Breastfeed or formula

[Leelee33x]

Hello

To mums who exclusively formula fed, did your babies develop and hit their milestones just as well as breastfed babies (if you had any to compare to?)

Two babies: one exclusively bf for 18 months, one formula fed from birth. No difference between them whatsoever, ff baby has actually had far fewer bugs than bf baby did! All milestones hit.

Ff babies are healthy and happy and it has no effect on developmental milestones.

On an individual level it makes no difference. Your baby will be fine however you choose to feed them.

There aren't any evidenced differences in hitting milestones depending on feeding method. The effects of breastfeeding are smaller than you'd notice at that level, they are marginal gains and noticeable at a population level not an individual one.

If formula feeding was shown to hinder babies development then it would be banned or improved so that it did not.

My concern around formula, which I did use, was its impact (or indeed lack there of) on the gut and passive immunity.

I would recommend you look into both but it's totally up to you what you choose.

Thanks everyone. Xx

If it helps I exclusively breastfed my 1st and my friend exclusively bottle fed. They were born days apart and reach milestones at the same time and also got the same amount of colds etc!

I’m not sure individual experiences will be of any use to you as there are hundreds of factors at play. There are no peer reviewed studies on a large scale that have shown any effect on feeding and milestones, so I wouldn’t worry. Also, milestones are very general, few babies hit them exactly on time, and those that don’t do not generally have an issue. Personally, I would have happily have my children not hit the walking milestone as early as they did!!

Individual anecdotes are different to population level trends.

If you want to breastfeed then do, and try to find where the good support is in your area as plenty of places seem to think the answer to any struggles is to give formula instead of support.

If you want to formula feed them do, and look into paced feeding and look into what you'll need there.

You might decide to do a bit of both and combi feed.

I have one of each ... no difference development wise. Ironically, the bf baby has allergies and asthma, the ff baby has no issues.... as other posters have said the statistical benefits are minimal and at a macro-societal level.

DT’s were formula fed from day one and then went onto wean on pouches and jars. No health issues even though they started full time nursery at six months with exposure to loads of bugs and viruses. Only one hospital inpatient stay when DS had a compound leg break when he was six.
They are 23 now - healthy, no weight issues and both achieved first class degrees.

My daughter is ten. I struggled to breastfeed and didn't manage it and she's been on formula since day two.

She's almost as tall as me, she's strong, healthy, intelligent, witty and creative and is smashing her academic milestones. She's had very few illnesses and was a very healthy and contended baby. Her milestones were bang-on target and she was lovely and chubby. She weaned well and has always loved food.

She was also a c section baby.

I'd love to be able to breastfeed this time but I'm a lot more relaxed about the idea of being unable to.

Hi @Leelee33x as others have said, exclusively formula feeding is not a problem and your baby will still hit milestones. I promise. I have a smug friend “formula wasn’t for us” she used to say. Coincidently Her child has such a bad immune system. Constant rashes and bugs. If it was determined that formula hindered baby’s development it simply wouldn’t be sold.

I combi fed mine. With formula there is a lot of faff. Eg washing and sterilising bottles, and making sure you’ve got enough with you when you go out. I don’t miss making bottles at 3am, or having a starving baby to find I forgot to turn the steriliser on. Whipping a boob out would have been much more straightforward, but I felt like he wasn’t getting enough from me. boobs aren’t see through so it’s difficult to know! Some women found it a breeze but I certainly didn’t.

One important thing I’d say, is that it turned out my baby had a dairy allergy. He’d had eczema from 6 weeks, and by the time the time the doctors knew it was an allergy, he was mainly on formula. If I’d been exclusively breast feeding, I could have just cut dairy out of my diet and carried on feeding him, but as I wasn’t the doctors had to change his formula which is a nightmare. Dairy free formula is DISGUSTING and most pedietricians now won’t prescribe it unless they’re younger than 6 months. for that reason I wish I breasfed so I could have just cut it out, but that’s the only reason.

Am pregnant with my 2nd now and want to BF as much as possible incase this one has an allergy too, but honestly formula is totally fine

I breastfed for 8 months and for a very long time, DD caught every bug going. Poorly every other week, multiple hospital trips for very high temps and respiratory type bugs. One of the reasons I did it was for immunity, but I’m honestly not that convinced by it anymore. Pregnant again and plan to breastfeed for the first few weeks so they have the colostrum but I’m more open minded about mix feeding from that point this time.

Agree with PP who have said the benefits of breastfeeding aren't really about developmental milestones - and benefits are usually measured at population level. I think (although it's is a while since I was up to date on the evidence) the main benefits for individual babies are immunity and gut health. I think colostrum is particularly beneficial.

Both my two were breastfed initially and then I mixed formula and breast milk from 6 months with one and 9/10 months with the other. There are lots of practical advantages to breastfeeding (no equipment needed - you've always got your boobs on you) but also practical disadvantages unless you express milk which can be difficult for some mums (ie you are the only person who can feed your baby).

As others have said, milestones there will be no difference. There are pros and cons of both which you can read about, but I honestly think that they are mainly from a practical point of view. (E.g. bf means no faffing about with bottles etc, easier once established, ff means others can help feed and can be easier in the early days)

The only good evidence for differences are for breast cancer risk for you.

I've exclusively bf my older two and looking like DC3 will be the same. I enjoy bf, am lucky enough not to have had any major issues and find once you get through the first few weeks it's much less faff than I imagine formula feeding roundy be. But it's definitely not related to milestones, and fwiw my older two were both very late in
walking, pretty late in talking!

I completely agree with this! I'd always suggest people give bf a try, with the knowledge the first few weeks are the worst, but if you just don't fancy it or don't like it then I don't think there's any issue in switching to formula.

FF mum here and baby is hitting milestones and even hitting them early in most cases...but she prob would have if she was breast fed either way.
Compared to my niece who was breasts fed they are hitting milestones roughly same time.

There is no difference. Formula fled babies can get into a good routine and sleep much better.

Breast milk has millions of components that support the immune system, influence future food choice, link to obesity etc etc. The differences show up in massive studies, just asking individuals doesn't do it. It's about probabilities.

The human gut has a huge range of bacteria called the microbiome that are important for health. Breast milk provides stuff that feeds good bacteria so a good community of bacteria is established. Formula doesn't. Other things that influence the microbiome are whether you're born vaginally, whether you take antibiotics when young, what food you're weaned on, whether you're exposed to bacteria from pets, siblings, soil etc.

If breastfeeding is really hard then the stress can make it not worth doing, but it definitely has benefits over formula in terms of nutrition and health.

I wanted to BF but it didn't happen for me. It's a long story.

DS was formula fed from about 9 days old. Beautiful healthy high percentile child. Just as he was when he was born. Additional benefits were me being able to get some sleep while DH did 50% of night feeds.

Nothing to do with milestones - babies do things in their own time (unless learning development issues, nothing to do with how they are fed).
However there are big health benefits for both mum and baby by breastfeeding. It’s better for the planet. Less risk of infection.
Formula increases risk of Sid’s, does have a negative effect on the gut microbiome, and increases risk of infection.
They did link intelligence to breastfeeding, but actually it’s nothing to do with the milk - just more “educated” women choose to breastfeed so they had more “intelligent” offspring.
If you’re on the fence then just look
into both really well - and know what is normal
for breastfeeding, eg cluster feeding!

It’s a totally pointless question OP. Anecdotes are not data.
What do you really want to know? Do you want mumsnet to tell you it’s ok if you don’t want to/can’t breastfeed? (That’s perfectly ok, your baby will almost certainly thrive on formula).
Do you a want us to say that formula is better or just as good as breastmilk? (It’s not, that’s why women are encouraged to breastfeed, but it can be the better choice for many mums because the first few weeks are often physically and mentally grueling, and some women have supply issues).

One of the biggest factors is which will help you most emotionally. The answer cannot be wrong and is different for different people.

This isn’t supported by data. Sleep research clearly shows no difference between breastfed and formula fed baby’s sleep. There is a difference in parental perception of sleep though.

OP - the differences are more likely to show in gut differences in adulthood, so if you want to research I’d start there. Milestones will just differ child to child however they’re fed.