Breast or bottle feeding?

pinkshoes

Breastfeeding may be the most natural thing in the world, but it's such hard work!! Argh!

My DS just wouldn't latch at first, but as I wanted to give him the best possible start, I persevered. I got blocked ducts, cracked nipples (don't forget to buy your OH a tube of Lansinoh cream!!), but battled on, grit my teeth, and set myself mini targets, like getting to 2 weeks, then getting to 4 weeks.

At 4 months, I'd had enough, so tried switching to bottles, but the little monkey wasn't having any of it.

He's now 10 months, and STILL breastfed. I've also returned to work, so he just has 2 feeds a day, and it works really well.

I wanted and tried to give up so many times, but I am SO pleased that I had supportive people around me to help me continue, including the NCT phone line!

A good compromise is combination feeding, so the dad does the last feed at night so that mum can go to bed and get a decent block of sleep!

skintchick

Pinkshoes - Dad could do that with a bottle of expressed milk, too, so you don't have to introduce formula in order to allow Dad to feed a bottle.

creditcard123

Firstly I want to say it is your individual preference.
I BF my children I had every complication going, cracked nipples, engorged, mastitus. but I really enjoyed it I found it very relaxing
I also went back to work when they were 4 months old and just BF when I was there and they had formula when I wasnt
BF for nearly a year with last 2 our body adapts and only makes the milk when it is needed
Good Luck with whatever you decide:)

MadDogWoman_2

Hi,

I decided when I was pregnant that I would give bf a try and that if I was able to that my DH would have other tasks that were exclusively his when he was at home.

I was lucky to find bf easy, so my DH fetched me drinks and snacks as already suggested but he also took on nappy changes and bathing - he also woke in the night to change her nappy.
Just a suggestion

Armchair23

If you express or mix feed you don't get the chance for 'supply and demand' to work properly. So you may well end up with a hungry baby. Boobs do a really good job of adjusting to the demands a hungry baby puts on them, if you eat, sleep and rest properly.

I'm sure there are any number of reasons why you may not want to, or can't or don't like breastfeeding and those are all OK and your choice.

As this is the MSE board I just have to point out it costs nothing !

No bottles, no formula, no sterilising. No bottle warmers, bottle coolers or cleaners. And because breast fed babies have less stools, fewer nappies !
Add fewer stomach upsets so less puking and diahorrea.And the washing machine gets to save money too.

That said breast feeding is not supposed to be a punishment, so if you don't like it you don't have to do it.

It's just a shame that it's turned in to battleground when new Mums just need all the support they can get.

Good luck, and remember most babies seem to survive us parents :rotfl:

LandyAndy

MrsLA breastfed both of ours and she would tell you that it just made everything so much simpler. No paraphernalia to cart around. Milk available at a moments notice. No way, for instance, could we have gone camping in a field when DS1 was 2 and a half weeks old if we'd been reliant on bottles.

Just our experience, though, and I do appreciate that it isn't easy for everyone.

brazilianwax

LegalBlonde wrote: »

I am very early on in pregnancy but have always wondered about this.

When people say bottlefeed, I assume this is like formula milk from birth.

Are you not able to breast pump and then just put that in bottles?? Or is that only for the odd occassion, does it not come out on demand?? LOL sorry but I am pretty confused :cool:

At this stage I don't think I would want to bf, but if I could pump it into lots of bottles isn't that best of both

I must be missing something

That's exactly what I did. For 6.5 months. For every feed.

It's entirely possible. Not easy, but possible. And breastfeeding the 'standard' way isn't easy (or possible for some people).

Gillyx wrote: »

Legal Blonde, your milk gets into a pattern, as and when your baby feeds, so it's like supply and demand if that makes sense. I think to pump exclusively from birth would be an awful chore, you'd have to spend some amount of time expressing, aswell as all the sterilising of bottles etc.

Wasn't an issue for me. I loved seeing members of my extended family bonding with my daughter whilst they fed her. Best of both worlds as far as I'm concerned.

Polka_dot_zebra wrote: »

You can express breast milk and give it to your baby in a bottle, but unfortunately it tends to be a lot harder than actually feeding directly from the breast. Breast pumps are not as efficient at getting the milk out as a baby is, and in order to keep up a supply, you'll need to be pumping/hand expressing at least every 2-3 hours - this means through the night as well. However, even if you only express for a week or two, your baby will still be getting the fantastic benefits of your colostrum.

Not in my experience.

2522laura wrote: »

I was planning on expressing for the first couple of months then formula feed. I was going to express rather than breast feed as I want the baby to get the benefit of the breast milk but I dont want to be the only one doing the feeds. Looks like I may have underestimated how difficult expressing is reading all your comments! Still, I'll give it a go.

My Mum is REALLY putting the pressure on for me to breast feed properly which I am finding quite annoying, I dont see why it matters that the breast milk is comming out of a bottle!

I didn't struggle with volume or time once I had a decent pump. I could get 8oz per side per express (10 mins total). My midwife joked I'd be feeding the street :rotfl:

I'd planned to BF the normal way, but in the end practicalities got in the way and this was my solution. My daughter had breastmilk for 28 weeks or so, and her milk needs dropped dramatically once we started BLW at 6 months, so I didn't mind 'topping her up' with formula.

It wasn't a glamorous way to feed her, and I did have to express in some pretty odd places (airplane loos, motorway service station car parks, toilets all over the place!), but I'm glad I persevered.

My advice with anything baby-related is to do what works for you. Every mum and every baby is different. There's no rule book.

brazilianwax

LandyAndy wrote: »

MrsLA breastfed both of ours and she would tell you that it just made everything so much simpler. No paraphernalia to cart around. Milk available at a moments notice. No way, for instance, could we have gone camping in a field when DS1 was 2 and a half weeks old if we'd been reliant on bottles.

Just our experience, though, and I do appreciate that it isn't easy for everyone.

You can't breastfeed a baby in a moving car though

LandyAndy

brazilianwax wrote: »

You can't breastfeed a baby in a moving car though

Never caused us a problem:).

Express delivery.;)

londonlass001

The best advice I could give is to find out where your local breastfeeding support groups are in your area. They're usually in the Surestart centres but you may also have a La Leche League locally.

The groups are usually very welcoming of mums to be and if she's already been along, then it might be less daunting than going for the first time when she is recovering from birth, tired etc. If your oh decides to try bfing, it is usually in the early days that she'll need support. Midwives and health visitors don't always have the time or the training to know how to support a new mum who is struggling.

Also do read up as much as you can about breastfeeding. The antenatal courses usually don't prepare you for the reality of breastfeeding a newborn, for example, how often a newborn will feed in the early days, how milk supply works and what support a mum needs in the early days to keep herself well.

Good luck