breast or bottle?

[*coolaboola*]

hiya! i don't mean this to start a heated debate or anything, i'm just really curious as to the ratios of breast/bottle feeding. i see loads of mums around when i'm in town bottlefeeding but never see anyone breastfeeding, and just wondering what the general proprtions of breast to bottle are...

[*coolaboola*]

i had a third option of combination bottle and breast in the poll but it's not showing up!

[Tess72]

I did the 3rd option, breast and bottle. I think you don't see breastfeeders cos they're very discrete. I breastfeed almost everytime I go out and I'm quite clumsy about it but no one seems to notice. I would't be parading it in the front window of a cafe or anything. I know people who walk around shops with their babies latched on and no one notices.

[Daisyboo]

Bottlefed both my two and will be bottlefeeding again this time.

[hipbaby]

I put bottle as I was not able to BF, will always be a regret in some ways but in others the 2 girls are both healthy and I don't feel my bond is any weaker than if I had BF. That said I would of loved to of been able..

www.hipbaby.ie

[Ragdoll]

i pumped milk as my son wasnt able to latch. not sure which option to go for, as he was technically bottlefed, but with breastmilk.

[Dairy Queen]

Rag doll I would consider that breast fed. I remember hearing a statistic saying how many mothers breast fed and I reckoned it was way off. It said something like 70% of mothers breast fed. But then if you breast feed for a day is your baby then considered breast fed for statistics? In CUMH the nurse said that less than half of the Moms tried breast feeding and when you think of how many would switch to formula in those first few weeks.

[fraggle rocker]

I do both. If I was shopping in town with my mam I use to latch ds on while walking around the shops. For some reason I got brave in town & said I didnt care who saw me(but I was covered). The last few shopping trips I have brought a bottle because ds is 20lbs and too heavy to bf while walking.

[pricilla]

Totally off topic sorry, but I keep dreaming about breastfeeding. And I bottle fed him!

What do you think that means? I dream it nearly every night!

[Skippy]

That is strange Priscilla, I can't think what it could mean. Are you curious about breastfeeding maybe? Or are you sick to the teeth of sterillising etc! I breastfed, and I did it in public but it's not obvious when someone is breastfeeding tbh. Even I'd find it hard to pick out someone breastfeeding in public or just merely holding a sleeping baby to their chest. ..

I'm going to do both on the next one. I'm begining to question if it is really so important to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months. It's a big task for mums to have to do. Just doing some research on it myself at the moment.

[Avril Hiswife]

As others said, you probably don't notice the breastfeeding, I've fed my DD in all kinds of places now and I think that hardly anyone has actually noticed!

That said, if you see someone who is not being discrete it doesn't mean they don't want to be. My DD had a bout of thrush in her mouth a couple of weeks ago, and feeding her was a nightmare (even worse with a bottle). I just stayed at home with her, but it did make me wonder, if I had other DC I might not have the option of staying put and there was no way to be discrete with the poor baby fussing and coming on and off the breast!

[Grunge Bride]

From recent experience, posting about it, asking people etc it seems to me that for a lot of mothers, the initial few days or even couple of weeks can be very difficult, and because good quality formula is available, many / most women don't persevere and switch to bottle feeding.

I would be more interested to know how many mothers decided in advance they were going to bottle feed versus those who tried breast feeding and it didn't work out so switched to bottle.

In my case, I thought I'd hate breastfeeding but thought I'd try it for a while as it is so good for baby. In the event, I didn't dislike it, and loved the feeling of providing for my baby - must have been the maternal instinct overcoming cold hard logic!

Unfortunately though I had terrible trouble getting her to latch on / stay on when she had latched, and she was not getting enough milk and was hungry. Every feed, midwives were working really hard to latch her on, stripping her, using wet cloths, different positions, nursing cushions, bed, chair, you name it, we tried everything. It was such a struggle.

Pediatrician in hospital weighed her and "normal" weight loss after birth is up to 10% of body weight - she was on the 10% line. She was also very unsettled and I felt myself that she would love a bottle of formula. Last day in hospital pediatrician advised me to "top her up" with formula. She loved it!

When I left hospital, and no longer had midwives to help baby latch on, myself and hubby just couldn't get her on, so basically it was a token amount of BF followed by all / most of her nutrition coming from the bottle that was only meant to be a "top up". Fairly soon we stopped BF as it was just agitating her - she kept looking for the breast but got upset cos she wasn't getting enough.

I tried pumping for a while but it was hard to find time in addition to bottle feeding plus all the other things that have to be done, plus I wasn't eating or drinking enough so my supply wasn't good and in the end from infrequent pumping, poor diet and sleep, supply stopped altogether. The amount I'd been getting was nothing anyway so it made no difference to her.

So that's my story. Very different from deciding to bottle feed from the very beginning.

My mother bottle fed as she said there wasn't the publicity advocating breastfeeding at the time (I take it that means she didn't want to BF which is fine, I thought I didn't either til I tried it). My MIL tried but couldn't. My aunt did it for a week then stopped, so they got the initial colostrum etc. Think she had difficulties BF so she could only stick it out for the week and then felt at least they'd had the initial goodness.

So there's often a story behind the simple answer to the breast or bottle question!

[kc05]

I agree with Grunge Bride.

I had decided that i would Breast Feed before DS was born. No question in my mind. so much so that i hadn't bought Formula or bottles as a back up.

I was induced and got to 9cm and then had emergency section. went into severe shock afterwards with the result that DS had 6/7 bottles of formula from midwives before i got near him. he refused to breast feed and got so agitated it was upsetting. i tried for 2 more days and then stopped. he was so happy on the bottle but it is still something that i have niggling regrets about that i didn't try harder etc.

this time round i will try to breast feed again but if it doesn't work for whatever reason then i have no prob with bottle.

[silíní]

Breastfed for 7m, wish now i was still bfeeding. It was a fantastic experience, but EXTREMELY difficult at the beginning. I had never imagined how difficult and if i had known it would have made things easier. Once the first 4 weeks were over it was fine, so convenient etc and i loved the closeness with LO. Will do it again next time, hopefully for longer.

[Spanish Mum]

i am 4 & a half wees into breastfeeding and both me and DS love it! The feeling of closeness is amazing. It is hard going, especially when at 3am in the morning he has been permanently attached for the last 5 hours, but i wouldnt have it any other way!I plan to continue breastfeeding for til at least 6 months, hopefully longer.