Breastfeeding V's Bottle Feeding

[lolabanola]

Just being down right nosey now! ....

I have been reading up on the whole breast v's bottle feeding and I personally have decided that I want to bottle feed. Without wanting to turn this into a whole debate on how 'Breast Is Best' I was just wondering what everyone else plans to do when they have their baby? Are you breast or bottle feeding?

"Some formulas are very good and although will never replace breast milk are going a long way to help developing eyesight and immunity."

The power of marketing eh.

I went with breast because it was free, it worked and it meant I didn't have to blunder about the house in the middle of the night warming things up.

And it meant I lost my baby weight really quickly.

The fact it is also said to be best was a factor I suppose, but if it had been problematic I would have moved to bottle without too many qualms.

Genuine lactose (milk sugar) intolerance is actually very rare in babies. When it occurs it is quite dramatic and noticeable in the first week or so of life.

here are a couple articles from a very reputable infant feeding website which will explain it a lot better than I can.

more specifically about lactose intolerance

more generally about food sensitivity

With my first I BF exclusively for 4 months & then combination fed for 5 months. With my next one I intend to combination feed a lot earlier so my partner can be more involved.

I have a very healthy seven year old DS. But I beleive that is genes. I am rarely ill and was bottle fed from the off.

The most important thing is that you are happy with your decision. Who cares what everyone else thinks.

"Breast. I can?t understand why you would buy a substitute for something you produce yourself, unless there is a medical reason you can?t bf."

I don't want to hijack the thread but please be careful when discounting women's reasons for not wanting to breastfeed.

Some women have a history of physical or mental abuse which can make breastfeeding psychologically repulsive. Women with body image disorders like anorexia may also find it difficult on a physical and psychological level to cope with. And more normally (?) many women in our breast obsessed culture cannot quite conceive of their breasts as the feeding machines that they actually are and it stays with them.

The birth of a child can resurrect memories old abuse all over again and can contribute to PND as well as feeding problems.

We are not here to ask or judge any woman's reasons for her choice in feeding method, just here to share our stories nad provide reliable information on which to make that choice. If a woman finds herself in the place where she is mentally struggling with breastfeeding, she ought to seek counselling ante-natally and get continued support after her baby arrives. Breastfeeding may be something which empowers her and help her escape the chains which the abuse has placed on her life.

"Some women have a history of physical or mental abuse which can make breastfeeding psychologically repulsive" I suppose that would be in my category of medical reasons, although not something I had considered before you raised it, so thank you for that.

I wasn't judging though, I was just explaining why I am chosing to bf, I don't really care what anyone else does, it's none of my business. maybe I shoudl have said "I can't understand why I would chose to buy something" rather than "you", as that is what I meant.

Lolabanola, I went back to work when my daughter was 5 months. I expressed milk at work but when I was home I just breastfed her. it was a nice way to reconnect after a day away from her; for a long time it was the first thing we did together in the evening, it was our way of saying hello (now, she runs to me and says "hello!" and gives me a teddy to cuddle). Why do you think that if you're working, you wouldn't be able to breastfeed when you're home? Have you been told that it's all or nothing?

Oh I agree with you LeonieD. Society punishes women and babies with this obsession. I acknowledge that some women will not ever breastfeed their babies because of their perceptions of their breasts but I cannot going to beat her up for it. She and her babies are are victims of her culture. Working to change the culture is like turning a oiltanker, though.

Can I just say a big thank you to everyone that has answered my question without feeling the need to slag me off, it really has made interesting reading to see why some people chose their preferred form of feeding. It also helped to change my opinions slightly on the whole feeding thing, something that I was hoping that this thread would do.

Ladyinthered, my midwife has told me that I can breastfeed at home but then would have to express the milk before I before I went to work so that my baby has enough food for the hours that I am not there - I just didn't want to be expressing milk before work, breastfeeding a baby when I got home, plus having to breastfeed her when she wakes up of a night, the whole idea wears me out even thinking about it, at least with bottle feeding I don't have to worry about me producing enough milk for her to have in the day and my partner can help me with the nightime feeds, otherwise I'll just be too worn out.

'I've worked with Pahrmaceutical companies over the years that produce baby formulas' but formula isn't made by pharmacutical companies is it? Nestle etc are all just food production companies, formula is food not pharmacutical? Or have I missed something?

I breastfed DS until he was 2, and plan on doing the same again with this one (if he wants to go that long!)

I found it really tough going in the beginning, the first few weeks were very painful, and I think without the support of DH and my HV I would have given up. The midwife did tell me to expect pain at the beginning until my nipples have "toughened up", and that definitely helped!

I'm in Denmark though, where bottlefeeding is seen as being really quite unusual, it's assumed you'll breastfeed unless you tell them any different.

Once we got going I loved breastfeeding him, so easy, no bottles to faff around with, and I really enjoyed the aspect of it being something that only I could do for him, so there was never any question of what I would be doing this time around.

lola, it partly depends on when you go back to work, and what you choose to do, really.

if you are planning on going back to work later rather than earlier, you may be in a situation where your baby doesn't need milk at all during the day.

From around 9 months, some babies are happy to have water and solids during the day and wait for milk from you, depending on how long you will be separated. In my case, my daughter's nursery was a short drive from work so I went there at lunchtimes and had a sandwich and breastfed. I also left home early enough to feed her at drop off and fed her there on pickup too. It made for a stress free drive and arrival home.

A baby who is still mostly on milk feeds can have either expressed milk or formula.

From about 4 months, a most babies feed very quickly, completing a feed in 5 mins so there is not alot of sitting around, waiting for a baby to finish.

As a mum, you find a way. It may not be the way you envision while pg and I think most mothers on MN will tell you that they have changed some strongly held ideas after their babies arrived.

Stillsurprised - SMA is owned by Pfizer (pharmaceutical company), Aptamil and Cow and Gate are both owned by Danone (predominantly food and bottled water company), not sure about the others.

Many formulas are made by big pharma (nestle is a notable exception) but they have it classified as food, not medicine, hence they can get around the rigorous testing that pharmaceuticals require.

Enfamil - dominant in the US market is made by Abbott labs. there are others out there owned by big pharmaceuticals but are less well known in the UK brands.

sorry, similac is made by abbott labs
enfamil by Mead johnson.

both pharmaceuticals and massive in North America and pushing the brand into the rest of the Americas.

Lola, that makes sense.

And I'm not trying to talk you into anything, but if it helps:

I found time to express about one feed's worth a day from around 2-5 months (when I was still at home - during her morning nap, this was, so not taking any time from her, and I could do it while reading/on the internet) so I had a stash by the time I went back.

Then it was just a matter of keeping up. I expressed enough at work one day to feed her the next, see what I mean? After I went back to work I NEVER expressed at home. Ever. And because I had a bit of a stash built up (I think this is a good idea even if you're at home, because it means others can feed your baby) my partner could do feeds from the get-go. My mum even had my daughter overnight once when she was around 12 weeks and I badly needed a break, I just gave her some bottles of breastmilk.

I totally understand that it seems daunting, though, I'm really just sharing so you know it's doable. I'm a very lazy, easy-route-is-the-best-route sort of person, and breastfeeding worked well for that.

Interesting thread.

I would like to add that I have never found bf painful. It was tricky at first to get DD to latch on and I stayed in hospital a few days to be sure I knew what I was doing. I had lots of support from amazing midwives.

I still bf my 12 month old and have had a really positive experience. The way I see it, anything you can manage is fabulous. Be it one feed, a week or a year. But equally if it doesn't work out for you, don't beat yourself up about it.

I wish I understood mothers who refuse to even try, but I realise what a personal decision it all is.

Good luck with your lovely baby, OP.

Breastfed first and hopefully this one too. It was really important to me and I do feel that I didn't enjoy the first 8 weeks of his life as much as I could have because I was in a lot of pain feeding. I put up with the pain because the thought of bottle feeding did upset me, but I really couldn't explain why at all!

Re expressing you would do some before you went back to build up a supply but then would only express when at work for the next days feeds while you were at work. I went back when DS was 6 months and I had to express twice a day to make his one 9oz feed he had with the childminder and fed him before I went to work and before he went to bed, I started to wean him before I went back to work around 5 months so he was eating quite a bit of other food by then. At weekends I didn't express at all.

I can see the point about factory processed food, not just having formula as DS never had it, but as they get older they do eat more crap but you still have a choice over most of the food they eat and they don't need to have chicken nuggets for tea every day.

As I said I couldn't explain why breastfeeding was so important to me but I can say that once established it does save so much time sterilising, making and heating bottles. You can go out without taking loads of things with you, I did loose a lot of weight whilst doing it and you can do something at the same time as you have a free hand, not to mention the money you save! And no-one else has mentioned how relaxed you feel, a fantastic way to de-stress

I have to say that most people do formula feed, although a lot try breast feeding, it's true there aren't many who say they are going to formula feed out of choice. I found that I was the only one amoung my friends who breast fed and although I'm sure it wasn't intended their feelings about not breast feeding and how they were made to feel guilty was projected onto me and made me feel bad for breastfeeding to the point of not talking about it at all! I really beleive that most of their feelings of guilt were their own and that most health professionals accept that most mums formula feed and as most other mums do it too there is really no-one to make them feel guilty. I would also like to dispell the myth that the baby has to be permenantly attached to your boob as was mentioned before. My son fed roughly every 3 hours from very early on, had 1-2 feeds a night, slept through from 14 weeks and never used it as a comforter.

I would not judge others for what they feed it is your choice but it can be difficult to understand where other people are coming from with many aspects of childcare.

I found it difficult at first to feed in public because of most peoples attitudes, including my family. You only have to look around to see we are a bottle fed culture and that it is more socially acceptable.

For those worried about it I had thrush and mastitis and still fed until 15 months. I would say get the right support (midwives and health visitors are not always the best trained), go to a workshop beforehand and be informed. If it is really important to you then you will do all you can to breast feed and with the right support will succeed with the correct help. It isn't always difficult, although it was for me in the beginning but there are very few women who physically can't breastfeed so go into it with a positive attitude!

None of this is meant to be offensive just my opinion of what I have seen and answering what others have asked, I wish everyone luck with thier choice of feeding.

My neigbour has just stopped bfing at 2 weeks as she hated it, absolutely hated it. But she's so proud of herself for doing the 2 weeks and for making sure her baby got the colostrum as a minimum.

Personally I BFed for 19 months - DS has never had any formula - (he does love fish fingers and sausages though so I'm not a home-cooking paragon of virtue by any means!) I loved the idea that until the point where we started weaning every single molecule that made up my DS I'd eaten, processed and then give to him. I could look at him and think I did all that.

For me formula feeding gave control of such a key part of my baby's life - their food - to someone else. A stranger, who i didn't know if I could trust with my baby. FWIW I have low-grade OCD (it developed when pregnant with my DS!) so control is very important to me.

Also I would read stories like this and be so glad that it wasn't one more thing that I had to worry about...

I plan to breastfeed for a few months, but I have heard of lots of friends/friends of friends who have had real trouble and been criticised for giving up.

I hope I don't get worked up if I can't do it/find it too difficult. My mum took only 2 weeks mat leave with me (she is a hero!) and - needless to say - I was bottlefed. I seem to have turned out fine and, touch wood, have a v good immune system and rarely get ill, but I know that is a regular argument against formula.

I'll porobably be back at work when the baby's about 5 or 6 months anyway (that's my plan) so I will have had to stop well before then.

It's good to hear people's views about it, but my-o-my does it encourage some strange responses. Each to their own I say.

I FF out of choice and intend to do it again with no2. I harbour absolutely no guilt.

However I am interested in the colostrum (sp?) point. Does anyone know actual facts about colostrum. What is so good? It is something I would consider, even though not BFing longer term.

Also, how long does it last - would I be doing this for 1 feed? 1 day? Would it have any effect on the extraordinarily painful / rock hard boobs you get when milk comes in an you don't BF?

I suppose it gets some 'strange' responses because it isn't actually 'each to their own'. You're making a choice that doesn't only affect you but also your baby - the ultimate silent partner who has to accept your decision but who is the one most affected.

Many people don't have the luxury of choice about BFing - they can't BF for a whole host of reasons. But where people do have the luxury of choice I think they should at least give BF a try. As people have said if you try you can always stop, but if you don't try then you'll never know....