Parenting Forums

Posted: 12 September 2005 at 8:50am | IP Logged

Just wondering if any1 regrets the choice they made not 2 bf?

Sometimes i feel bad knowing there r women out there who really want 2 bf & cant & i didnt even try. I think the fact i started leaking at 18weeks pg & didnt stop until Ryan was 15 weeks made it worse for me

I know i made the right choice (bottle feeding) for us wen i think about it logically but sometimes i cant help wondering how things might hav been if id gav it a try.

Posted: 12 September 2005 at 9:10am | IP Logged

i cant complain leo took to the bottle straight away and also to the milk i was giving him.... sma gold and he's still on that now.

i do think tho that with my next i will at least try it.

we will have to see

gem

Posted: 12 September 2005 at 9:13am | IP Logged

I tried and failed miserbaly with both of mine i tried twice with Louis, for the first 36hours of his life, then it wasn't working for us both so i tried him on a bottle but he wouldnt take any off the diff teats, so tried bf again but still with no luck so for the first few days he had to be fed with a syringe whilst he got used to a bottle teat.

I look at bf mothers and i think 'god i wish i could do it' but i tried, and both my boys thrived on being bottlefed so i dont feel too bad

if i ever get pg again i WILL suceed in bf lol

Posted: 12 September 2005 at 9:30am | IP Logged

I tried twice & "failed" twice.

I have no regrets about formula feed - most pals i have with bf kids are either very knackered or have kids who seem to have colds/illnesses all the time.

Breast is best??- not from my experiences!!

Posted: 12 September 2005 at 9:39am | IP Logged

I always disagreed with the breast is best policy - i believe wotever works for u & lo is best

Ryan took 2 his formula milk well & is also still on SMA gold so i was lucky, he  didnt really feed for the 1st 24hours tho cause he was full of mucus so iv got a feeling even if i had tried bf id hav thought id failed & went on 2 formula anyway

Posted: 12 September 2005 at 10:07am | IP Logged

I breastfed for a while, about 3-4 weeks.  Travis would come off the breast crying  so I would fix him onto the other and when that lot was gone that was it .  He'd cry for ages if he was still hungry!!  My horrid HV kept saying "It'll establish, just give it time..."   Then one day I said to DP right go out to Tesco get 4 bottles and a box of formula!!  I did 1/2 and 1/2.  A few weeks after that, I didn't know if he had bottle / left breast /right brest last so I just thought this is too much!!  One or the other, I chose bottle as he was too hungry on breast!

HV, Avril, hated me it sounded like.......and it sounded to me like I failed the way she was talking to me!!!  I felt like giving her a smack over the face and I'm not a violent person!

I didnt fail...... I did it, latched on fine, drank and that  was it till he started to get mega hungry!

I loved Breast feeding my boy, but bottle is as fun as he likes to take it out his mouth and put it back in...and do funny things with bottle!! 

Posted: 12 September 2005 at 8:11pm | IP Logged

I don't think anyone should feel guilty for not being able to breastfeed.  It is one of the most difficult things as women we have to master and not helped by the way society made bottlefeeding the norm when most of us were growing up.  Statistics suggest the balance is swinging back the other way to breastfeeding being the norm I am not so sure myself.

I bottle fed my fist dd and was determined with my second to get the support I needed to enable me to breastfeed.  That didn't make it easy the second time around, it still hurt and I still got infections.  With Ollie I was offered no help as I had done it before although that was 12yrs ago.  Luckily we have had no problems and no pain this time around.

What I would say is if you decide to breastfeed stick with it and make the mw's show you and help you before you agree to leave hospital and when you get home make the community mw check your positioning every time she comes around.  If there is a breastfeeding support group in your area go and meet them before you have your baby.  Don't give up if you want to do it you can.

Equally if you want to bottle feed and know that then don't ever feel guilty for making the right choice for you and your baby.

Posted: 12 September 2005 at 8:17pm | IP Logged

I bf all of mine to start with but It always ended up going wrong!! I did my best it really upset me when I just couldnt carry on with devlin as I so wanted to do it as long as possible..Oh well I might still get the chance to achive my goal one day!!

HelenC

Posted: 12 September 2005 at 9:20pm | IP Logged

I tried with ds but he just had no interest in the breast so I gave him a bottle and he didn't have much interest in that at first but he soon got the hang of it. I had decided during my pregnancy that bf was not for me but I felt so guilty and upset when he was about a week old. I cried loads because of it and kept beating myself up because I felt I hadn't tried hard enough. Worst of all was when dp's granmother asked if he was bf and i explained he hadn't taken to it and she just said "you didn't give him much chance". When he was about 7-8 days old I breastfed him and tried it again but as he was use to formula he fed for about 2 hours non stop then still screamed so I had to give him a bottle too. I was so sore also. In the end I decided the best thing for me and him was that I was happy and enjoying feeding him - and that was bottle-feeding. I felt there was far too much pressure from mw, magazines & books.

this time with dd I was determined too and did for the first few feeds but then she wouldn't latch on correctly and was making me sore. I decided that the last thing i needed was the stress of trying to get it right at every feed with her screaming blue murder cos she was starving, i had enough on with a newborn and a toddler to look after so i bottle fed her too. dp's father commented that "that didn't last long" which i found upseting.

both my kids are thriving and healthy but i still feel guilty that i didn't and envious of those who did bf.