Babies: 0 - 3 Months
Bump Jackie
member
Do you formula feed?
Bump Jackie
member
We want to hear from you: Was it a personal choice to formula feed? Or was it something you and your partner decided together? Is there a reason you didn't breastfeed? Did milk not come in? Medical choice?
Warning
No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Do you formula feed?
We really wanted to. I have some physical reasons why it didnt work. I do think someone less sensitive could have made it work, so that gives me a little guilt pangs. I gave it the best shot I could hande.
I wanted to exclusively breast feed, the first few weeks went well, he gained the appropriate amount. At his one month check up he was then below his birth weight again, so I had to supplement. I thought he was getting enough, but turns out he was burning more calories getting the milk.
As of right now I breastfeed first then give him an additional 3-4oz of cereal formula for reflux. He gained 1 1/2 lbs in a week after I supplemented and right now at 8 weeks he is 11lbs.
I wanted to give it a try again with DS2 because I knew it should be easier. He latched right away and did great nursing but I hated it. I hated how long it took, how often it was and really, just it overall. I was much happier when I switched and actually felt like I could better bond with my baby.. I didn't have to dread feeding him anymore.
My husband could care less what our child is fed, as long as we are all healthy and happy.
I wanted to breast feed when I was pregnant. Honestly when LO arrived he had a good latch. But at the time he had torticollis and I didn't know it so positioning him was very frustrating for me and him both. Because of this frustration I began supplementing and pumping. Frankly when I saw how full and satisfied LO would seem with the formula, I kinda wanted to keep formula feeding him. I slowly lost interest in pumping and eventually LO became formula fed only.
The only guilt I felt was the cost of formula for DH because we decided that I would stay home for about a year so we only have one income. Some people would probably think I should feel guilty for not feeling guilty...LOL But I don't. He is one healthy happy growing baby and I am one awesome mom! ;-)
I struggled with guilt and first, but now we are both much happier and I'm glad I made the choice I did.
We FF. I really wanted to BF, but after my unscheduled C-section, the PP time in the hospital made it very difficult. I had taken a BF-ing class and I thought I was prepared, but I wasn't.
I received very little support from the nursing staff during this time. I had no idea that I was not feeding often enough and not doing things correctly. It took almost an entire day to receive a nipple shield to help feed. I was told a breast pump was on its way; my MIL found the pump in the hallway outside of my room -- the nurse never brought it into the room. It doesn't help that the hospital LC doesn't see you until just before discharge
By my second night, the baby was dehydrated and wasn't peeing. There were urate crystals in her diaper. She had lost 8% of her birth weight. My DH and I decided at that time to FF. When my milk came in, I tried again to get LO to nurse, but it just wasn't working. Pumping was also not successful. It was extremely frustrating and there were a lot of tears.
We were EFF from that point and it took a few weeks to make peace with that. My pediatrician finally made me feel best when she said, "We don't care either way. A happy mom and a happy baby are most important."
If I had it to do over again, I would have seen a LC not affiliated with the hospital. But, between healing from the C-section and newborn exhaustion, it was all too much at the time.
I never had an interest in BFing and my husband fully supported that, so it was a decision we made together.
DD1 Feb 2010
DD2 Sept 2011
Me:27, DH:28 - DX: MFI, varicocele repair Nov 2011
Post-Op SA: Count- 15 million, Motility- 75%, Morphology- 3%
IVF with ICSI - Stimming 10/4/12 - 10/13/12, Lupron Trigger
ER 10/18/12, 12 eggs retrieved, 8 mature, 5 fertilized
5 day transfer 10/23/12, 3 frosties
Beta #1 11/5/12: 453, Beta #2 11/7/12: 1,013, DD born 7/19/13
DH and I both agreed that we wanted DS to be breastfed. However, I never produced milk so we had to turn to formula feeding. I took it very hard...cried for the first couple days but then realized that I had no control over it and had to do what was best for everyone
We switched to formula right at 3 months. Prior to that our son was fed pumped breast milk. He was a preemie and unable to attempt breastfeeding for about 3 weeks. Once we attempted, he could only last a short amount of time due to his size and we couldn't let him burn more calories trying to eat than he was taking in. He got used to the flow of the bottle, and not having to "work" for his food and when he was finally big and strong enough to take a good feeding from the breast, he was not willing to work that hard.
I pumped until 3 months and stopped for 2 reasons - time on the pump (4+ hours a day) that I'd rather spend with my family and my transition back to work. I was only pumping enough to keep 1 feeding ahead... there was no way I could provide 4 bottles per day to daycare.
He's happy and I'm happy that I get to spend more time with him, and less with my pump.
This!
#1 Born 6/14/13
#2 Due 11/1/16