Breastfeeding Or Formula (Page 1)

i dont think anyone can dispute the fact that breast milk is healthier and more beneficial but i think that the mother needs to do whats best for her. if it makes her better able to care for her child if she formula feeds then that is what she needs to do. formula these days is so advanced that while it doesnt match breast milk to a tee is still gets the job done. I think a healthy, happy, sane mother is vital to a happy, healthy baby.
that being said, it makes me angry when women dont breastfeed only because of vanity reasons.. thinking it will make their breast sag. there are so many reasons i can understand why you may not want to breastfeed but that one in my opinion is unacceptable.

I agree with everything that .Vanessa has said. It's widely known that breast is suppossed to be "perfectly made" to accomodate all your baby's needs and it provides antibodies and immunities to illnesses. Having said that if a mother dislikes breastfeeding or dreads doing it, she shouldn't.

I think all women should give it a try and see for themselves whether it's something they can do. Give your baby the benefit of the colostrom and then switch to formula if you can't do it.

Women who choose not to breastfeed because their boobs will sag are being selfish, imo. Your boobs are going to sag anyway!! It's called gravity!

sorry if this is off topic but when are you supposed to start supplementing with breastfeeding? my mother in law was over on the weekend and it sounded like she had advised my sister in law to start giving her 5 month old pablum in her bottle so she would sleep through the night. she seemed a bit peeved that my sil said she would wait until the baby was 6 months because that's what her doctor told her to do. i, of course, had no clue what to say to that so i just said i guess it's better to listen to your doctor and she kind of rolled her eyes a little. i don't see what the harm is in waiting, like the doctor said to, if the mom is willing to keep getting up in the night to feed the baby. it just all seems so complicated!! lol. now i'm going to have my mom and my mother in law and my sister in law giving me advice too and i'm going to have to be a real diplomat in order to keep the peace.

I'm still breastfeeding my daughter and we've never relied on formula to suppliment. We've only ever had it available when my inlaws have watched her for a few hours, and most of the time she rejected the bottle anyway. I wouldn't have provided it at all if I were able to pump my milk out.

We started rice cereal at the start of the year when her doctor gave the go-ahead. Same with fruits and veggies, and then meats.

I'll recommend breastfeeding to any woman who is comfortable trying it, but I would never push it. Some mothers aren't comfortable with breastfeeding, and I refuse to make them feel they're making the wrong choice or that they're hurting their baby. Breastfeeding is hard, and it's not for everyone.

nightangel: breastfeeding makes one huge difference. Your breastmilk contains antibodies that you pass directly to your baby. It helps build a stronger immune system. Even if you only breastfeed until you return to work, your baby will be so much better off from nursing for that time. It does make a difference - an enormous difference.

Well .I'm no expert, but I would assume it would be a lifelong thing, right? Your immune system is ever-growing and building itself, and the first years lay the groundwork (I would think, anyway). But of course that's just an opinion. I haven't done enough research on long-term benefits or anything.

Good question!

*edit*

.I just typed "breastfeeding long-term effects" into .google and got a buttload of hits. I don't feel like spamming this place with cut/paste jobs, so .I'll just recommend a .Google search.

i would also think it would be lifelong. don't you pass antibodies that you've developed on from your body to the baby's? so that they have the antibodies for certain bacteria already rather than having to develop them from scratch? i could be wrong, that's just how i understood it.

i was just wondering because i've never breastfed finn at all and he's never been sick, then i know someone here (i won't say who because it doesn't matter) who did bf and their baby has been sick numerous times.

As far as supplementation goes I feel that every baby is different and you will know when they are ready. I gave my son pablum at 3 and half months because he was a big baby and a big eater, my daughter didn't want it until 4 and half months. I would wait on the fruits and veggies until at least six months though.

A midwife had told a friend of mine not to give her anything but formula until she was six months but there was one time each afternoon that her baby wasn't satisfied from her milk. She was 5 months at the time. So I suggested that she try just a bit of pablum. Her baby loved it and she stopped being fussy at that time now because all she wanted was a little something extra.

So in my opinion a mother knows her baby and will know when they are ready.

Well .I'm sure .Finn's immune system is strong and healthy. Some babies are resilient and others are more susceptable, .I'm pretty sure. Plus you're keeping all of his vac's up to date too.

Breastfeeding isn't one of those "do it and your baby will never be sick!" or "if you don't do it your baby will be sickly!" things (but of course you know that). But it does greatly benefit the child. The baby in question (I think I know who you mean) probably has a weak immune system naturally.

I also never breastfed either and both my children have always been really healthy. My son is now 11 and my daughter is 5. I too have known a couple of people who have breastfed and it seems that they catch everything that they come in contact with. I wonder if it has anything to do with whether or not the mother has a good immune system to start off with.

I knew that I wouldn't be able to breastfeed because I have extremely sensitive breasts. I don't even let my dh come near them lol. For me it was more important that I be happy and enjoy feeding my children rather than dreading it because I was in pain. Also I feel that with formula I know that everything my baby needs is in that bottle and exactly how much he is eating.
I am not that great of an eater so I was also concerned with that too.

AyaMiyaki, I love people like you who don't force it on people. I hate it when you get a nurse or someone who makes you feel guilty for choosing not to breastfeed. It is definitely a very personal decision and no one should judge anyone who chooses to breastfeed or not to breastfeed.

I pumped milk while I was at work for both of my kids. I also got up in the night for a year with #1 and 9 months for #2 and pumped an extra bottle for them so I would not run out. It really sucked, to tell the truth, but I thought it was worth it. My kids are relatively healthy, have had numerous colds/flus, etc but I wonder if they would have been more ill had I not breast fed? I will never know the answer to that. I really appreciated the fact that it helped me lose the weight so quickly. I was never breast fed, and I certainly don't feel abused or neglected because of it (I don't think I ever got an ear infection, either). I do know that it helps prevent kids from developing so many food allergies, though. It can be done, even if you go back to work, but it is a serious time commitment, and pumping is not nearly as emotionally fulfilling as breastfeeding. That part I loved every single minute of!

I have chosen to breastfeed my baby whenever he comes. However, I won't diss people who aren't going to. My sister had to stop bfing her son when he was 3 months old because they found out he was allergic to soy, wheat, and dairy. He has to use this special kind of formula and the only way that my sister could've fed him was if she stopped eating all of those things, which was not going to happen.

The people that irritate me are the people that only try for like a week and the people that don't try because of vanity. I have heard (well my dr told me) that most of the sagging comes from whenever your milk first comes in and since all womens milk does come in then everyone is going to have to experience it.

About the whole only trying for a week or so, from what I have heard it actually takes about a month to get comfortable with it. So actually you really haven't given it a try unless you try for over a month.

i can't wait to breastfeed my baby. i'm looking forward to it. it doesn't really matter to me what other people decide to do with their boobies but i had to laugh a little at the really young pregnant girls in the healthy start group i went to a couple of times. they were like "ew! breastfeeding is so gross!" "yeah, i'm not going to do that!". i guess the healthy start nurses have their work cut out for them with those moms. lol.

I am looking forward to breastfeeding too. I know it won't be easy at first but it will become a great bonding experience. Whenever I talk to my sisters about breastfeeding the one that had to stop always gets close to crying because she misses that time with her little one.

Neither me or my brother were breastfed and we're just fine too. We had someone on here about a year ago who was saying all kinds of lies, such as "bottle-fed babies will be smaller, underdeveloped, dumber, do bad in school, be sickly, and have shorter lives". I was like... what the heck!?

Yes, breast milk has the antibodies, and that's what is most important. it gives your baby antibodies that it has no way of producing. It's actually like giving your baby the safest vaccine in the world!!

I really don't see how breastfeeding will make you that much smarter.