why did you choose to bottle feed?

[ryder]

well there are certain diseases I suppose which could be contagious, but not through breastfeeding... Cancer is definately not something that is passed through mothers milk.

 

[BlackBerry25]

I chose to bottle feed for a few reasons.
#1 My whole pregnancy I really only wanted to breastfeed to save money. I was so scared of breastfeeding because I knew it would be really difficult. It was really difficult for me because I have very flat small nipples which made latching on very hard, even the nurses thought I would have a lot of problems.
#2 I had gallstones and could pretty much only eat bread. Everything else bothered me. Breastfeeding combined with little food caused me to lose 30 pounds in 5 days. I had no energy especially since I had just had a baby. The nurses kept calling and pestering me telling me I had to breastfeed.
#3 The nurses calling, started to make me depressed. I felt like a horrible mother and I was constantly crying on Helena while feeding her. She would fall asleep after a minute, and the nurses couldn't even get her to stay awake.

So I quit. I INSTANTLY felt happier, Brian could feed her in the night, so he had a connection with her as well, she wasn't feeling my stress so she was instantly happier, and she was probably getting more nutrition since I was only eating bread, etc.

 

[BlackBerry25]

Also, I had huge anxiety about being trapped in the house. I could not go out with her because I could only get her to latch on in one position, which I could only really do in bed, and I was going insane being trapped in the house. I also did not want people watching me do it. It was giving me panic attacks.

 

[loveBaby84]

1 Main reason

I was worried about him not getting enough !!

 

[redberry3]

I decided to formula feed for the following reasons;

#1 I was all alone from day one at my house because my DH went back to work the day after I gave birth. When I got home I felt closterphobic and needed sleep as I felt exhausted from my labor.
#2 I was going back to work when LO was 3 months old so in my mind it would be silly to BF him longer than 1-2 months because I would send him to the day home and on the first day tell the day home lady to feed him formula
#3 He kept falling asleep on my boob and I couldn't keep him awake no matter what I did - now that i look back i figure it was because I supplemented him on the second day in the hospital with formula and he probably liked the faster flow of the nipple compared to the small amount that was coming through my nipple
#4 I was adopted and my mom knew nothing about BFing and was a lot more comfy helping me establish a schedule with FFing than BFing

Best decision I ever made. He's thriving and I am happy!

 

[helen1234]

i didnt choose to formula feed rhys did in my eyes. he was tongue tied even though it was sorted he wouldnt latch on for ore than a few seconds. he cried alot too and my oh kept saying he felt awful as he couldnt help ad didnt like to hear him cry and struggle feeding. i expressed for 6 weeks though as i just hated not being able to feed.
the next baby will be breast fed though lol, if he/she wishes

xx

 

[cybermum]

I started off BF but was unable to continue after last week because I had a very bad epileptic seizure and had to go back on meds straight away.

I was upset but its far more important that I am ok and able to care for him without worrying I am going to fall over and black out.

 

[icculcaz]

my boobs dont work.

 

[Heavenx]

It wasn't a choice, due to an underactive thyroid I couldn't produce enough milk for my daughter, I did for the first few weeks but then my body just couldn't keep up with the demand so we had to go with the formula.

 

[Tam]

With Jade there was a hell of a lot of pressure to breast feed, I was not offered any bottles in hospital at all and was told no matter how hard it may get or what people say, never give up breast is best. Well tbh I had never even given it a thought before this and just went along with the BF.

Anyway, when Jade was around 5 days old my GP popped in to check on us and it turned out I was starving her, my milk was just not there despite blisters and bleeding thru trying.....I was not able to produce enough to keep her fed and hydrated, so from that day I moved to FF and never looked back.

With Alfie, I did try to BF but I was so aware of what happened last time and how close to danger we came, that I decided to FF too to make sure that all angles was covered. I seemed to be a bit better this time (but I was never going to be able to BF exclusively with my supply or lack of), although Alfie got a cold at around 4wks old and found it hard to latch on with his cold. The cold lasted just short of 2 weeks and by the time he was ok to BF again, he wasn't interested. So again it was purely formula from that point on.

This time I will try to BF again, but I will also be using formula as I know I am just not cut out for this BF lark. But I do like to try and give atleast the colostrum in the first few days if nothing else as it is packed with tons of anti-bodies, so I would never give up on trying for that reason alone. x

 

[krissie1234uk]

I tried to bf, but after 7 days I couldn't hack it anymore. I tried really hard, as I felt like I had failed him in every other way as I had pain relief in labour and ended up with a c section. I felt that I HAD to breastfeed.
In the end though, I was in agony with cracked, bleeding nipples and blisters, he was starving, trying to feed constantly and wasn't weeing at all (was dehydrated) and we were both in tears near enough all the time. He was also jaundiced and so needed to feed properly to get better. I felt like I was only trying to breastfeed for my benefit, so that I could feel better about myself, and that I had lost sight of what was actually important, my babies health. I switched to FF with a bottle of expressed milk a day (thats all I could express) until my milk dried up and now he is exclusively FF. We are so much happier now and for us formula is best.

 

[Lottie86]

Just to be awkward I'm bottle feeding but with expressed milk. Findlay was always going to be bottle fed as I really don't like the idea of breast feeding plus I wanted OH to be able to do feeds as well. I had originally intended to FF but due to him being premature I decided to express for him whilst he was in hospital and have carried on since.
I will most likely put him onto either combination feeding or just formula in the next couple of months though as I'd like to have a bit more of a life rather than constant clock watching and then getting stressed if I miss an expression. I'm of the opinion that as long as a baby is fed and happy then it doesn't matter at all whether it's breast milk or formula.

 

[BeckaJayne]

I spent 4 days in hospital trying to BF, i said as soon as i found out i was pregnant that i would. But after 4 days of none stop screaming, cracked and bleeding nipples and my LO only being settle by the cup feed the MW gave her i decided that i'd try expressing and BF but no matter how much i expressed Chloe was never settled so that was it...Chloe had settled it and she would be FF from then on and i dont regret it coz i love having the help of my OH.

 

[tracyontario]

I never wanted to BF but then when TTC you start thinking that maybe it would be the best thing. Then 3 months before I got pregnant I developed a horrendous infection in my left breast (Drs. nevered figured out from what) - two rounds of antibiotics, ultrasound, mammogram and a core biopsy to check for cancer later I was on the mend. But Dr. told me it'd take months for it to fully heal so when I got pg it wasn't fully healed and with the breast swelling that comes with all those hormones I was in pain daily - felt like someone was stabbing my boob with scissors daily for 3 months. Too much pain for me so made the decision we'd exclusively FF and she's a happy healthy 9 month old. It's nice having others be able to feed her, give me a break, but it is a lot of work FF with all the prep involved.

 

[Aidan's Mummy]

I decided to bottle feed because I wasnt given much support at the hospital and i did try sp hard but because i hadnt got him latched on it was really sore. Also i just didnt seem to be producing much

I was pressured a lot and my health visitor did try and convince me to try relactation. I tried and failed.

xx

 

[AppleBlossom]

I tried BFing, it wasn't for me (or Grace) so I decided to bottle feed

 

[Pyrrhic]

I BF now, but I did bottle feed (and Niamh does still get a couple bottle now)

I swapped to FF when Niamh was a few days old because I got really bad baby blues, to the point where I didn't want to touch Niamh or hold her. I didn't want her anywhere near me. I also had physical problems BFing and just decided it was all too much. After a couple of weeks though, I decided to try again.

At the time though, I was happy with my decision to move on the formula to give myself a break.

 

[Tiff]

I tried, but Claire was a biter and would refuse to take both breasts. She wasn't getting enough from me and wasn't really gaining weight either. It was a hard decision, but I'm happy with the one that I made for her and I.

FF works for us.

 

[xxxjacxxx]

I really wanted to BF Leo as I FELT MUCH MORE INFORMED ABOUT TIT THAN i dwth my other kids but due to me having implants a few years ago my niples are realy sensitive so I couldnt

 

[charliebear]

Before I was pg I always said I would BF. Once pg, I'd secided I wanted to FF.
(I'd watched my sister go through agony of trying to BF every 2/3 hours, I understand a bit more now through BnB info, what happened).
I changed my mind again, said I'd at least try...29hr labour later...baby had a bottle. I was sick, dizzy, tired, couldnt even sit up in the bed.
My decision was made!

Now looking back even though I had it tough, even those first few weeks I know I couldnt have done it - I still wish I'd tried BF