Were you BF or FF? Explain please too... - Page 2

[MelanieMC]

I was exclusively bf'ed for 3 months, then put on formula. My mom went back to work and didn't know anything about pumping. She was told by my ped. at the time that it didn't matter any way, so not to worry. I have been told that I started baby cereal at 2 weeks! According to my mom I loved it and it helped me sleep all through the night. My sister had complications at birth and was in a hopital for a month in another city, so my mom was never allowed to bf and was on formula from day one. Both of us were sick all of the time when we were little. Seriously, I had strep throat every year from age 4 to around 13 or so. And I usually have about 2 colds each year that get bad. Of course, I know it's OT, but I was also fully vaxed, even the optional ones, so I'm sure that added to it. Oh well, I plan to ebf and do CLW when I have babies. I've told my mom this and she's one of those "if they can ask for it they're too old" people. Uggh...At least I've got a while to convince her. Sorry for rambling(sp).

[Snowdrift]

My three sibs and I were breastfed exclusively for six months and weaned entirely around a year old. No formula. The only reason we were weaned at around a year was my mother married kind of late and wanted a big family so was trying to close-space us, but had a hard time conceiving while nursing. It worked out great.

We never had ear infections and only one of us has a serious allergy. None of us has so far showed any signs of the family wheat allergy that my mom and her two sisters all have to varying degrees.

My mother was also breastfed, but supplemented with homemade formula since the doctors' advice on nursing pretty much ensured her mom would have low supply problems. When the doctors insisted she couldn't nurse bc she needed to monitor intake, she obtained a very accurate scale and weighted her babies before and after every nursign session.

[Camellia]

I was ff from about 4-5 days on. My mom really wanted bf me, like really bad. She still is sad that it didn't work. I got really weak and could barely cry. My mom pumped some milk while her mom ran to the store and got a bottle. My mom said she pumped for a short time and then I was on formula.

She lasted a little longer with my little brother (2 years younger). My older sis (9yrs older than me) was born in the late 60's. My mom didn't even try with her. Back then (in FLA) the Dr's told her not to even touch my sister too much My mom feels REALLY awful about how detached she was from my sis. She held me and my brother constantly and never propped our bottles.

My bro and I have always been pretty healthy. I got strep throat a lot as a kid. I remember a long span of time where I got it yearly it seemed. I missed 2 weeks of school one time in like the 2nd or 3rd grade because I had strep so bad. I also had a few nasty ear infections that I recall.

ETA - I also had a *major* pacifier addiction. Apparently, I had one around my neck and one in each hand a lot of the time. I would rotate them

[Jasmyn's Mum]

Bf'ed until I was 40 days old . My Mom said she dried up. I've had digestive problems my whole life from what my Mom tells me. Turns out I'm lactose intolerant. Who'da thunk? Guess back then, nobody thought about that.

[timneh_mom]

I was BF for maybe 6 weeks but my mom said she was stressed out and I was hungry, and she didn't think her milk was rich enough (this was small town 1969) and so she started giving me formula. I was a pretty healthy kid but as I got older I started to have a weight problem which resolved as I got to my early adult years but I have always enjoyed food too much, been a comfort eater, like to drink too much and I used to smoke as well. So who knows!! Anyway I don't get sick often so I am sure I had some of the benefits. She supports me nursing as long as Will wants so I think if she'd had more support, she would have nursed me a lot longer.

[DBZ]

I was breastfed for about a month and then I was switched to formula because my mother was too sick to care for me. My sister was breast fed till she was just over a year.

I was allergic to just about everything edible and was in and out of the hospital a lot in my first 3 years. Other then some freaky virus when I was 5 I had typical illnesses and my allergies were gone by the time I was 3-4 years old.

Kara

[Slabobbin]

I was born in 1977 and my mom said that she didn't have any milk.

I think she was planning on ff me anyway...I think that was just what was DONE (actually in this area it is STILL what is "done" ).

I have PCOS and a low milk supply and turns out she probably has PCOS as well so I wonder if that was the problem or if they gave her a shot without her consent and it dried her milk up.

[mags]

I was FF, and I have a TON of allergies, which may or may not be related, I don't know. My mom said she tried to BF me, but didn't have enough milk. : I am thinking she probably gave up before I was even a wk old. She said she tried to BF my brother and he had, "diarrhea," (which I think was actually BF poo) and she said he was colicky, so she switched to formula (and my dad admitted that it did not, "fix" the colic). I believe my youngest brother was FF from the very beginning, b/c by then I think my mom just felt that BF was too much trouble. Here is the sad part. My father is a pediatrician. : He thinks BF is best, but as soon as new moms have BF problems (which we all know that it's not at all unsual for first time moms to have BF issues at the beginning), he tells them to switch to formula. He does not refer them to a lacation consultant or anything like that either, just flat out sends them home with formula samples. :

When I had my first baby, my mom tried for the first SIX months to get me to switch to formula! It was like her life mission or something. She would even call my brothers and tell them how worried she was that my son wasn't getting enough milk and that they needed to call me, so I would switch to formula! I had a very difficult BF experience, my baby was tongue tied and I had a bad case of ductal thrush from the antibiotics I got during labor... none of which was diagnosed until I was 6 wks postpartum and so close to quitting, but didn't, b/c I was determined to BF. It just made me so upset that she seemed so determined to get me to FF, even showing up with cans of formula EVERY time she visited. : Thankfully, everything turned out ok, I nursed my son for 15 months, and weaned during the 2nd trimester of my pregnancy, b/c my milk dried up. I almost started screaming at my mom at the hospital when she came to visit a few hrs after I gave birth to my youngest baby. She had the nerve to ask me if I was going to breastfeed or formula feed my son! DUHHHH!!! What would possess her to think I'd decide to FF, after I had successfully BF'd my other baby already? I mean, geez, I have a bumper sticker on my car that says, "affordable healthcare begins with breastfeeding."

[BookGoddess]

I'm another 70s baby. My mom nursed me up to 3 months then she had to go back to work. I was on formula from 4 months on. I don't think there were Medela breast pumps back then so I don't blame her. My mom only nursed my younger brother for a month because she got a high fever. Her doctor said because of the fever she had to stop nursing him and he was put on formula from then on. :

[DeeEast]

I was breastfed for about a year back in 1965. All of my 6 older brothers and sisters were BF'd except my oldest brother who was born 2 months premature at home and then caught pneumonia. This was in 1946. Back where my mother grew up most people BF'd their babies because that's just the way it was done. All 3 of my sisters have BF'd their children. I BF'd DD for a year and I'm EBFing my twins right now. It was not easy at the beginning either time, especially with the twins and my DS being in NICU, having to pump for him, DD being preemie and not knowing how to latch for weeks, slow weight gain. I almost quit several times but I'm just too stubborn. Now I'm to the easy part of nursing and soooo glad I didn't quit.

[mykdsmomy]

FF......my mom to this day thinks bf'ing is creepy : She's never come out and said that but when I was bf'ing my dc'ren, she was VERY uncomfortable and always told me I should give them bottles because they looked like they werent happy

[boobybunny]

Breast fed for a year, back in late '69. my mom was one of those hippy chicks with a job. (now she is an environmental economist, very cool, how does the environmental impact of your business affect your bottom line) She has always been a bit counter. She hates that I am a SAHM.

My hubby, breastfed until he was six months, also in '69. It is more amazing for him, his mom is as republican as you can get. She has always been a very straight arrow.

We were very healthy kids, Kip had to have tubes in his ears at his sixth birthday (on his birthday) because of ear infections, but that is a congenital thing, very small drainage tubes.

I was never sick, until my mom took me down the street to play with a girl who was all spotty. until this last year, I have never really been sick, or had problems. ( I had a hysterectomy in 0ct, 05)

[Katie Bugs Mama]

I was definitely breast fed, but my mother died before I thought to ask her the specifics. According to my father, she breastfed me until I was 16 months old. I don't have any idea when she started me on solids, but I do know that she made all of my baby food herself.

I don't know where she found the courage to bf me. She came from a family of ff'ers, and she herself was ff one of those nasty home-made formulas that people used to make with karo syrup. My father's family was scandalized that she bf because they thought that it was something that only ignorant new immigrants did, not "real" Americans like them. (My father and his first cousins were the first generation born in the US.)

[crazy_eights]

I was breastfed in 1968, a real feat back then. My mom said that she got zero help from both hospital and doctors and anything that went wrong they assumed it was your milk. I did get baby food at about 3 mos. Even though my mom breastfed us, she still has some wacky ideas about it. She heard me say the other day that I fed my baby every 2 hours or so and she said "Aren't you just raw?" I kind of laughed at the idea, but I guess she probably had problems with that and no one to help her with latch and positioning.

Oh yeah - and my mom tells me about the 'bicycle horn' style breastpump that she was given and did NOTHING.

[tuffykenwell]

According to my mother I was bfed for a few weeks although my oldest sister says she thinks it was longer because she remembers my mother bfing me. My mom said the longest she bfed any of us was my brother (middle child, only boy) who was bfed for 3 months.

My mother had kids from '63 to '73 though so I think she was a product of her times unfortunately.

Steph

[Salema]

My mom was a crazy, rowdy hippy and in 1975 she had my brother at home (which was a trailer!...) and bf him until a little over a year, when she got pg with me. They moved to a small town with no midwives and she was very sad to have to have me in the hospital. After I was born, my parents were all ready to take me home and show me to my brother and the hospital wouldn't let them go. So she lied to them, said she was hardly bleeding at all (they'd given her a shot of Pitocin against her wishes), and they checked themselves out. They felt like they had to smuggle me out of the hospital... And then she bf me for 13 or 14 months.

[Shaunam]

I was breastfed for about 2 1/2 years. I asked my mom recently if she had ever given me formula...NOPE! not a single drop! Unless the hospital staff gave me some without her knowledge, which is entirely possible. But my little sister was born at home, so we KNOW she never had any! (we were born in 83 and 86)

She didn't start giving me solids until I was about 5 or 6 months.

DH's mom did equally well, given the times (her kids were born in 79 and 80). She breastfed DH for 14 months, no solids for about 5-6 months, and only a few ounces of formula when he was about a month old. She nursed DH's little bro for 3 years, same with the solids, and NO formula (she learned her lesson with DH-it made him constipated).

I'm really proud of both my mom and MIL. Breastfeeding rates were on their way back up at that point, but real support was still very scarce.

Oh yeah, MIL was told with DH, she HAD to give water in a bottle. So that makes it that much more impressive that she stuck it out.

[sadkitty]

i was breast fed in 1974-75 i think for a year. my mom nursed all 7 of us for some time. This includes my twin brothers for 15 months and (born in 1993) my older brother in 1971 even though he had a knot in his intestine and had to be hospitalized for a month or so (no one told her about pumping or relactaion ) Then my mom learned about LLL.
My grandmothers also breastfed. its just the way you do things in our family!

In fact, it was one of my dating sreening questions. A guy either had to know if he was breastfed, or be willing to ask. DH was nursed for 18 months!

[leximom]

I was formula fed because my mom smoked while pregnant and obviously after I was born and didn't want to put me at risk . Fortunately I was very healthy as a baby and beyond and glad I made more healthy choices.

[Jennbee]

Breastfed until 9 months, then formula fed (1977). I don't know how old I was when I started getting formula in a bottle. My mom was 6 months preg when I weaned myself. She says that I was "a piggy for the bottle", and preferred it over nursing. I probably didn't like colustrum. I had a healthy childhood with no major allergies (just some antibiotics). I am lactose intolerant, but so is most of my family as a lot of Native Americans are.
My 6 sisters were all breastfed. The longest were ages 3 and 3 1/2.