Breast or bottle feeding?

LilMissEmmylou

Another breastfeeder here. And another who was sore for the first week or 2 and thought of giving up, Lasinoha (sp?) and nipple guards helped a lot at the start for me! after that it was so easy as others said. Baby cried at night, picked her up, she got milk right away and a quick nappy change before going back to sleepy. Although when she started to sleep more i did find i woke the first few nights anyways with err rather full boobs and so needed to pump them a bit to ease the pain of them being too full. Once they got used to babies new sleeping routine it was fine though She was breastfed until she was a year old, I stopped then as she kept pinching me with her shiney new teeth and boy did THAT hurt lol

jakes-mum

I bottle fed my son from the word go for a few reasons, 1, as much as its seen as a terrible thing, breast feeding creeped me out, I had no problem with other mothers doing it it was completely natural, but with regards to my own breasts . . . no. Might have been something to do with being 22 or the only mother in my group of friends? reason 2, My husband wanted to be a hands on husband and really wanted to be involved in feeding.
Ds was a very happy baby, and a very hungry baby so I think on the whole I made the right choice.

With DD, i was 27 and I decided early on I was going to try breast feeding, being older and knowing this was the last child, I wanted to try everything, I wanted to understand what other mums were talking about when they mentioned the 'closeness' they felt from breast feeding, so I tried and lasted 3 days, it was painful, she woudnt latch properly, even with my mother helping me (she breast fed all 3 of us), and she was always hungry! I didnt know where a local breast feeding support group was and to be honest, 3 days after giving birth I didnt want to go sit in some hall with other mums.
at 2am the 3rd night where I was walking the livingroom with DD screaming her lungs out and me in tears, DH came down and said enough was enough, I was stressed and upset, DD was upset, it just wasnt worth it and we switched to bottles. She was happy from then on.

The thing you and your wife have to remember is that we can all give our experiences and opinions but each parent is different, she might take to breastfeeding like a duck to water, she might hate it, she just wont know till she tries, but that decision is up to you not us and she shouldnt feel bad if she decides to bottle feed, or breast feed and it doesnt work, or breastfeed and it does work but your left feeling a bit left out.

good luck and congratulations

skintchick

brazilianwax wrote: »

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

Not entirely legally, true, but it can be done :cool: Been there, done that.

jeradcjerry

I would recommend though that if you wanted to try breast feeding give that a go first as I've heard it's difficult to switch from bottle to breast.I've always found it the other way round - at the nursery I worked at we had it written in big letters if the babies were bottle fed, as they were often more grouchy and less playful and placid then the breastfed babies.

money_honey

I bottle fed DD. I was originally planning to breastfeed but in the hospital DD was having none of it, 10 (yes really!) different midwives tried and failed to get her to feed and I heard all kinds of reasons such as my boobs were too perky (what?!), it would 'happen' at some point etc etc. I couldn't manage to express any milk either so it was a nightmare situation. In the end I gave her a bottle as she was screaming the place down for some food and we never looked back. For us, I found bottle feeding easy and it helped me so much that DH could do some of the night feeds so we could share our exhaustion! Don't worry about people who say you'll find it harder to bond wit bottle feeding, in my experience anyway I bonded really well with DD and so did DH. She was a happy, content baby and is now a lovely happy 2.5 year old.

I definitely think it is a completely individual decision, and in my opinion your wife should at least try breastfeeding - at least then she'll be able to make more of an informed choice. What I would say is that if for whatever reason it doesn't work out, don't let ANYONE make you feel bad for not breastfeeding. I had nasty comments from complete strangers for bottle feeding and it is no-one's business but your own how you choose to feed your baby.

Good luck with everything.

Edit: Forgot to add, if you do end up bottle feeding I found the aptamil cartons great to take out and about for a day trip - they're ready made so you just pour them into the bottle and I made sure DD was used to drinking milk at room temperature as well as heated so no need to warm them up either.

basscadette

I was also reading a midwives forum where one trainee midwife had tried to ask why there was so much political and NHS pressure put on new mums to breast feed (stories of outright bullying abound). Again, the response was overwhelmingly pro, but I do wonder what they are telling health practitioners when one midwife claimed that formula feeding increased a child's chances of getting Leaukemia. I'm sorry, but that's out and out BS and apparantly this is a midwife spouting this. Scary. We have to be logical and balance out the pro and cons for ourselves and make an intelligent decision based on all factors. Scare stories of cancer for both mother and baby are irresponsible.

glitterycloud

I was told that the first 6 weeks bf are the hardest and if you can get through 6 weeks then it gets alot better.
I found this to be very true. I found it very painful to bf to begin with but I used nipple cream all the time and aired them regularly and after 6 weeks bf was a breeze. I would express so dh could feed my son, I bf for 6 months and would have continued but I had to go back to work and expressing at work was quite a dilemma!

If you are giving bf a shot try and stick it out for 6 weeks as after that it gets easier. Don't think about any other baby except yours when it gets here as each baby is different, and responds differently. I would really suggest not to make decisions on bf/bottle until the baby is here and you can see what works for you. You might get on well with bf if you have an open mind.

Good luck with the birth xx

somethingsgottogive

Hello I'd say just give it a go (your OH, obviously, lol) because it's very difficult to switch a baby to breastfeeding if you start with bottles straight away if she decides 'too late'. It might be easier than she imagines, and she might enjoy it. My eldest wouldn't latch on so we had to use bottles, and she was a very chilled and happy baby - and my youngest took to breastfeeding straight away and was also very chilled and happy.

You can't judge how your baby will react based on other babies though - different temperaments, different circumstance, different mothers etc. She won't know until she tries - and if it doesn't work/she doesn't enjoy it/baby won't feed/too painful, there's no shame at all in switching to bottles

Best of luck xx

Charle

I will prefer breast feeding over bottle feeding due to these health benefits.
Breastfeeding helps in burning calories,
Breastfeeding creates a bonding between mother and child,
Breast milk is more rich source of nutrition than bottle feed,
Breastfeeding is a natural way to avoid further pregnancies,
Breastfeeding helps mother to fight osteoporosis with age.

neverdespairgirl

basscadette wrote: »

Scare stories of cancer for both mother and baby are irresponsible.

Calling them all scare stories is irresponsible.

Breastfeeding significantly reduces the risk of breast cancer in women who feed their babies, for example.

Breastfeeding also reduces the likelihood of a mother getting ovarian cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes in later life.

Being breastfed does lower the risk of a child getting blood cancers, and Hodgkin's lymphoma. But as it's a very rare form of cancer in children, the difference isn't huge.

In a study of data from 139,681 postmenopausal women in the U.S., those who breastfed for less than 12 months during their reproductive years had a higher risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hyperlipidemia and hypertension than women who had lactated for more than a year in total. For example, among women who had children, those who did not breastfeed had a 42.1 percent chance of developing hypertension, where mothers who breastfed for at least 12 months had a 38.6 percent chance, according to an analysis led by Eleanor Schwarz, an assistant professor of medicine, obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, and published May 2009 in Obstetrics & Gynecology. For women who never become pregnant, many of their risks seem to be closer to those who have children and breastfed.

According to a cohort analysis by Stuebe et al., the longer a woman had lactated during her reproductive years, the less likely she was to get type 2 diabetes, regardless of BMI, which can be a risk factor for the disease.

Risks for cardiovascular disease in lactating versus non-lactating mothers seem to be firm regardless of BMI, which is usually a factor for both conditions. This finding "indicates that lactation does more than simply reduce a woman's fat stores," Schwarz and her colleagues wrote in their May 2009 paper. They proposed that hormonal stimulation is likely playing a substantial role.



http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=breastfeeding-benefits-mothers&page=1

In terms of children, babies who were breastfed in later life appear to have an IQ advantage of about 6 points, compared with formula fed babies.

"Those who were breast-fed scored on average three points above the population mean of 100 on the IQ test, whereas those who were not breast-fed scored about three points below the population mean," Moffitt says. In other words, breast-feeding led to a gain of a few IQ points, whereas those using baby formula in lieu of mom's milk led to a slight dip.