What was your personal reason for your feeding choice? - Page 2

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

My reasons for deciding to bfed even years before I even thought of having kids were:
1)Why would I pay for something I can make for free.
2)Why would I get up in the middle of the night several times to run water, heat it up right, measure out the right amount, put it in a bottle over and over when all I had to do bfing was roll over.
3)I have breasts to feed a baby why wouldnt I use them. I kept thinking as well that maybe if more mom's bfed and used their breasts for what they were ment for the rate of cancer might go down as well (this was long before I even knew this has been proven) it just seemed like common sense to me.

All of this long before I knew the benifits of bfing for mom and baby both. I only knew 1 person, my aunt, who bfed. I was around 8-9 maybe and the memory is hazy but I remember her going to another room to nurse and I followed her to watch.

[TypingMarie]

My mother and stepmother both breastfed all of their kids, so I just assumed everyone did. I didn't know much about lactation before I got pregnant, so I assumed formula was something moms left when their baby was being babysat or in daycare. I honestly didn't realize that anybody would choose to exclusively formula feed their baby until I got pregnant and started browsing pregnancy/childcare forums.

Before I got pregnant I assumed I would breastfeed "until the baby got teeth". (Incidentally, my son got his first two teeth at 3 months and now has 8 at 6.5 months ) As I started to read more about the benefits of breastfeeding I decided that I would go for one year. Now that breastfeeding is a reality for me and not something I'm just considering "on paper", I'm leaning more toward breastfeeding for a longer stretch.

[JustKiya]

I don't have children yet, but my reason is 3-fold

1) I'm cheap - and formula is expensive.
2) I'm lazy - and dealing with bottles is a pain in the ass.
3) I like my bed - and rolling over and popping a boob in sounds better than having to get up and 'fix' a bottle anyday.

Yeah, generally selfish reasons - the fact that breastmilk is utterly the best possible food for my babe-to-be is just icing on the lazy, cheap cake.

[Parker'smommy]

My mom breastfed me and my two brothers. I knew that I wanted the same for my kids. I wanted to give my kids the best start in life, and I knew that breast was the way to do it.I thought I would do it for the AAP recommended year. Who knew I would nurse ds till he was almost 3, during my pregnancy with dd, nurse her through my next pregnancy, have a stillbirth, get my milk back in and continue to nurse her!! That was even on my radar!

But I have to say that being breastfed myself is probably the biggest reason. Thanks MOM!

[Kailey's mom]

To be honest, I didn't think about what I was going to feed my daughter when I was pregnant, I was just praying that I would be able to carry her until she could breath on her own.

When she was born the nurse asked me if I wanted to breastfeed, and I said yes..it just felt natural. I didn't research or anything.
The LC from the hospital came in and said it wouldn't be a good idea since I was on Mag-sulf drip and b/p meds. I was sad but honestly knew no better, she was in the nicu and I was not allowed to get out of bed for 24 hours. My stupid b/p didn't want to come down and I was on them for 6 weeks post partem with b/ps still in the 200's. I still had plenty of milk 6 weeks post partum and wanted to breastfeed, she was on SOY formula at the time and was starting to have reflux probs etc..

She would not latch...she didn't know how. I took her to the ped to discuss this and she told me that "babies won't eat what will hurt them" and that she has food allergies, and she needs to be on a hypoallergenic formula. I believed her: : . And I'm still mad at myself. The hypoallergenic formula did NOT help her, and I tried to relactate for 4 months, hospital grade pump, took fenugreek, reglan..still only drops:

I returned the pump a month ago, but still have drops. And I'm sad about the whole thing. Now another thing I found out from the lc when i was trying to relactate is that I could have breastfed while taking the b/p meds. that they did not cross the barrier

my daughter is on alimentum formula, I feed her as I would if I were nursing the best I can, we use a playtex slow flow and I hold her close.

[momma2libby]

Originally Posted by Kailey's mom

To be honest, I didn't think about what I was going to feed my daughter when I was pregnant, I was just praying that I would be able to carry her until she could breath on her own.

When she was born the nurse asked me if I wanted to breastfeed, and I said yes..it just felt natural. I didn't research or anything.
The LC from the hospital came in and said it wouldn't be a good idea since I was on Mag-sulf drip and b/p meds. I was sad but honestly knew no better, she was in the nicu and I was not allowed to get out of bed for 24 hours. My stupid b/p didn't want to come down and I was on them for 6 weeks post partem with b/ps still in the 200's. I still had plenty of milk 6 weeks post partum and wanted to breastfeed, she was on SOY formula at the time and was starting to have reflux probs etc..

She would not latch...she didn't know how. I took her to the ped to discuss this and she told me that "babies won't eat what will hurt them" and that she has food allergies, and she needs to be on a hypoallergenic formula. I believed her: : . And I'm still mad at myself. The hypoallergenic formula did NOT help her, and I tried to relactate for 4 months, hospital grade pump, took fenugreek, reglan..still only drops:

I returned the pump a month ago, but still have drops. And I'm sad about the whole thing. Now another thing I found out from the lc when i was trying to relactate is that I could have breastfed while taking the b/p meds. that they did not cross the barrier

my daughter is on alimentum formula, I feed her as I would if I were nursing the best I can, we use a playtex slow flow and I hold her close.

I am so sorry that the system screwed you over. Your story makes me want to cry. I wish that we could sue the medical bas***d's that give us wrong info. I was talked into an unneccesary c-section and I am still dealing with the consequences months later and will with all future pregnancies. My experience has taught me to never.trust.a.doctor.again. I will always double check everything and get second, third, fourth, opinions if need be.

Your daughter does have a lucky momma that holds her close. To many ff prop the bottle or worry about when they can start holding it for themselves. And that's just sad.

[G8P4]

Wow, there are some really amazing responses….I am jealous of all those who said breastfeeding was a part of their culture! Personally, I chose to breastfeed because it was NOT part of my culture, and I wanted to be deviant! My mother didn’t breastfeed me, and I wanted to do it because she didn’t! It’s probably a bad reason, but I think it was one of the main ones. I hadn’t seen anyone breastfeed a baby before, I got pregnant, can you believe it?

That being said, I think I still would have breastfed if I'd been breastfed. All the more reason not to break the chain...I wouldn't have wanted to be the first one that's for sure.

[Ambyrkatt]

Originally Posted by TigerTail

Because I'm a mammal & had been through 7th grade biology. That's not even snark.

Yep, me too. I was FF and as I was growing up, I was only exposed to 1 baby being breastfed. And yet, I never actually decided to BF...as in, I did not feel there was a choice. I just BF because that's what boobs are for and I have boobs.

[treqi]

I knew I would bf cause i hate having a bunch o s#!t to lug around but didn't put much thought into it till i was preggers then it was like duh i'm BFing

[Turkish Kate]

I don't remember actually making a conscious decision, but here's the reasons as I remember them:

1. I grew up on a farm. I know what happens to calves that don't get mother's milk. It makes sense that the same would happen to human babies (failure to thrive and dead calves).

2. I'm cheap. Can't help it, it's in my blood. Ask DH. Why would I pay for something when I have a much better alterantive available for free?

3. I'm lazy. I hate to do dishes. The idea of getting up, mixing bottles, heating bottles, and later washing bottles is definitely prohibitive. I like my sleep. I'd rather just turn over and be done with it. Besides, my diaper bag is heavy enough with all those cloth diapers that I don't want to add to it with bottles and formula and water and whatever else goes with it.

[Equuskia]

I'm also in the lazy/cheap/like sleep/hate dishes camp

[MaryJaneLouise]

Health of my children. I knew it would be a challenge, with my probable (and subsequent) low supply, but I'm glad we did as much as we have! :sunny:

[AstridS]

For me it wasn't really a choice. Breastfeeding is the norm around here. Virtually nobody bottlefeed by choice. So it was a total no-brainer. Of course I would breastfeed my baby It's taken for granted at the hospital too. Nobody asks, they just assume you are going to breastfeed.

[jandc_hammond]

As the pp said, breastfeeding was the norm for me, too. I grew up in a BF culture (extended family and friends breastfeed). My mother had always talked about the benefits of breastfeeding and I never realized that there was an alternative.

[Claire and Boys]

Formula feeding is definitely the norm and culture around here, I know 2 people that Bf, the rest all FF and all my family FFed. I just read about BFing as part of all the pregnancy and birth info you read as a first time mother and it made sense to give it a try. It wasn't until I actually gave birth and experienced BFing first-hand that I became a lactivist though, before that I was in the "I'll try" camp.

[ChattyCat]

I had always planned to try to breastfeed (my mom bf me for 6 months), until I took a class with Katherine Dettwyler in college. At that point, I knew I was going to bf!

[mimi5]

My story is similar to a lot of others, everyone in my family bf. I was born in 1968 when my mom was 18. There were a lot of factors that may have prevented her from nursing me (her mother ff her a concotion of Karo syrup and condensed milk, at that time bf rates were *very* low, etc) but my paternal grandmother, who had bf her 4 kids, brought my mom to LLL and the rest is history.

I grew up hearing my mom's own "lactivism" experiences (bfing me on her front steps and a police officer asking her to go inside and her refusing, having plenty of food for me at Woodstock because I was nursing at 1 1/2). I was nursed until 1 1/2, my sister until 2 1/2, and (20 years later) my brother until 3 1/2. All of us joke around about mom bf them/another longer. My teenage brother has actually brought up the subject of bf with his girlfriends to gauge how they feel about it.

I also remember bfing dolls and carrying them in a sling.

This supportive attitude helped me whenever I encountered bf difficulties, like mastitis. I never considered stopping bf, I had plenty of support and wisdom around me to work through it the same way I would work through any other biological function difficulty (you wouldn't just give up on breathing if you had a cold, or give up on peeing if you had a bladder infection. It is appalling that some Dr's treat bf differently and tell women to stop when there is some sort of difficulty).

I also remember (way back 17 1/2 years ago- my oldest has a beard now!) when I was pregnant that I didn't even consider whether or not I would bf. It wasn't a question in my mind. My mom was pregnant with my brother at the same time (my son is 6 weeks older than my brother) so that helped a lot too.

Elizabeth

[crunchy~mamax3]

The only choice about feeding is formula. Breastfeeding is normal, formula is NOT the norm. I wanted normal babies.

I did formula feed my first baby, and she has tons of health issues that I firmly believe are related to the formula. I didn't even consider formula for my second baby. I was a SAHM, and older, wiser. She is still nursing at nearly 3 years old. It just works for us. I always get sad when I hear of women who won't even TRY to breastfeed or who have issues and stop without seeing an LC. Those poor babies.
I am of the belief that CIO and formula is a major key in the downfall of our society. Parents are destroying their children's psyche.

[dara00]

I didn't know how strongly I felt about bfing till I was in the hospital and they kept trying to get me to supplement. every time someone mentined formula or any sort of anything besides the breast, I'd burst into tears.

[AllieFaye]

I barely survived MFPI as an infant. My mother always let me know that, and how much easier and cheaper it was to bf my sister. I grew up thinking that formula-feeding was a primrose path that not all babies survive. There is no way I was willing to take that risk with my own child.