white fingers, so self diagnosis confirmed.

Basically, without a throw-away comment and a bigger jumper, I'd have stopped bf at about 8 weeks.

I said I'd definitely try and breastfeed for 6 weeks. I am now here at 11 weeks and still going. I've tried a few formula feeds last thing at night and DS sleeps for exactly three hours afterwards whether ff or bf! So I'm not convinced by those who try and tell me I'd get more sleep if I quit.

I'm going to go to three months and then reevaluate but it being free and convenient (alongside the health benefits) has been awesome. Today I was able to stop for 10 minutes and feed on a park bench when DS was crying.

I do recognise I was lucky to transfer 24 hours after his birth to a birthing unit and recieve one to one midwife assistance to establish feeding. It's the only reason I managed it. Of course, they want to close it down in the next round of cuts.

This study shows that there isn't much difference in sleep with any feeding methods @hammeringinmyhead

Breastfeeding is best for baby and mother. Seek out help and support in the beginning if required. Good luck!

I chose the happy medium of combi feeding, using ready made formula and pumping.

Why, because it’s easier and you get the best of both worlds!

There is often a debate re breast feeding v formula, but pumping seems to be hardly talked about ever.

Pumping for me helped us a family to establish a 50% responsibility from the outset for caring for the baby

Breast milk keeps for 6 hours out of the fridge, so DH would do a dream feed at 10:30/11pm (his usual bed time) and drop off a bottle of breast milk on my bedside cabinet, for the next night feed. And then having some pre made formula available was a godsend if there was additional feeds needed during the night. (Kept at room temperature so didn’t need heating).

Pumping wasn’t painful, I actually manually pumped, and quite enjoyed it tbf, would just sit and do it watching tv in the evenings etc

Sorry should have use the term expressing, it’s been a long day!!

I BF because it’s free (I never bought any special tops, just a few bras) and once you get the hang of it it’s easy (don’t have to make up bottles, sterilise etc) I’ve never particular enjoyed it though and if bottles were free and magically made up for you then I’d probably prefer that than having to put my nipple in a mouth full of teeth 😆😆

I breastfed DS because in my family and DHs that’s just how you fed babies, it didn’t occur to me not to try - although I took a pack of ready made formula bottles to the hospital just in case.
I am now breastfeeding DD because I had found with DS that although the first 6-8 weeks are grim, after that there are several months where it’s just dead easy. As soon as the baby whimpers you put it to a breast, takes a few seconds to faff with clothing, no worries about sterilising, making up bottles, washing bottles, keeping them cool, warming them up etc.
This time round I was determined to introduce a bottle early as DS refused one utterly, which nearly broke me when I went back to work. However I’m so lazy that she’s now 10 weeks and I’ve only just started with one. She will sort of take it if you catch her at the right moment but I really need to make time to persist with it or I won’t be able to go out for an evening for another whole year...