Did anyone intend to formula feed from the start?

[kate.m.]

Sorry to but in, just having a nosey in here. How did midwives and docs etc respond to those planning on ff from the start?

They didnt say anything as such, & i dont know if it was me reading 2 much into things, but the teats they provided us with at hospital nearly blummin drowned him!! Ud just tip em up & it'd pour straight out, so he refused to take the bottle at hospital (was in 2 nights- 1 of those in labour). I was stressed, had just done the most physical thing of my entire life and hadnt slept for 2 days. & said to the midwife "what else can i do? he wont stop crying!" at which point she said "have you thought about breastfeeding your baby?" So i attempted it a few times. It quietened him down, but think that was just coz he could suck on something without being drowned!! So i reckon the whole "super duper fast flowing teat thing" was a ploy to "persuade" more ppl to breastfeed & a fair few friends who also went to that hospital said the same thing! if you really dont want to breastfeed, id take ur own bottles to hospital!

 

[NG09]

MW's were fine with me too. One of them kept banging on a bit about it everytime I saw her for check ups until I told her the 3rd time that I wasn't going to do it and would appreciate if she let it drop and she didn't mention it again.

 

[Raspberries]

I intended to breast feed but after 3 days he'd lost 12oz in weight, then he got taken to special care then the baby blues hit me super hard and he was a reluctant feeder so I got very stressed being pushed to keep going with the breastfeeding and being told to do it different ways by different midwives. In special care I made it clear I was breastfeeding but some new midwife was on, read someone else's chart instead of his chart and gave him formula, but didn't tell me so when I came to feed him literally 10 mins later he was already full then she did it again with the next feed and I caught her, she apologised etc but by that time the damage was done and Rupert decided he liked bottles and refused to suck at my boob which he'd been reluctant to anyway but had to as that was only option but now he'd had a bottle he knew there was another way to get milk so would cry as soon as I put him near my boob which was incredibly annoying as my milk came in that day so I expressed milk instead and fed him that by bottle but he cried whilst feeding and after and the only way he'd stop was by giving him formula cos he liked it so gradually had to switch him to only formula which I have no problems with, the only reason I was upset was cos that stupid midwife had caused the problem, and even though I'd probably have ended up either fully formula or combined feeding, the choice was taken out of my hands but we're both much happier now and it worked out for the best, he's such a hungry baby, he's been gurgling 6/7oz since 2 weeks and now I quite like formula feeding, and hand on heart, if I have another baby I'm pretty sure they'd be on formula from the start.

 

[MrsT&Ben]

I was very much willing to give bf a go but tbh I knew I wanted to FF my baby.
If I have anymore children then I will try and BF again but if it doesnt work out i have no problems ff.
After all its all personal choice. I was FF and so were most people I know and we're all ok!

 

[Hayley90]

I wanted to FF from the beginning. I tried Bfing once, didnt really like it to be honest, there was nothing there so i didnt see the point in his suckling away with no food! The hospital said he needed to eat so i reverted to plan A. im glad i did

 

[ouchwithNo.2]

I planned to breastfeed for 4 weeks at least, managed 3 and then onto formula (I wasn't prepared to BF forever).
We were so much happier on formula - breastfeeding was such a huge cause of stress at the time.
x

 

[RHR]

Hi hun , I always new that I wanted to try and BF. Anyway, my lo has a very mild case of tongue tie and didn't want to latch on. For me and for my DD, ff was the way forward. We'd bought bottles and formula before dd was born for that "Just in case" feeling. I also refused to let anyone make me feel crappy about not being able to feed my dd myself. The mw tried, and failed when we were in hospital.

 

[aliss]

No, I wanted to breastfeed but he was injured in the labour. I did exclusive expressing for a while but he was vomiting all my milk and I had none left one day so I had to give him formula. He got sick from that too, combo feeding when my milk was coming back, (turns out this was all a milk allergy), and the hospital gave him soy formula and he thrived. By then I also had PND and since his weight loss was severe (almost 2lbs lost) we decided to keep him on the soy milk and forgo expressing.

The whole thing was an utter disaster!

 

[Alie]

I definitely will be formula feeding my baby! My boobs are the most sensitive EVER of anyone I know. It hurts to brush up against my nipple. I have been pregnant before and my BBs were incredibly painful. That can't be good for breastfeeding! So I wont put myself through the agonizing pain. Plus, DH wants to feed him/her!

 

[rotts05]

aliss can I ask how difficult is exclusively expressing?
I am aware of pros and cons of bf vs ff, my dd was ff from day 1 and was great on it. As much as I think I'd like to at least try bf I am pretty sure I wont for my own reasons. But I may try expressing or combi feeding.

Thanks for the replies, I thought the mw would try a little harder to push people to bf, I'll wait and see what mine says.

 

[aliss]

aliss can I ask how difficult is exclusively expressing?
I am aware of pros and cons of bf vs ff, my dd was ff from day 1 and was great on it. As much as I think I'd like to at least try bf I am pretty sure I wont for my own reasons. But I may try expressing or combi feeding.

Thanks for the replies, I thought the mw would try a little harder to push people to bf, I'll wait and see what mine says.

Truthfully it is extremely hard. I don't know of anyone who has "chosen" to exclusively express, it's generally done because a baby is too sick, injured, or premature to be put to the breast. Of course, being very uncomfortable with BF but wanting the benefits of BF, for whatever reason, may be enough of a reason for some women to EE.

The problems with EE is that the pump does not produce as much milk as the baby (sometimes) and you are doing all the extra work of FF (sterilizing, preparing, storing, cleaning) as well as having to take 20-40 minutes to pump, and THEN you have to try and feed the baby on top of that. You do nothing but pump, clean, and sometimes have a crying hungry baby. Combo feeding is fine but takes time, until your supply is established. You can give formula from day 1 but you need to pump the same feed or you will have no milk.

I don't mean to knock EE but that is really what it is like! I'm sure it's much easier with an older baby, but with a newborn and cluster feeding, that's the reality.

There are hospital grade electric pumps AND nursing pump bras so you are "hands free" to make things easier Any EE needs both of those!

 

[rotts05]

Thanks for your honest reply I have read a bit on EE and nowhere says it is easy, everywhere says it is very difficult.

I still have time to think but Im a bit concerned of discussing it with my mw as I think she'll just lay it on thick about bf. A family member who is a week ahead of me with her first was 'told' she was breastfeeding!!

 

[Dragonfly]

Seen this on the new posts page.
Just to say I planned to formula feed and ended up breastfeeding. I lied to midwives and said I would breastfeed when I had no intentions till I thought otherwise after birth.

 

[aliss]

Thanks for your honest reply I have read a bit on EE and nowhere says it is easy, everywhere says it is very difficult.

I still have time to think but Im a bit concerned of discussing it with my mw as I think she'll just lay it on thick about bf. A family member who is a week ahead of me with her first was 'told' she was breastfeeding!!

Well, the hospital grade pumps (they are very expensive, $1200ish) are available for rent daily so you could try it out and see if it worked for you My experience was quite negative because I was dealing with an injured newborn at home from the start (some women establish exclusive pumping while their baby is in neonatal care).

Either way you have to do what's right for you

 

[Abblebubba]

I chose to FF from the beginning as i am disabled i thought it would help that others would be able to do the feeding of LO too.
Now if i have anymore children i would love to BF as i know what im doing now and what im capable of with LO.

 

[Eve]

With my first I had no intentions to breastfeed. I thought it was gross tbh. I went right to FF and not a person tried to get me to change my mind.. I regret it now, but it's because I've experienced bfing and I really enjoy it Goes to show, don't knock it until you try it lol

 

[wild2011]

Im expecting baby number 4.

with baby 1 i breastfed for 3 weeks, she was 10lb 11 born and my milk just never seemed to come through very well, i didnt even consider combined feeding, and expressing was a failure, i had a "booby lady" health visitor come and she tried so hard ot help me get the knack of expressing, my positioning was perfect for bf baby latched on fine, and in the end she suggested i switched to formula cos baby wasnt getting enough. so with that i did.

baby 2 - i breastfed for 6 months - 5lb baby who was so clam and setlled latched perfectly, my firstobrn was still only little so no school runs etc and it was a dream, at 6 months i made the decission to switch to bottle, and she instantly slept through at night in time for my eldest to start nursery.

baby 3- was a huge struggle, 2 children in school 1 full time one half day, so many school runs which took 40 mins round trips by foot, she wouldnt latch for ages so had the booby lady out again for some guidance ( im quite happy to ask for help-rather than give up) milk was awful just nothing coming, upped my fluid intake, ate plenty of healthy foods, but still sod all, my daughter started to loose alot of weight, as we kept at it until she was latching and trying to get some, she mastered it finally, we hired really good breast pumps from the hospital, as others didnt work, this too didnt get any, so we had to start topping up with formula, she was loosing so much weight, i went to 3 support groups a week, and in the end advised to kick the bucket, when i finally did i was told, they were so glad id switched to bottle which got me really angry, cos i would have given up ages before had they made me feel it was for the best. i really beat myself up about it felt like a failure by not doing best by my Daughter. i was a mess and so depressed about it, supprt group helps and you here so many people saying that bf is better when u have lots of children cos u dont have to sterilise etc, well the support groups were the opposite and i would totally agree, when u have several children, it becomes a really hard task, especially when bf babies tend to be fed on demand up every hour all night, this is so hard when your dh works long days / nights and u have children to take to school etc.

my conclusion is that ive tried to breastfeed, my milk flow is pritty damn crap and although thinks could be different this time, im going to give the first feed by breast to this baby for all the goodness and building up the immune system, then straight to bottle, im fully aware breast is best in some situations, however it made my lo so poorly, my health went downhill and my other children suffered, for me bf with several lo's who are already school age is hard work, and i take my hat off to anyone mastering it.

This is something i find really hard to talk about as especially on bnb it gets so bitchy if u voice ur opinion, but this is my opinion and i wouldnt insist it on anyone else.

so happy to have the same mw as last time, so i wont be pressured and she totally understands bf is not for me.

xxxxx

 

[llsarahll]

I bottle fed from day one and that's what I planned to do before I had Ryan was my personal choice xx

 

[Lara310809]

I intended to combi-feed from the start. I didn't want to BF while we were out, so said I would offer bottles when we were out, and BF at home. Unfortunately when LO was born, I had no idea there was a specific knack to BFing, and nobody taught me. The helpful advice in the hospital was "just keep putting her on", but I didn't realise she needed to latch to make it work. I couldnt' get her to feed, and my nipples were bleeding at that point, so I gave her formula when she was 2 days old, for a couple of days, and then I coudlnt' get my milk to come in properly. I didn't have any help from the HVs either, so while some ladies see lactation consultants etc, I had nothing, and I had no time to research anything online.

I tried concentrating on Bfing her, trying to encourage my milk flow, but she would just fall asleep on the boob, or would suck for an hour and still be hungry, so I would end up havign to give her a bottle at the end of it anyway. When my parents flew in after the birth, we were out all the time, so she was getting formula more than the breast. Then my mum had a heart attack (while she was here), and I spent 5 weeks going to and from hospital, leaving LO at home with OH. Basically, we never had a chance.

I feel bad about it even now, because it woulnd't have been so bad if I'd known there was a specific method to BFing, but it happened, and I can't do anything about it now. I'm particularly frustrated, because before I was pregnant I hated the idea of a baby sucking on my nipples, but had warmed up to the idea after reading about all the benefits, and when I gave birth, I was 100% committed to it - a total 180 on my part. It's annoying though, because my LO refuses her milk, and drops centiles very easily. She's underweight and I try everything I can to get her to a healthy weight. I wonder if it would have been different if she was still being breastfed

 

[Tink2312]

I FF from the begining, that was my intention all the way through, for me I just didn't want to BF. I was planning on trying to express colostrum at the start but that didn't pan out so well. The MW in delivery actually said to my mum and partner whilst I was out in the loo that although they promote BF because baby was so big (10lbs 14) and would be greedy I'd be better off with bottle as it would satisfy him more and save me from a lot of pain!
But no your not alone! lol. BF isn't for everyone and its totally ok if its not