Breastfeed or formula feed?

[Emm333]

Please no nasty comments. I realise breastfeeding is recommended.

I'm 28 weeks pregnant and had been completely set on formula feeding mainly because this is what most friends have done, allows your husband to feed the baby too, and wanting to avoid mastitis which my mum had a bad experience with when she tried to breastfeed. A friend who has breastfed has also told me how exhausting it is.

I've pretty much ignored any information on breastfeeding as just viewed it as a negative for the above reasons, but recently started randomly leaking breast milk (particularly when I'm holding my bump when the baby kicks!) and was surprised to find it didn't freak me out and actually felt reassuring in a weird way. My midwife gave me a magazine about types of feeding at my last appointment about various benefits etc. So I now feel a bit guilty if I don't give my baby breast milk!

For those who were undecided, how did you choose how to feed your baby? Also be great to hear from women who have combination fed breast milk and formula and how they did this?

Thank you!

If you can’t breastfeed, clearly you give formula, I’d have thought that was obvious. It’s a bit like how you’d prefer not to give medication for reflux, but you would if you needed to.

I agree with every word of what the PP said and her second post. I am not in any way trying to shame FF mums, but let’s be honest and stop trying to pretend that formula is just as good as breastmilk nutritionally when it really isn’t.

breast fed both from birth.

DD1 really didn’t like it. It takes two to be productive!
so with much guilt, after weeks of pumping and feeding a reluctant baby, I started FF.
was a godsend for my MH.
DD2 came along and I had the expectation to FF.
OMG the experience was so different.
from the first moment she fed from me she was a pro 😜
so I think it’s fine to do either, whichever you and baby are ok with.
Don’t put pressure on yourself to do one or the other. Just trust your instinct.
amd don’t listen to anybody else who might or might not have an agenda.
I did both and my children are now 20 & 25. Both kids are wonderful humans.

If there’s any thought in your mind about giving it a go, then I’d go with that feeling and give it a go. My firstborn just wouldn’t latch (yes, we had lots of help and he was an nicu baby) so we combi fed for a bit then switched to formula at 2 months. No regrets giving it a go - no regrets switching to formula.

If you’re an absolute no to breast feeding I think it’s fine to be honest, just bottle feed.

But if you’re on the fence then I always recommend giving it a go even if you make 1 day or 1 weeks. You can move to bottles if needed.

I’m due second baby in a few months and hoping to try Breast feeding again! x

Sometimes we make it a big deal in our head or that we need to make a certain choice NOW but actually you can just try breast feeding and move to formula after a few days or weeks if it doesn’t work out. No harm done

Some of the reasons I loved breastfeeding that aren't about how good it is for the baby :)

I lost all the baby weight in 3 weeks and then some! Breastfeeding uses a lot of calories.

I was lazy and didn't want to sterilise anything or make bottles up in the middle of the night. I never needed to leave my bed as I had everything I needed.

You get to rest whenever baby is feeding. You also have an excuse to escape visitors if you just fancy some peace and quiet too!

It's just so convenient. No need to return home from an outing as you didn't bring enough bottles with you. You always have the milk with you.

It's free! Nappies, wipes, etc all really add up so to be able to feed your baby for free is incredible.

I breastfed for just under 3 years and never had mastitis. I did have blocked ducts a few times but they aren't as severe. I also didn't find breastfeeding too exhausting, the lack of sleep was exhausting but that would have been the same if I'd formula fed. Also, there's plenty the dad can do while you're feeding.

I would say though if you do want to do it you have to be quite determined, the first week or 2 were really hard and a bit painful but once I got past that bit it was great.

Good luck :) you choose whatever is right for you.

I fully formula fed mine for reasons beyond my control. My plan was to mainly breastfeed with a bottle of formula in the evening which DH can give to support me and give me some sleep. As someone who ended up fully formula feeding, it’s really not the easy option. Whenever I went out, I needed to think about taking bottles and formula with me, then where/how to access boiling water and then somehow mixing it on the go. Then there is bottle sterilizing every day. And a lot of logistics when out for a longer trip or flying abroad. But the worst for me was, it completely messed up my sleep. Each night, I had to get up twice, go to the kitchen, boil water, mix formula, cool the bottle down…after all this, I was completely awake and found it hard to go back to sleep. My breastfeeding friends simply rolled around in bed, put baby on boob, and then back to sleep. They got much better sleep than me, even though they did all feeds themselves and I delegated one night feed to DH. If you have to get up and fuff around with bottles, it completely defeats the idea of getting better sleep.

You might find that you are ‘a natural’ and you and baby take to it easily. There are so many benefits as to ease of having milk to hand, it’s obviously so much cheaper, it feels good to bond with you baby in that way, it physically feels good - your body is made to do it and the hormones can work hand in hand with post partum biology.

Personally, I found it incredibly difficult, my DD did not put on weight initially, it was painful and I felt very guilty that it just didn’t work out. I never leaked, I never felt my milk ‘come in’, I never felt the latch, I couldn’t see what my midwife was showing me when she was supposedly drinking properly. I managed to do some combination feeding until about 6 weeks and then formula just became the best way for us both.

You don’t have to make a hard and fast decision either way, but there’s no point in not giving it a go. It might work out well for both of you.

I think pretty much every mum should give it a go at least to start with. Colostrum is the really really good stuff.

I BF my two DC to 10 and 11 months - went back to work full time at 6 months so combi feeding then. It’s not the most important aspect of being a parent but I’m glad I was able to do it.

Not difficult but a faff. So much easier to put baby to boob