Breast feeding is not always best

Your right, everyone is different.  Doesn't matter if you breast feed or formula feed your baby, what matters is that your baby grows up healthy and strong.  No one has the right to make anyone feel that way, because when you're in that situation you have enough on your mind then to have other people critisis you.  We are all mums and dads, and we do our best for our kids, not matter what on-lookers think or say.

Thank you very much for this! The exact same thing happened to me and my son after he was born, except I didn't get to try to nurse him for over 24 hours. After that, he NEVER wanted to breastfeed, would immediatly fall asleep or screem at the breast, but took a bottle with no problem. I tried everything, and everyone said, "Just keep trying!" After about three weeks, we were both miserable. My son is now almost five weeks and I finally just decided to give him the bottle full time because I was losing my mind and getting really depressed. We are now a MUCH happier family! Your post helps me feel more secure in my decision and helps to relieve a little of the guilt. Thanks again!

Breast feeding is one method of feeding a human and it is the natural method created by years or evolution or God (lets just agree it just happens) however us clever humans have been able to devise other methods of feeding our humans. This is because we are clever and have developed a way to ensure better survival by developing alternative ways to increase our survival rate. If your breasts work fine and bubs takes food and nourishment via that method - fine. If things are not or do not work you need to find another way in order to ensure you baby is fed and grows and survives.

I saw a baby bat on TV last night and it was abandoned by its mother - breast feeding was not the best method for it as the breasts had flown away or died with the mother. Lucky for this bat us humans have developed other ways to feed animals so this bat was raised on bottles and now it has survived so it can feed and grow other bats.

Just like a river running to the sea. It probably runs best when it follows the path engraved in the land from many years or erosion but if a tree falls across the river this tried and true path may no longer be the best method of getting ti the sea. This is when a little stream will work its way around the tried and true method. As long as the water makes it to the sea. Thats all that matters.

Feed your babies as best you can. Feed and love em so they can do the same.

nobody should made to feel bad about there baby in anyway, as long as they are healthy and your both happy. Just be glad we have all options in this day and age to help, no matter what we decide!!!

Nicky

Oh my goodness, finally someone who has the guts to come out and say it!  I tried for 3 painful weeks to breastfeed my now 16 month old.   As always the midwives, community nurses and even friends and family put the pressure on.  I cried for days leading up  to the decision to switch to bottle, and felt guilty for weeks after.  Then out come from the woodwork, people who kept crapping on at me about how I should try to breastfeed, actually BOTTLEFED their 4 kids!

That rubbish about bottle fed babies being sick more often is also crap, my girl has only ever had 1 cold, and a girl I know who breastfed all her 3 kids, they are sick ALL the time!  That stuff about skin to skin contact promoting milk production is also crap.  I tried EVERYTHING to breastfeed and had NO milk.

Anyway good on you!

Renee

Wonderful to see a breastfeed mother stand up for formula feeders. There are a lot of reasons why some mothers can't breastfeed. A friend of mine became seriously ill while breastfeeding and needed an operation. Add in the medications she had to take afterwards were not safe for breastfeeding, but without them she could have died, and formula was her only option left. She also received a lot of critism about not breastfeeding her child, but she was quite able to stay calm and just briefly explain why she couldn't, and it was amazing how many people she left choking on their words.

Refreshing to read a neutral advice on this.

Cheers, DA

i was never really able to b'feed charlie as my milk was making him sick, we were told by the doctors to stop b'feding and go onto bottle,  charlie was in NICU and was tube feed for the first 8weeks of life and when he was able to take from me this is when he started to get sick,  when i was going through this i was told by the b'feeding people the so called experts that i was giving up to easily and was told to keep going as it is what the baby wants and needs, and that it didn't matter if it was making him sick, i was then told yesterday by a doctor that we saw that the reason why charlie gets sick now is because he wasn't b'feed and that it is my fault and that i really should have thought about what i was doing to him at the time when i had to stop, i told him how i was told by other doctors at the time that were looking after him that i was making him sick, his response to this was THEY KNOW NOTHING and that they should have never told me to stop, 

at the time i felt that there was no support for the mums out there that aren't able to b'feed and i feel that there should be more support and that they shouldn't be made feel as though they are letting their baby down by not b'feeding, as they have their own reasons why they can't and those reasons should never be questioned by anyone this is just my opinion and how i feel

I love reading your advice lexi! You are soo right on this.

I wasn't able to breast feed and I was happy with giving her formula. My baby turned out great, a devil LOL but she's just amamzing! I have never said to anyone that breast is best, I find that there are always reasons why people can't. Like me for example.

Keep up with the good advice lexi!

I was diagnosed with post-natal depression after my daughter was born but refused to accept advice to take medication because I thought her needs for breast milk were more important than my sanity.  I breast fed her for eight months and became increasingly and qutie seriously ill.  Eventually, I had to wean her and take the medication but I suffered alot during that eight month period. Frankly, I wouldn't make the same decision again.  I know a lot of bottle fed babies.  I was one. We're allright. Sometimes, breast is not best. Sorry.

I think if you have tried to breastfeed and problems happened that made it impossible to keep doing it then the mother has done the best for their baby. Even though Breast is Best if the mother has tried but not been able to for whatever reasons they are just doing what they need to do for their child to be healthy and thats what counts in the end. I am a breastfeeding mother but I had so much trouble at the start and at the time I didn't think I would get through that period but thankfully I did. My best friend tried her best to breastfed but it didn't work out and I know that she is an awesome mother.

I had the opposite I had every one telling me to just put him on the bottle when I had problems, thankfully I could work through the problems and came out to still be breastfeeding. I feel like no matter how you feed your baby/child there is always someone who is going to say you are doing the wrong thing. Thats why we need to support our friends in their motherhood no matter if we do things differently.